Till Death Do Us Part

The more time goes by the more I am convinced that the relationship between Greece and Europe is the relationship of a marriage. But it is a marriage in its second or third decade where most of the beauty aspects, the romance and the enthusiasm about your partner have worn-off and all you see are the negative sides and character faults in magnified proportions. And like it usually happens with human relations we are initially blind to these faults, though they were all clearly there since inception, but our higher mission to come to an emotional closure ignored them ostentatiously. And for as long as the veil of romance falls upon the relationship, which is normal at its outset, where one only taps his partners surface, all is nice and good. There is even plenty of love there to blind one even more about the reality of things. And then suddenly one morning of June 6th of any given year (other than 1944), D-day breaks in. The battle of Normandy in its full deployment between you and your life partner. Suddenly, the way you tie your shoe laces is annoying, the way you turn the key when you unlock the door of the home bothers, your breath smells and your shirt just looks ridiculous in combination to your tie. There is no smooth-talking anymore, the flirt is gone, so are the tender feelings for one another, the tolerance level for mistakes is reduced to zero and it is all about questioning oneself for having managed to put up with all this nonsense for so long and for having been blind to these facts all these years.

And then you resort to Eurogroup meetings as the higher instance to fix your marriage. And the atmosphere is nothing less than the atmosphere of a Family Court Room, where you fight passionately on a hard divorce. In bringing forward your allegedly just arguments you need to smear and discredit your partner as best you can, hoping that the outcome will be to your favour. But all of that, is good if your resolution to divorce is firm and final. If you leave room for re-connection then all that happens in the end, is that you are filled with guilt and regret for having conducted yourself towards your partner in such disgraceful fashion. And here comes Greece and its European partners into play. Greece was advertising that it was prepared even for the divorce therefore it was provocative in its conduct against the partners. In reality, it turns out that it was only a bluff and the resolve was never there. We threatened to cheat on our partners with Russia or China hoping that we could revive the forced passion of the past in our relationship. But I guess, our partners knew us all too well and were certain that we would never follow through with the bluff. At least this fact -by reverse logic- should count for some decency in our dealings with our partners showing them the levels of our loyalty to them and just highlights the fact that a spoiled bride doesn't grasp on the concept of age and therefore seeks and requires constant attention.

Post by Theodore Patsellis - PRP Law

tpatsellis@prp-law.com

Corporate Law and International Taxation Attorney with substantial international experience in Europe, the Middle East, Asia Pacific and the Baltic Region. High premium in providing preemptive legal and support in Greek, English or German. Additional focus on contract drafting, corporate and statutory compliance, corporate Governance and effective tax planning.