Greece's Papandreou: Default Not An Option For Greece, Europe
By Michael Casey Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
NEW YORK (Dow Jones)--Greece is defying the pessimists and making strong advances on austerity measures aimed at improving the country's heavily stressed fiscal situation, Prime Minister Georges Papandreou said Wednesday.
Speaking on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meetings at a function sponsored by the Economic Club of New York, Papandreou insisted that as a result of those measures Greece will not default on its debt.
"Default is not an option for Greece," he said. "All our Herculean efforts during the past year have been geared to ensure that Greece does not default."
Citing the monitoring programs attached to the three-year financial rescue program introduced this year by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, he said "there is no question of us slacking off" on the quarterly review targets incorporated into that plan. He added, "Default is not an option for Europe either."
Nonetheless, citing the fact that spreads on Greek sovereign bonds "are still too high," Papandreou said his government is "still fighting a battle to dispel persistent doubts about Greece's credibility." Seeking to dispel what he called the "peculiar mythology around the Greek case," he said Greece has "delivered on its commitments, exceeded targets, and even confounded expectations."
He said the government deficit is already down 32% and is on track to decline by 40% by year-end. In achieving that, Papandreou cited various measures to streamline the bureaucracy that have saved EUR1.5 billion for the government. These include reductions in municipalities from over a thousand to 325, in prefectures from 57 to 13 and in levels of government to three. Greece has also eliminated 4,000 government enterprises, he said.
Papandreou also cited extensive efforts to crack down on Greece's notorious tax evasion. "We are using data mining, crack squads, and cross-checks of assets to catch and prosecute tax cheats," he said. "Even Google Earth has come in handy to uncover undeclared swimming pools."
These measures led to EUR1.2 billion in collections of tax arrears in the first six months of the year, Papandreou said. In this effort, he said it is a priority to build trust in the mechanism of government. "People will pay their taxes if they trust the government to collect them justly and use them wisely."
At the same time, he added, "my biggest concern now is to ensure that cuts do not hurt those most at risk in a recession and to not counteract potential increases in revenue."
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Un premio se lo meritano proprio, sarebbe stato difficile per una classe politica normale far crescere così a dismisura il debito senza peraltro aver avuto il problema sostanziale che ha affondato il resto dell'EU, ovvero le banche. 
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