Dukakis Center hosts foreign ministry veteran

Dimitris Katsoudas, former Secretary General of European Affairs, Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, spoke at ACT on Monday, March 11, under the auspices of the Michael and Kitty Dukakis Center for Public and Humanitarian Service, on the topcic of "Phoenix Rising from the Ashes: How Greece can Recover.

Dr. Katsoudas, who enjoyed a long career in various ministerial capacities during New Democrqacy administrations in the 1980s. 90s, and 2000s, reflected on the long term origins of Greece's sovereign debt crisis, focusing on the shared burden of Greek leaders and EU institutions. While the policies and practices of the former are mostly to blame for the onset of the crisis -- which is a political crisis, he emphasized -- Katsoudas also argued that the austerity measures prescribed and imposed by the EU and its partners in the Troika have done little else but exacerbate the problem.

What is needed, according to Katsoudas, is tax reform, state streamlining, and market liberalization, all of which will require considerable political will. The EU faces a general crisis which goes beyond the Greek problem, which will require equally difficult and definitive reforms on the level of European institutions. Time is of the essence.