Experts: Greek troubles to be further drawn out

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Latvian experts are skeptical about the agreement Greece and its creditors reached on Monday morning, a number of experts told Latvian Radio. Furthermore, reaching a decision is hardly the end of the talks.

"Let's not be naive. It's a classical European decision — no one is happy!" said Sprūds.

According to Sprūds, with the talks having dragged on for that long, all the countries of the Eurozone are "emotionally pinned up against the wall" as they are mutually tied together with common interests. Even Germany, as it had to react to pressure from France which wanted a more mannered policy against Greece, objected against the stricter demands made by the Baltics, the Netherlands, Slovakia and Slovenia.

Andris Strazds, an economist who participated in the discussion, was no less pessimistic. He stressed that three laws exist in the corporate world: meeting deadlines, abiding by the rules and abstaining from pinning the partner up against the wall. Greece has broken all three. Furthermore, as Greece could not make good on the easier plans, there is no reason to think that it will be different now with the new, harsher terms of the creditors.

Former Foreign Minister Rihards Pīks thinks that Greece "will not be alright any time soon", but it has been a good lesson to all of EU in the sense that it shows that it's impossible to take loans and lead a happy life forever, while economic journalist Pauls Raudseps produced some numbers: Greece has lived on a budget deficit for 20 years, and its GDP deficit has been about 6% each year. 

Another lesson, according to Andris Strazds, which Europe has to learn is that an ejection or exit plan from the euro has to be drafted for the cases when a country has, in a grave an systematic manner, breached the agreed upon economic criteria.

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