TTIP: the Impacton the Greek Democracy, Economy and Society
Main Findings:
The memoranda regime serves as a small range implementation of the same goals served
by the “new generation” trade agreements,
although it came into being under a different
pretext and appears to be temporary. It
resembles a pilot implementation from which
useful examples are derived.
TTIP is not enforced somewhere far from daily
life, but is here to vastly change the latter:
• Greek government independence in policy making is
revoked, while the democratic ways of assertion and
dialogue are weakened. Government decisions
already require the approval of its lenders.
• The margins of domestic policy making based on
specific local needs and conditions are nullified as a
result of the supranational and technocratic nature
of the foreseen mechanisms. When it comes to
Greece, supranational organizations that operate
taking into account only the memoranda obligations
already have the final word.
• The course of liberalization of public services is
consolidated. A course that was rigidly set through
the memoranda and is generalized through TTIP.
The limitation of services that remain under state
control is expected. Only those clearly declared as
such will remain public. The sectors to be liberalized
are listed within the memoranda obligations while
for privatizations ETAD – also known as ‘superfund’
has been created.
• The liberalization of public goods like water and
energy is expected – in accordance with the
memoranda – as the pressure for commercialization
and complete liberalization is increasing, while
public insurance and health services are among the
first targets of private capital.
• Small and medium enterprises are threatened
through the opening of small local markets to
international competition. They also do not benefit
from the harmonization of regulations since their
activity is mostly domestic. They already have
suffered under the consequences of the memoranda
policies and the competition of large enterprises.
Study Summary
3
• The majority of the Greek Protected Destination of
Origin and Geographical Indication products will not
be recognized as such. The EU has officially
recognized 101 Greek PDO and PGI products, while
only 21 of them are being considered during the
TTIP negotiations.
• Further loss of jobs and limitation of labor rights
and standards are also expected. Labor rights are
considered by enterprises to be redundant expenses
and the harmonization of the regulations in the EU
and the USA will finally lead to deregulation,
aspects of which have already been implemented
through the memoranda.
• A development model based on the complete
exploitation of the environment with simultaneous
plunder on natural resources, in the benefit of
multinational enterprises is promoted. A series of
measures, institutions and mechanisms derived by
the memoranda are strengthened and solidified.
• The sidelining of the precautionary principle will
bring loosening in standards and regulations. The
revocation of restrictions – originally implemented
on account of environmental and public health
protection – on pesticides, chemicals and growth
hormones. The food sector regulations will also be
affected with the introduction of GMO (the first rule
to be affected is that of labeling), cloning and
nanotechnology food products.
• This deregulation will not be reversible. According
to the terms of the agreement, any corrective
action towards the treatment of negative consequences of deregulation will not be feasible. All
attempts to re-regulate or re-nationalize will be
banned through special ‘lock’ and ‘freezing’ mechanisms foreseen to protect liberalization and privatization. In conclusion the implementation of TTIP
will be generalized and permanent, as opposed to
the memoranda that are presented as a mechanism
limited in duration and area of implementation.