"As if they don't want to be saved!" (Greece v. Brussels)

That was the headline in yesterday's political section of  the Greek newspaper Realnews (11 September, 2011), in an article by Thanos Athanasios, reporting from Brussels, about the experiences of the 'Troika technocrats' and inspector-auditors in terms of their relations and contacts with the Greek bureaucracy.

The spokesman for DG Budget in Brussels revealed that representatives of the Greek public services always find bureaucratic obstacles for being unable to provide ministers with requested information.

One year after the signing of the memorandum and the start of the bail-out programme the nominated Greek contact-persons apparently don't respond to phone calls from Brussels officials or provide essential information. The Brussels officials, driven almost to distraction in preparing for the inspection missions, have to try calling personal mobile numbers to get through since the official lines seldom get answered once it's seen that the call originates from Brussels- so the spokesman alleged. If they do get through, they're told to try a different number. "But YOU are the nominated contact person", protests the frustrated Brussels bureaucrat.

Meetings are seldom properly prepared, it would seem. Figures and other vital information and statistics have frequently been changed in the course of the year's negotiations.

Laws may have been put in place. Implementation is a very different matter, especially as regards the opening of closed professions and the internal market.

Unfortunately a lot of this rings true.

"It's as if they don't want to be saved!"