New Greek Gov (SIRIZA) any thoughts about potential effect

[vasko]

Looks like the new left wing Greek government may drive Greece out of EU and get the country in financial colaps.

Does someone have any thoughts about how this can affect the sailing there ?

e.g. foreign boats (e.g. EU boats) will become subject to Greek VAT, or if a boat get registered in Greece during the translation period then she will become subject for VAT on the other EU countries. ?

BTW: the closes comparison that I can make is when another country in the Balkan's - Bulgaria elected a radical left PM - Zhan Videnov in 1995- then for 2 years he managed to make the Bulgarian currency to drop in value 200 times ...  interesting if this will happened to Greece too..  the other strange coincidence is that Zhan Videnov's internal party fraction was named Che Guevara - and Zsipras son is named Ernesto after Che Guevara   

[hoppy]

At worst Greece will leave the Euro, not the EU, so no chance on the VAT issue. Greeks don't want to leave the Euro and that will kill the governments support, unless perhaps Germany & Brussels makes zero compromise in their position AND push Greece towards the exit.

Maybe they could introduce something like the matriculation tax but that is only for residents (and charter??) which would not affect a great number of cruisers.

I don't think there is any reason to worry about Greece as a sailing destination.

Maybe you should be nervous if you have immovable assets there like a holiday home or a marina berth

[ubuysa]

It's way too early to start worrying. The EU is playing hardball in the current negotiations with SYRIZA, as you'd expect them to. They're worried that if Greece gets a sweetheart deal then Italy, Spain and Portugal will want one too. You can be sure that whatever is agreed the press release will not admit any concessions from the EU.

The possibility of Greece leaving the EU is remote. The EU would not want Greece outside the EU. Greece would have to form an alliance with somebody and Russia would be the number one choice. That's not just because of the political synergy between SYRIZA and Russia but also because of a shared religion. An alliance with Russia would be of huge interest to Greece because most of her energy is imported, so a deal that gave Russia a naval base in Greece in return for very cheap energy would look very attractive. The last thing the EU (and NATO) wants is a Russian navy base in Greece.

[erkan]

I don't think that Greece will leave euro or EU nor will be forced to leave.

Anyway I wish success to the new goverment . They have become hope for Turkish left wing parties as well.
in 2015 summer I plan to sail in Greek waters and if any extra tax is asked, I will be glad to pay

[On y va]

I just won´t go to Greece. End of problem.

[vasko]

So far I can clearly state that I find Greece the best place for Sailing in Europe... but lately the flight prices has increased from about usually £80 return in 2007 to £320 usually return which when you multiply x3  in my case(me , my wife and 3 years old daughter)  with the view of flying about 10-12 times a year somehow become unacceptable and I was forced to move to Spain ( moving to France this spring as not happy with the sailing ground in Spain so far)


e.g. if flights become again in the area of £100 return  I will be happy to return to Greece...  

[On y va]

Croacia is also very nice so I have heard. Never been there myself.

The sailing grounds in Spain are only nice in the Balearics. All the Balearic islands are nice. But....expensive, especially mooring fees. 

I think I am going to ask my bank a large sum of money too and then later will get my wife to tell the bank manager she is now in charge of our money and household and that she will not pay the bank back anything. If Greece can do it, why can´t I?

[vasko]

Croatia is very nice, but has one drawback - you pay mooring fees everywhere - in Greece you actually 99% of the time do not pay anything  and you moor right in the centre of the town... and the islands are so close and so much that you can always find a safe harbour or anchoring with quite like a lake water every single night ....  


Balearics - yes they are great but expensive and crowded with posh people with their huge power boats and so far I have had only two quite nights on anchor - I means without swell which make me rolling in the bed all night... e.,g. Balearics style sailing look like - take the boat in the morning - go to some nice place have a lunch an swim  and  back in the marina for the night.

[On y va]

Also the rich and famous have to have their playground vasko! .........

[vasko]

BTW: I was under the impression that the playground for the rich should be Cot d'Azure

[hoppy]

Go to Mykonos and a few other islands and your boat feels VERY small even compared to some tenders

I think the rich can afford a few playgrounds

[chuckr]

We hope to be sailing Greece next year.  It sounds like the EU is imposing some tough conditions to more money like collecting taxes.  Collecting taxes should be interesting for we kinda understand not paying taxes is a national sport.  But beyond that I do not think the new government is stupid enough to put new heavy taxes on tourists as their primary business is tourism.  We will see. 

But our plan is sail there in July/August/ September and then winter over in Turkey someplace. 

[vasko]

Looks like so far the EU ( troika) is playing clever - e.g. will let Greece go another 4 months before the final battle in June...  

[chuckr]

This is getting very interesting.  We are still planning on going but wonder what the currency will be when we get there.  If it does exit there may be a fast devaluation of the new currency and that is good for us.  As for taxes ect on cruising boats it waits to be seen. 

[hoppy]

Apr 20, 2015 18:48:46 GMT chuckr said:

This is getting very interesting.  We are still planning on going but wonder what the currency will be when we get there.  If it does exit there may be a fast devaluation of the new currency and that is good for us.  As for taxes ect on cruising boats it waits to be seen. 

Still no point worrying about it, not unless you have money in greek banks or non-movable property in Greece

[chuckr]

I guess we will find out in a few days. I personally doubt it but one never knows. However, one thing we did was stock up on euros before we left Italy as cash may well be king is they do exit and go to a new currency or have currency control restrictions on how much you can withdraw from a bank.

We will be in Greece in a about 2 weeks or so.

[chuckr]

Well Hoppy we are eventually headed your way. We started out on a short 9-10 day inland trip that turned out to be 16 days with stops in Kovovo, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and a ride though Macedonia. Got back and immediately ran out of propane, no sweat change tanks. Only the valve of the new tank was stuck and would not open.  Tried a bunch of stuff and nothing and guys here in Orikum are trying to get empty tank filled and filled tank to open.

But we are resting as at our age all that travel is hard on us so we are resting a couple of days and hope the propane gets fixed. If fixed we will be out in a couple of days to southern Albania for 3-4 days then across to Corfu and points south. If it does not get fixed we will be out in a day for a direct sail to Corfu and have to deal with maybe redoing our propane system.

We will see.