How much longer do we have to suffer the farce of important structural reforms being heralded, voted through Parliament and then never being implemented?

The government of George Papandreou clashed with various vested interests and union representatives resisting the liberalization of closed-shop professions who put Greece through a bitter trial of strikes and street protests. But the ministers serving in the government prevented the decisions necessary for bringing order to the situation from being put into effect.

The result of this inaction is that a number of professions in Greece remain closed to competition to this day, making the country appear unreliable in the eyes of its foreign partners, who have demanded measures to make the economy more competitive.

The commitments that Greece has made to its international lenders to push through structural reforms must be honored, because a country that cannot stand by its own contractual obligations and which thumbs its nose at others cannot expect any respect.