The last few days have seen Europe looking very closely at Greece, its situation within the eurozone and the possible consequences

We got the news that Greece cannot comply with its pre-agreed commitments until late next year, basically defaulting once again on the agreed bailout repayment. This is bad news for all of Europe, and in the Malta context even more, as we are giving out good money after bad money: The worst commercial decision anybody in business can do.

Having knowledge of how the Greek people work, think, and live, I find it impossible to believe that the Greeks will ever repay their debts. They have such an entrenched system of living that no austerity measures will ever work.

We debated this situation in Parliament on Wednesday and I was allowed a few minutes to express my thoughts on the situation.

I confirmed my thoughts when, at a tourist professional fair in Paris, the Greece stand provided by the national tourist office of Greece was just as large as the normal stands of years gone by.

Mostly large spaces that were empty. I saw no evident sign of anything being done for the economy to start rolling again. And this when it could have cut down on the size of the stand to pass on a message that Greece is doing something.

We all know that the Greek civil servants jobs are entrenched in their constitution. It’s a job for life, with numerous benefits attached to it. And you retire at 55. No wonder so many protests are being held.

In my opinion, the Maltese government should go with the bailout along with the European partners, but must be very cautious. We must know that we are throwing our money away to save another country. True, we may need the same reciprocal help, but seeing what happened when we called for help on our immigration problem – and we were left alone to cope with the massive problem – I doubt it will happen in the same way it happened with Greece.

Throwing money away serves no good cause to Malta. We have where to put this kind of money, the very least would be to safeguard our own garden against the very same malaise that Greece and other countries have.

I don’t want to see Malta go down this road the others are forced to walk. We have been very careful not to be involved in deep recession, and guarded ourselves very well indeed. Fancy losing all this effort by bailing out a country which has no intention of paying us back. You can slap on an interest rate of huge percentages, but if money will not be repaid then it’s all a useless exercise.

We must have changeable collateral. The Greeks have a lot of things that might be of interest, as the Greek economy is still solidly a socialist economy because all, or nearly all, is under government control. Hence the problem that Greece is now not able to pay its own wages.

Greece has employed hundreds of thousands into some sort of government authority, many non-productive jobs, and the bill has come round to be paid. A similar, albeit smaller amount of people, were employed before the 1987 election in Malta. This has cost the country Lm400 million. We could have done many other things with that kind of money. It was short-sightedness at its best, simply lucrative vote picking, but essentially there were no ideas how to create jobs and wealth.

We are to sustain the eurozone, but must be wary as it may pull everybody down. There is no effective sign of any repayments, and this is worrying me. We may end up regretting our positive decision.

Robert Arrigo is parliamentary assistant in the Finance Ministry