July 24, 2024
Evangelos Venizelos
Article published in Kathimerini
The 50th anniversary of the Metapolitefsi – the transition from dictatorship to democracy in 1974 and the period since – necessitates a rethinking of our relationship with historical time. In fact, the polysemous Metapolitefsi itself challenges our calculation of historical time, in each and every version of it: the Metapolitefsi as an event and a state, a transition and a time period. First, it is Greece’s way of entering the second half of the “short” 20th century, which for us occurred with a long delay, almost 30 years after the end of World War II and only 15 years before the end of the Cold War, the collapse of “actually existing socialism” and the beginning of the storm of challenges of the postmodern era. It is also a common starting point that allows us to walk in parallel and compare ourselves as a country with other countries of the European South (and not the Balkans), Spain and Portugal, which emerged almost simultaneously from dictatorships of a different nature and of much longer duration, but dictatorships nonetheless. Therefore, we had a common challenge ahead: the establishment of democratic constitutions, participation in European integration, integration with the West, economic development as well as institutional, social and financial modernization. In this respect, it is no coincidence that we shared the experience of the economic crisis within the eurozone with these countries, albeit with crucial differences.
April 22, 2024
Evangelos Venizelos
Article published in tovima.com
The Importance of the 2012 Debt Restructuring. The Contribution of Charles Dallara
The restructuring of the Greek sovereign debt that took place in 2011-2012 is still relevant, critical and active. International financial institutions and markets consider our debt to be sustainable, and the – drastically reduced after 2012 – annual debt service costs, which are only comprised of interest and no amortisation until 2032 due to the grace period make it feasible to meet the annual targets in terms of both fiscal and primary deficit/surplus. This demands the necessary fiscal awareness and sufficient domestic political will, though.
The complex operation that led to the restructuring of the Greek sovereign debt certainly continues to arouse international interest and hopefully domestic interest will be maintained or rekindled, primarily for national security reasons, since fiscal stability is a critical parameter of national power.
January 3, 2014
Evangelos Venizelos
Article published in tovima.com
Wolfgang Schäuble as a Mirror
When I assumed my duties as Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister on 16 June 2011, the first adjustment programme of the Greek economy had proved to be inadequate and what was urgently needed was a second programme entailing a much larger loan, along with a bold reduction and radical restructuring of the Greek public debt, in order to render it sustainable in the long term.
I met Wolfgang Schäuble just two days later, at the Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg. On the first days of July (6.7.2011), our first, decisive bilateral meeting took place in Berlin, attended by one partner from each side, Jörg Asmussen and George Zanias. There we agreed on the framework within which we would operate, so that the Eurogroup and the European Council could decide on the second programme and, above all, so that the Eurozone would follow the logic behind haircuts and restructuring of the public debt of its member states, contrary to the provisions of primary EU law (TFEU) and the fundamental assumptions of our institutional partners.
December 29, 2023
Evangelos Venizelos
Article published in Kathimerini
Without Wolfgang Schaeuble’s strong political presence, it is doubtful that the eurozone would have been able to face the monumental challenge of an economic crisis within its own borders and, above all, cope with the Greek crisis by taking initiatives that went beyond the narrow framework of the Treaties and required the allocation of hefty funds. Staying committed to fiscal discipline and the strict regulatory framework of the Stability Pact, Wolfgang Schaeuble expressed the dominant view during the crisis period which called for Greece to make a clear choice between staying in the eurozone – receiving robust aid and being subjected to harrowing fiscal and structural adjustment measures – and abandoning the euro, with all that such a move would entail for Greece (and the eurozone as a whole). When Greece ratified at different times and under different governments the national strategic choice of retaining the euro and essentially staying in the EU, Wolfgang Schaeuble was the predominant supporter of the 2012 Greek sovereign debt restructuring, which has been the basis of the country’s course ever since. Fortunately, this choice was ratified – albeit at an increased cost – in the summer of 2015 after and despite the whirl of the referendum.
January 25, 2023
Evangelos Venizelos
Article published in Kathimerini
Modern liberal democracy can easily become phobic, but is hesitant to act as a militant democracy. It is anxious and fearful about election results in several Western countries – e.g. the recent congressional midterm elections – where the choices of the electorate may call into question the very values of liberal democracy. On the other hand, as a militant democracy, it must respect constitutional legitimacy and democratic pluralism.
Engels recalls the notorious phrase uttered in 1849 by Odilon Barrot, head of the council of ministers under President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, when addressing the French National Assembly: “La legalite nous tue.” Legality kills us. Transposing this phrase to the present context, we can say that it raises the question of the difficult balance between democratic fear and constitutional defense.
Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, Parliamentary Assembly, Council of Europe
Georgioupolis, Chania, Crete, 16.5.2022
Evangelos Venizelos,
The asymmetries of European security and the need for a renewed multilateralism after the war in Ukraine
1. European security is governed by deep historical asymmetries. The new challenges associated with the Russian military invasion and the war in Ukraine highlight the asymmetries that can no longer be hidden behind a rhetoric that embellishes problems and postpones difficult decisions.
Already since the last phase of WWI, during the President Wilson era, European security has become a common Euro-American problem. The participation of the USA and the so-called new world in general in the great European war became necessary in order for it to come to an end with the defeat of the so-called Central Powers.
American involvement was necessary for the defeat of Nazism in WWII. During the long period of the Cold War, the American presence in Europe was a basic condition for nuclear balance and therefore security.
May, 3 2022
Evangelos Venizelos*
The Ukrainian Church of shelters and catacombs, the geopolitics of Eastern Orthodoxy
In the wake of the Russian attack and the war in Ukraine, the arguments heard in 2018-2019 regarding the granting of autocephaly [independence from the Moscow Patriarchate] to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine came to the surface once more, mainly due to a speech by Vladimir Putin.
In this speech, the justification for the war, from the Russian vantage point, was provided.
The questioning of Ukraine’s ecclesiastical identity is linked to the questioning of the country’s national identity, its national language and its national sovereignty.
The Russian side does not recognise any of these. The theory of diminished sovereignty is also connected to the non-recognition of an autocephalous Church, as is the case with all other national autocephalous Churches.
Article by Evangelos Venizelos in Protagon.gr [8.3.2022]
The Nuclear Threat and the Limits of European Defence Policy
The European Union has suffered two major shocks over the last two and a half years; the coronavirus pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These two extreme developments have forced the Union to mobilise and sharpen its reflexes. The preparation was made during the decade of the economic crisis - mainly in the ‘workshop’ that is Greece- in order to gradually develop the ability to react to crises. For decades, the EU believed that we had witnessed the end of History and that everything could have operated “under normal conditions of temperature and pressure”.
December 16, 2021
Evangelos Venizelos
Verfassungsblog | On Matters Constitutional
The Conference on the Future of Europe as an Institutional Illusion
The Conference on the Future of Europe is currently underway on the basis of the joint Declaration of 10 March 2021. On 10 – 12 December, 200 citizens gathered on campus in Florence and online to discuss topical issues such as protecting democracy and the rule of law, European values and identity. The European University Institute has been selected as one of the four host institutions for the „European Citizens’ Panels“ in the framework of the Conference. Nine months after the Joint Declaration there is ample evidence from the Conference that allows us to assess this institutional event. The Conference might best be described as a campaign to stimulate public interest for EU politics.
January 21, 2022
Evangelos Venizelos
Article published in Kathimerini
EastMed and the new circumstances
In May 2020, the Greek Parliament ratified (Law 4687/2020), by a broad majority, the intergovernmental agreement of Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Italy on a gas transportation system from the Eastern Mediterranean to European markets, the EastMed pipeline. Surprisingly, only the first three countries signed the agreement. Italy’s name remained in the document, but the signature was not added. It simply stated its support for the project in a letter.
At the same time, many people were confusing the EastMed pipeline with the EastMed Act (Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act of 2019), introduced in the US Senate by Senators Bob Menendez and Marco Rubio, or with the international organization EastMed Gas Forum, which includes eight (at the current moment) actors of the region.
