A Parliament plenary late Wednesday evening approved, during a first reading (in-principle), the contracts for Athens-based Marfin Investment Group‘s (MIG) acquisition of state-run Olympic Airways (OA). A second reading (by-article) will follow, after which the plenary will hold a third reading, in which a final vote will be held for ratification of the draft bill. Addressing Wednesday’s session, Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis said that…
A Parliament plenary late Wednesday evening approved, during a first reading (in-principle), the contracts for Athens-based Marfin Investment Group‘s (MIG) acquisition of state-run Olympic Airways (OA). A second reading (by-article) will follow, after which the plenary will hold a third reading, in which a final vote will be held for ratification of the draft bill.
Addressing Wednesday’s session, Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis said that, in the case of the ailing national carrier, the government "disregarded the temporary political cost and persisted with its programme and its European policy", adding that "this is what we will continue to do in this difficult period of the global financial crisis, knowing that Greece does not need ‘magic recipes’ but a responsible European governance".
A fundamental success of the government was the fact that the European Commission approved the plan under which the new OA will not carry the burdens and debts of the past, Hatzidakis said. In reply to main opposition PASOK’s accusations that the ND government failed to engage in "tough bargaining" with Brussels, he noted that negotiations were held over a space of eight months with the Commission.
"We negotiated, and succeeded in a new OA, maintaining 65 percent of the old company’s flight activity and also retained the name and logo … whereas in the case of Belgium, its carrier Sabena retained only the logo," the minister stressed.
PASOK parliamentary rapporteur Christos Papoutsis called on the government to clarify whether it was true that the government had commenced discussions with MIG long before it issued the international tender for OA’s privatisation, something vehemently denied by ND deputy Panos Panagiotopoulos.
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) rapporteur Achilleas Kantartzis charged that OA’s privatisation was not the result of management problems but a political choice within the framework of the "EU one-way-path".
The Radical Left Coalition (SYRIZA) MP Panayiotis Lafazanis charged that the deal was a transfer of OA to "private, looting interests".
Popular Orthodox Rally (LAOS) parliamentary spokesman Asterios Rondoulis accused the government and the two mainstream parties – ND and PASOK – of "instituting impunity for the managements they themselves appointed". Although LA.OS deputies voted in favour of the bill, Rondoulis blamed Hatzidakis for the deficits in OA posted during ND’s governance, charging that OA posted a deficit of 2.6 billion euros during the period 1995-2008.
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