Σπύρος Κουβέλης: Η Ελλάδα είναι μια ασφαλής χώρα

ΑΠΟΚΛΕΙΣΤΙΚΗ ΔΗΛΩΣΗ ΣΤΟΝ FLASH & ΣΤΗΝ ΔΕΣΠΟΙΝΑ ΣΥΡΙΟΠΟΥΛΟΥ {08072010}

Στο τηλεοπτικό δίκτυο Fox Business News στην στη δημοσιογράφο Liz McDonald, στην εκπομπή μεγάλης ακροαματικότητας και επιρροής CAVUTO παραχώρησε συνέντευξη ο Υφυπουργός των Εξωτερικών Σπύρος Κουβέλης.

Μπορείτε να δείτε την συνέντευξη στο αμερικανικό δίκτυο ΕΔΩ, ενώ το απομαγνωτοφωνημένο κείμενο έχει ως εξής.

CAVUTO for July 7, 2010

BYLINE: Liz MacDonald

GUESTS: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), Jonathan Hoenig, Tara Dowdell, Tom Belesis, Quentin Hardy, Spyros Kouvelis, Marco Rubio, Jim Clark, Kelly Sandon, John Tesh

SECTION: NEWS; Domestic

But next up, as violent protests continue in Greece over attempts to fix its massive budget deficit, tonight the government clearing its first hurdle to pass a controversial economic reform package.

My next guest knows first-hand huge debts come with a heavy price. Greece’s deputy foreign minister Spyros Kouvelis, he joins me now exclusively. Sir, do you see what is going on with your country possibly happening here in the United States?

SPYROS KOUVELIS, DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER OF GREECE: Well, I wouldn’t know if we could say that it would happen to some other place, but the point is that what is happening in our country is actually the price of not having taken in time the measures that we’re now taking our government.

And the point is that, you know, you have to take those measures even when they hurt and even when you have people objecting to them. I actually have to tell you that coming from Athens today, the public reaction is much smaller.

Tonight we had the vote for the pension scheme that was in the parliament, 164 against 140 against. That means that the Greek public is starting to realize that these measures have to be undertaken so that we can implement this stability plan and a development plan that will take the country out of the crisis. And that’s the best way to keep the crisis from spreading to everybody else.

MACDONALD: All right. What specifically created Greece’s eye watering debt load. In other words, was it, you know, worker pension costs that the government has to pay or was it the fact that the government owned a lot of businesses that normally the private sector would be running?

KOUVELIS: Well, as a total I would say that the problem was public spending was too high. Greece was spending much more money than it was making.

MACDONALD: But public spending on what?

KOUVELIS: Public spending on having overloaded public sector. Public sector in Greece used to be and is still quite big but we need to reduce it. This is what we’re doing through privatization, through making the whole system that costs a lot to the public including the pension scheme that we’re discussing today in Parliament.

So that it weighs less on the Greek public sector. And that’s exactly the measures that we have planned. As I said before, it’s a bold scheme. And the good news is that today, we have a report that came from the Troika, that is from the European Commission and the IMF and the European Central Bank that they are supporting Greece to come out of the crisis.

That says that in the first quarter of 2010 the targets are being attained and in some cases they are being surpassed too. So we start from a bad position but the thing is that you have to stay the course and take those measures and even if people don’t accept them because you can’t expect people to accept a 10 or 20 percent cut in their salaries, but you have to stay there and make it happen. That’s what addresses the credibility of the country and that’s a very important point.

MACDONALD: All right. Credibility of the country is a really serious issue. We certainly see that happening now in some states in here in our country. In other words, California is struggling with a very heavy debt load when it comes to basically public sector, you know, union worker pay, and basically Illinois, you are seeing that as well. Do you see that – what ‘s happening in Greece happening in those states here in our country?

KOUVELIS: Well, I couldn’t tell really. I mean, it depends very much on the social and union structures and how it works in each different place of the world. But what I know and I can tell you is that unless some measures are taken to contain the public spending in the sense of deficit and at the same time not accumulate the public debt that Greece had accumulated, you end up having a problem. I have to remind you that this whole process, you know, of the economic crisis started from one part of the world, flew over to Europe and now unless we take the measures, it risks very much of going the other way around.

So it is a matter of financial and economic responsibility for all of us to do these kinds of things no matter if we’re speaking about GreeceCalifornia, whatever else in the world. or

MACDONALD: Yes, you mentioned the financial crisis, essentially sub prime crisis has turned into sub prime governments.

Final question, we’ve got a healthcare reform bill that was passed by the U.S. Congress and a lot of analysts are saying wait a second. We’ve got a fast-food, all you can eat healthcare system that – health reform bill, rather, that doesn’t take into account the mounting costs that many people say have not been kept in check by health reform. Do you see that as a danger zone for the United States?

KOUVELIS: You know, it’s very difficult for me to judge what is happening in the United States, what I have to say is that I believe what we’re trying to do in Greece is that at the same time that you’re imposing a serious stability measure, serious stability problem and measures of austerity.

You have to make sure that at the same time the social work is there to protect people that need it most. That’s very important because otherwise what you do is that you segregate the society and you don’t allow things to happen.

Greece is today a safe country and we will keep it this way so that it can attract foreign investment. That is the other part of the equation for coming out of the crisis. We are working very hard for that.

MACDONALD: All right. Spyros Kouvelis, so good to be with you tonight, sir.