“This is an existential challenge for Europe”- interview with George Pagoulatos

Continuing our conversations with public intellectuals across Europe on the causes and effects of the crisis, Euro Crisis in the Press talks to Professor George Pagoulatos, advisor to former Greek PM Papademos and member of the Board of Directors in Greece’s foremost defense and foreign policy institute, ELIAMEP. Professor Pagoulatos argues that muddling through the European crisis is no longer enough and that more ambitious integration is needed for catastrophic disintegration to be averted. In the case of the Greek austerity programme, he regrets that a more symmetric distribution of the adjustment cost across a more extensive time period was a road not taken by the European partners largely due to the country’s credibility deficit. Professor Pagoulatos also alerts to the rise of populist and extremist forces in Europe and calls for a relentless judicial prosecution of the particularly egregious neo-Nazi phenomenon in Greece. Finally, he deems that a way out of the crisis requires national-level fiscal responsibility, adjustment, and reforms in the South, together with greater solidarity, burden-sharing and integration across the Eurozone.