“All euro area members must conduct sound national policies in line with the agreed rules”.
This was the opening line in a statement from EU heads of government made in Brussels on 11 February. The statement was about Greece and it welcomed the austerity measures being introduced by the errant EU member in an attempt to [...]

The economist Michael Burke has a post up on Socialist Economic Bulletin, which has been cross-posted on Progressive Economy about the current situation in Greece. The post is a follow on from his previous posts on the topic which I have already linked to. In this piece Michael shows that Greece’s debt crisis has been [...]

Seriously, though, who is going to read all that?
I think it was the ancient Greek philosopher Epididymis who was said, “Woe be unto him who is know not what he has got. For his neighbour will be livid when he catch it off him.” At the time, he was talking about the pneubonic plague that [...]

Even before EU Finance ministers were due to meet today to discuss whether Greece needs to do more to reduce its deficit this year from 12.7 to 8.7 percent GDP, Jean-Claude Trichet was on TV demanding that Greece needs to take “extra measures” to ensure the credibility of their “turnaround plan”. These extra measures, a [...]

Strikes and more strikes confront the social-democratic PASOK Government in Greece
Public sector workers, supported by many Trade Unionists from the private sector responded massively yesterday, Wednesday February 10th, to their Union call for a 24-hour strike in Athens. At the same time, leaders of the two Greek left wing organisations Syriza and the Greek Communist [...]

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, in a ‘State of the Nation’ type TV appearance yesterday, Tuesday Feb. 2nd, announced three drastic new austerity measures that seem to have taken aback most  political commentators. These three measures had been dismissed as “unworkable” by the PM himself as late as last weekend and were certainly not [...]

In the concluding chapter of his new book New Old World, Perry Anderson asks the question: what exactly is the EU for? What benefits are supposed to be result of this project of increasing political and economic integration?
Citing past notions, he refers to the initial ‘heroic phase of European integration’ that assured peace for Europe [...]

The following is my translation of an interview with Mr. Meletios Apostolides, the Greek Cypriot architect whose family had been forced to abandon their house, orchard and land in Lapithos, north Cyprus in the wake of the Turkish military operation in 1974. Mr. Apostolides recently won the case against the Orams, a British couple who [...]

The British Court of Appeal (Civil Division) with its judgement in the Apostolides v Orams case (Case No: A2/2006/2114) on 19 January 2010 has created an unexpected new legal situation in the ongoing struggle in Cyprus between Greek-Cypriot owners of property who had been forced to flee in 1974 and whose land had been grabbed [...]