EUobserver opinion: Opinion: The EU's hypocrisy towards Greece

BRUSSELS - EU leaders have shown total contempt for their commitments to social and labour protections in their policy towards Greece

Hypocrisy has traditionally been a privilege of the powerful in human societies. And hyprocrisy certainly characterises perfectly how European elites have dealt with the Greek crisis over the past four and a half years.

European integration is supposedly based on specific principles, among which respect for human rights figures prominently. Provisions for the protection of social and labour rights are enshrined in the EU's Charter of Fundamental Rights, which is legally binding in all member states, has the same legal value as the treaties and must be adhered to by the European commission.

And, this Charter itself reaffirms in its preamble a previous EU commitment to the 1961 European Social Charter of the Council of Europe which safeguards, among other things, labour conditions, fair remuneration, and collective bargaining, as well as the right to health and social welfare. It also protects the status of vulnerable groups such as women, children, and disabled people.

But these commitments have been systematically ignored when it comes to Greece, where labour and social rights have been violated on a massive scale as a result of austerity programmes imposed on Greece by the "troika" of the European commission, the IMF, and the European Central Bank.

Implementing this austerity programme, designed by other eurozone member states, and outlined in Greece's memorandum of understanding, was a precondition for receiving financial bailouts. But these bailouts were not to benefit the people of Greece; they were to 'help' Greece keep up its payments to private lenders (mainly banks located in these eurozone countries).

A lesson in hypocrisy

Since the onset of troika rule, several Greek trade unions lodged complaints before the Council of Europe's European Committee on Social Rights (ECSR), the body tasked with supervising compliance with the European Social Charter.

And in a boost to the struggle against the troika, a series of ECSR decisions condemned the Greek government's worsening of labour conditions and cuts to pensions and workers' remunerations. While on paper the decision targeted the Greek state, in practice this was strong condemnation of the troika.

But the troika simply ignored these ECSR decisions, and the Greek government did not dare question its authority.

In July this year, MEPs from Syriza , the main opposition party in Greece, asked the European commission how they intend to stop these violations of social rights in Greece.

The answer, two months later, from Economic Affairs Commissioner Jyrki Katainen i, was a lesson in hypocrisy.

The European commission contends that the troika programmes "do not constitute EU law"; stating that rather they are "instruments agreed between Greece and its lenders".

The European commission puts the onus of responsibility on the Greek government to "ensure compliance with its fundamental rights obligations".

But how could Greece be expected to comply with fundamental rights obligations while implementing binding policies specifically designed by the troika to destroy them?

In reality the austerity programme imposed upon Greece, designed in part by EU finance ministers, is tantamount to collective punishment of the Greek people. The poorest are paying for the past sins committed by the Greek political class.

It was spring 2010 when this first round of collective punishment was served up by European elites to Greeks, breaching the European Social Charter and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Four and a half years later, isn't it time the EU showed some long overdue respect for the fundamental rights it has undertaken to safeguard?

Kostas Chrysogonos i is a Syriza politician. He was elected to the European Parliament in 2014 and sits within the GUE/NGL political group.