“A critical challenge is the notorious conditionality. This transcends the simple choice of what sectors the funds will be fueled towards and is not only to do with the process of linking national programmes with the European Semester, something that has been already achieved. The so-called “fiscal” countries are expected to insist on the strengthening and widening of conditionality, in order to achieve a more “effective” use of these funds, the “transformation of the internal structure of member states in order for the financial support received to be fruitful”, the “guarantee that the domestic politics of the member states will look towards the future”. And, most importantly, control of which sectors are chosen and the implementation of the Fund should not be left up to the Commission, but also the Council of Ministers and the Eurogroup. This is nothing but the old division between North and South member states, but also the member states that are observed and judged and those that observe and impose rules,” argues Achilleas Mitsos in his article for newspaper “TA NEA”.

 

You can read the full article in Greek here.