Balkan reconstruction plan is deconstructed
Greece’s long-awaited Balkan reconstruction plan finally arrived in Parliament yesterday, where it was met by withering fire from the skeptical members of the committee debating the legislation. Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Loverdos, who was appointed to the post on January 21, presented the bill that has been expected since Greece announced in 1999 that it would be providing 180 billion drachmas (530 million euros) to help reconstruct the Balkans. Loverdos admitted to the committee that he still did not know what his precise duties were, and that he had no aides and no personnel. He said that he wrote the bill with the help volunteered by some diplomats and colleagues. Conservative New Democracy party MP Ioannis Kefaloyiannis asked whether «the bill will help Greece’s efforts or whether it is to help very specific business interests.» Ruling PASOK party MP Yiannis Kapsis said, «nothing in the legislation persuades me to agree with it.» However, the articles in this newspaper serve a different purpose, and their goal is not to expose the obviously well-known charlatans of a sordid underworld of political and business entanglements. That is, until now; our disgust with their sorry state has surpassed our indignation.
