Yiannis Roubatis est un ancien membre du Parlement européen qui dirige aujourd'hui EurActiv Grèce.

Greeks woke up today to face the most violent social and fiscal adjustment in a democratic country at times of peace in the post war years in Europe. The still incomplete deal on a reform program that theoretically would assist the country avoid a chaotic default, contains provisions that will dramatically change the lives of every living person in Greece. It will even determine the future for hundreds of thousands still unborn children who will be asked to foot the bill for the mistakes made both by their parents and their friends and allies in the European Union and across the Atlantic.

The last two years, the Greek political order that came about after 1974 at the end of the seven year dictatorship in Greece has come unraveled, failing to meet the challenges before them. The collapse of traditional political parties was speeded up by the serious mistakes made by the so called Troika – the European Commission, the European central Bank and the International Monetary Fund - whose dogmatic approach of tax increases, wage and spending cuts and social security changes send the country into a deep recession.

The failure of the socialist government to put in place the fiscal and structural changes agreed in the first adjustment program worsened the situation even more.  As a result, the ever-increasing recession led to an official unemployment rate of 19%, with the hidden unemployment reaching 23%. The official figures are staggering for the most dynamic sectors of the population: 40% for Greeks aged 24-34, 22% for Greeks 24-34%. The effects of such unemployment rates on the pension system are even more disturbing when one takes into account the needed recapitalisation of the pension funds under the PSI agreement. With Greece’s population over 65 reaching 24% in 2010 and estimates for a population of 33% over 65 in 2050, the pension system and the needed social net will soon be a distant memory.

A vicious cycle has been created as new deficits lead to cuts which in turn create more deficits which lead to more cuts. The new incomplete agreement leads to dramatic changes to the Greek labor market.  In essence, under the provision of this agreement, in order for Greece to become competitive, almost all of the labor laws will have to be scraped. Collective bargaining will soon be abandoned and will be replaced by so called “individual agreements” where the workers, in addition to salary cuts, will have to accept procedures that will provide no protection at all from the whims of their employers.

These are just some of the issues that are contained in last night’s agreement. There is a lot more on structural changes of state institutions, tax procedures, PSI connected issues and references to a new medium term program to be discussed with the Troika in June. Once again, austerity measures are not matched with any specific growth measures. In essence, what is taken for granted is that the changes in the labor market, tax collection, structural changes, etc. will lead to a more competitive Greece which will become attractive to Foreign Direct Investments and other kinds of investment.

In the meantime, the outdated state institutions will have to make do with the ever widening social unrest, the ever increasing poverty where more than 28% of the population is under the poverty level, the effects of the financial crisis on the health of the people. If Germany and others wanted to make an example of what happens to a rogue partner in the European Union they got one.

The problem is that this example is made up of millions of people that are been punished for the collective mistakes of their leaders and the mistakes of their colleagues in the other European states. The time is not far away for Greek citizens, but also for the citizens of other countries that face some of the same problems, to ask serious questions about European solidarity, European determination to stick to democratic procedures and European willingness to move the European experiment to a real united Europe.