Athens forced to buys subs and helicopters

Published on 12 July 2010 at 12:41

“In the midst of an economic crisis, the Greek government is spending billions on arms,” leads an indignant Dziennik Gazeta Prawna. In March, the government of George Papandreou signed a deal to purchase two submarines in Germany for a total of 1.3 billion euro, and in May it committed itself to purchasing warships and helicopters from France costing 2.5 billion euro. According to experts, agreeing to both transactions was one of the informal conditions on which the EU and IMF granted Greece the rescue package of 110 billion euro. The news caused outrage in Greece, a country which has been forced by Brussels to cut 30 billion euro from public finances over the next three years in order to reduce its deficit from 13 to three percent of the GDP. “We feel pressured to carry out transactions we do not want. Greece does not need new arms,” Greece’s Deputy Prime Minister Theodore Pangalos said during a recent visit to Turkey. Both Germany and France claim that the arms deals are a result of many years of negotiations and have nothing to do with the EU rescue package. However, the Warsaw daily notes that in the last ten years French and German arms manufacturers have made fortunes from deals with Greece.

Tags

Was this article useful? If so we are delighted!

It is freely available because we believe that the right to free and independent information is essential for democracy. But this right is not guaranteed forever, and independence comes at a cost. We need your support in order to continue publishing independent, multilingual news for all Europeans.

Discover our subscription offers and their exclusive benefits and become a member of our community now!

Are you a news organisation, a business, an association or a foundation? Check out our bespoke editorial and translation services.

Support independent European journalism

European democracy needs independent media. Join our community!

On the same topic