BRUSSELS, Nov 16 (KUNA) -- The EU's Economic
Adjustment Programmes agreed for Greece after the financial crisis broke out provided short-term financial stability and made some progress on reform possible, according to a new report from the European Court of Auditors released Thursday.
According to the Eurogroup website, Ministers will discuss the economic
adjustment programmes of Greece and Portugal and review the post-programme situation in Spain.
"We do not radically oppose the economic
adjustment programmes and the fact that conditions have been imposed.
A draft opinion of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs of the European Parliament has criticised the role of the Eurogroup and the European institutions participating in the troika (IMF, EC, ECB) over the social impact of the economic
adjustment programmes in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus.
Kairos demands the unconditional cancellation of bilateral and multilateral debts of the world's poorest countries and an end to Structural
Adjustment Programmes, among other things.
Frances Stewart, for instance, in her paper "Can
Adjustment Programmes Incorporate the Interests of Women" [in Afshar and Dennis, Women and Adjustment Policies in the Third World, St.
Dieudonne Oyono, Adviser to the Prime Minister of Cameroon on Good Governance, described to me how the initial one-year structural
adjustment programmes demanded by the World Bank `took away almost the entire social sector' of his country's budget.
This wide experience with structural adjustment has led to a greater understanding of the process of structural adjustment and hence in an evolution of the policy package that is often prescribed in the context of these
adjustment programmes. Furthermore structural adjustment programs tend to be fairly heterogeneous often tailored according to the needs of individual countries.
In both cases, this MFA loan(1) must supplement the
adjustment programmes agreed by the national authorities with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to attenuate the effects of the economic crisis.
Marc Franco started his career at the European Commission in the former DG VIII (Development) in 1978, working on a range of issues such as agricultural and food programmes and Macro-economic Structural
Adjustment programmes. From 1990-1998, he first became Head of Unit in DG I/DGIA (External Relations) responsible for various sectors in the PHARE programme and later Head of Unit responsible for relations with Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia.