An 'Olympian' condemnation of the governments of New Democracy and PASOK by the European Court

Liberal Alliance 14.02.08

Today's condemning decision from the European Court regarding the Olympic Airways, should bring sorrow and shame for this new humiliation for Greece, particularly since it is unlikely to be the last.

The illegal actions of successive Greek governments 'invited' the investigations of the EU commission since the early 90s. These were followed on by condemnations by the European Court as the early ruling C-415/03 and today's decision C-419/06 which confirm the unlawfullness of the state subsidies to the Olympic Airways by the governments of PASOK and New Democracy. The chronicle of the embezzlement of public funds for this purpose is explained in detail by today's press release from the EU Commision.

Whilst New Democracy stayed silent on today's events, the same did not happen with PASOK, whose members Ms Xenogianakopoulou & Mr Tsiokas accused the government that 'it did not negotiate effectively the case for Olympic Airways to the EU'. The new president of SYRIZA, Mr. Tsipras, as a consummate left wing statist went a step further and called for the taxpayers to pay more money to the Olympic Airways since the money already given is just a small part of the debt of the Greek Government to the company!

Neither Ms Xenogiannakopoulou nor Mr Tsipras mentioned the intra-party malign groups that pillage the state Airline Company for years. On the contrary they are attempting to convince the citizens that the state monopoly over the airline industry should be preserved in the name of …progress, and so continuing the illegal actions by the government and the covering of the damages and debts from the taxpayers.

Liberal Alliance alone and with no connection with special interests, points out to the obvious, that the illegal state subsidies result in the stifling of the competition in the airline industry. The longer this occurs, the lower the quality of services offered by the industry and the higher the cost will be to the taxpayer.

Preserving the state monopoly over the airlines will have negative consequences for the consumer, the state budget and the Greek tourism, will discourage investment by foreign airline companies in Greece and will delay the job creation, much needed by the young unemployed.

Liberal Alliance considers Olympic Airlines a blatant example of a policy that favoured the few against the interests of the majority of Greek citizens. Liberal Alliance supports the immediate privatisation of Olympic Airlines, as part of a full withdrawal of the State from every business activity and the institution of a free and fair competition to all the sectors of the economy.