The Mail — The Archbishop of Canterbury yesterday condemned the EU for turning Greece into ‘the biggest debtors’ prison in European history’.
In a speech in Paris on Friday, the Most Reverend Justin Welby said EU policies had kept entire countries in desperate circumstances impoverishing many citizens.
The inequality means some Europeans enjoy unprecedented living standards while for others EU leaders have made things worse through ‘centralisation, corruption and bureaucracy’ the archbishop said adding that Greece is the clearest example of that.
‘It was urged to enter the eurozone on essentially a false prospectus, with declared debt well below the reality, and thus outside the criteria for euro entry.
‘And because of previous mismanagement and even corruption by an elite, the poor of an entire nation have been put effectively into involuntary bankruptcy. The weight has fallen on those least able to survive, and when their own suffering was aggravated by the desperate plight of hundreds of thousands of refugees, and now millions, little help was given.
‘What we have seen is the global market system, and especially the EU, lend people money to buy things and then strangle their hopes and futures when they cannot repay. What we now have is the biggest debtors’ prison in European history.’
