Greeks celebrate their independence Wednesday with a military parade and a folk-music festival sponsored by the Ministry of Defense, as European officials more than 1,000 miles away review the financial aid that will shape their future.
The European Central Bank Governing Council will hold a weekly call to assess the Emergency Liquidity Assistance keeping Greece’s banking system afloat while euro-area finance ministry officials will have a separate discussion on the progress of the country’s economic policy program. Without access to capital markets, or the ECB’s normal financing operations, Greek banks rely on almost 70 billion euros ($76 billion) of ELA to cover a financing shortfall exacerbated by steep deposit withdrawals.
While inspectors are gauging the case for continuing financial support for Europe’s most-indebted nation, many Athenians will be watching a parade of battle tanks and fighter jets to mark the beginning in 1821 of the war that won independence from the Ottoman Empire.
The government of George Papandreou scaled down military parades to cut costs after the Greek debt crisis erupted in 2010. Fighter jets made a comeback to the skies of Athens last year at a cost of about 500,000 euros, according to a defense ministry official from the previous administration.
Paying Pensions
With government cash supplies running out and negotiations on financial aid only inching forwards, European officials have said that Greece could default on its obligations within weeks unless there’s a breakthrough.
The government has to pay about 1.5 billion euros of salaries and pensions by the end of March and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras is at loggerheads with its creditors over the conditions attached to its emergency loans.
Revenue from taxes also missed budget targets by about 1 billion euros in the first two months of the year, the country’s Ministry of Finance said Tuesday, further depleting cash buffers.
The Ministry of Defense and the regional government of the wider metropolitan region of Attica have said that traditional musicians and dancers will perform in Athens’s central square after the military parade alongside a band from the armed forces.
Musicians will join the festivities without a fee, according to the regional administration. A spokesman for Defense Minister Panos Kammenos didn’t respond to five phone calls seeking comment on the cost of the parade.
