European Commission representative predicts, supervison, decade of reforms ahead

Declan Costello, the representative of the European Commission in the quartet of Greece’s creditors, believes that Athens will continue to be under a strict supervisory framework for a number of years, and must continue with a reform programme for the next decade.

“There are real challenges as regards whether Greece will manage to ensure viable, long-term growth,” Costello told a group of Dutch MPs in The Hague,” as Ta Nea reports.

“There are a number of outstanding issues, some of which have been set on track,” Costello is quoted as saying.

“In the case of deep, major reforms, five, and in some cases ten years of steady implementation will be needed for them to pay off,” he said.

Concerning the challenges that Greece faces, Costello focused on unemployment, “which continues at unacceptably high rates”, as he said.

As for the government’s social solidarity income programme, for 700,000 beneficiaries, he said that “it is not a generous system”.