George Katrougalos & Thomas Haendel - Working Group on Monitoring Implementation of Labour Market & Social Reforms in Greece under the Memorandum of Understanding
European Parliament - Tuesday, 15 March 2016
Video: Vasileios Katsardis
George Katrougalos - Greek Labour Minister
Ι briefed the Permanent Monitoring Group of the Greek Programme, set up by the European Parliament, on how the negotiations are progressing in relation to the major issue of pensions. We have achieved - not only for transparency reasons, but also for the awareness of the European public - that the European Parliament closely monitors what is happening in this important topic. So I told the MEPs that we will abide by our obligations fully, but as part of a reform that has national planning and pursue fairness and social justice. In this context, I explained and I think it was accepted by all, that we will reject new demands, which are not part of the July (2015) agreement, which would essentially put on the table things that we never agreed upon and that we are not obliged to follow. I therefore hope that the negotiations, although they are hard, we are going to have a happy ending, and the weight of the European Parliament in this effort is important.
Haendel
My committee is very engaged to support Greece, the Greek government and the people in Greece; to come out of this terrible situation that austerity policy has produced. Firstly we discussed sustainable pension system - it is Sisyphus work for Greece to do so, but it's very urgent for the social dimension in Greece and the social justice in Greece. The second thing we discussed is the upcoming Labour Rights in Greece, the Trade Union's rights and also the individual rights of the Greek workers, and the third was the proposal that we have to discuss the next time to find concrete projects to strike and to battle against youth unemployment in Greece in combination with a European Solidarity Project with Thuringia and the Greek Government. Now we have the chance to earn a lot of profits for the unemployed youth in Greece, in a combination with European Solidarity.
Video: Vasileios Katsardis
