Situation of Greek pension system after the second financial assistance programme  

Question for written answer
to the Commission
Rule 130
Alfred Sant (S&D)

Subject: Situation of Greek pension system after the second financial assistance programme  

During his statement on Greece on 22 April 2016, the President of the Eurogroup indicated “that substantial progress has been made, reducing the number of open issues, and getting close to an agreement on a number of key areas such as pension reform.” Taking into account that the current framework of the Greek pension system is heavily depending on state grants, at the end of 2015 over 50% of the financial entries of pension funds were direct government transfers, which are supported by creating new debt. The contributions of employed people on the other hand have been decreasing gradually: from €24 to €17billion in less than five years.

1. Does the Commission consider that a huge part of the damage of Greek pension funds can partly be attributed to the high increase in unemployment from 7.30% in May 2008 to 24.4% and to the reduction of the average annual salary from €13,330 to €10,300, resulting from the EU`s financial assistance programmes?
2. Does the Commission have an accurate list of the “extra” austerity measures worth 2% of GDP drawn up, in case the objective of a primary budgetary surplus of 3.5% of GDP is not achieved in 2018?