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We must recognise that many of Greece's problems were aggravated by the behaviour of the European Union, writes Maria Joo Rodrigues.

Maria Joo Rodrigues MEP is Vice-Chair of the Socialists & Democrats Group in the European Parliament, in charge of economic and social policies.

The Greek people have told us in January's elections that they no longer accept their fate as it has been decided by the European Union. For those who know the state of economic and social devastation Greece has reached, this is only a confirmation of a survival instinct common to any people.

The Greek issue has become a European issue, and we are all feeling its effects. European integration can only have a future if European decisions are accepted as legitimated by the various peoples who constitute Europe. Decisions at European level require compromises, as they have their origins in a wide variety of interests. But these compromises must be perceived as mutual and globally advantageous for all Member States involved, despite the commitments and efforts they entail.

The key question now is whether it will be possible to forge a new compromise, enabling not only to give hope to the Greek people, but also to improve certain rules of today's European Union and its Economic and Monetary Union. We need a European Union capable of taking more democratic decisions and an Economic and Monetary Union which generates economic, social and political convergence, not ever-widening divergence.

If Europe is unable to forge this compromise, and if the rope between lenders and borrowers stretches further, the risks are multiple: financial pressures for Greece to leave the euro; economic and social risks of continued stagnation or recession, high unemployment and poverty in many other countries; and, above all, political risks, namely further strengthening of anti-European or Eurosceptic parties in their aspiration to lead national governments, worsening Europe's fragmentation.

What compromise for Greece and Europe?

To begin with, Greece needs to make greater effort to address its long-standing problems: improve tax collection, make public administration more efficient and less corrupt, budget management more disciplined and the economy more competitive through focus on quality, innovation and value-added.

But we also must recognize that many of Greece's problems were aggravated by the behaviour of the European Union: Firstly, it let Greece exposed to speculative market pressures in 2010, which exacerbated its debt burden. Secondly, when the EU finally managed to build the necessary financial stabilisation mechanisms, it imposed on Greece a programme focused on the reduction of the budget deficit in such an abrupt way that the country was pushed into an economic and social disaster. Moreover, the austerity measures resulted in a further increase of Greece's debt compared to its GDP.

The implementation of this "rescue package" was entrusted to the "Troika" of the European Commission, IMF and ECB: a technocrat device that blocked any discussion on smarter alternatives and that blurred the political responsibility for policies imposed on Greece - and on other EU countries in similar situations.

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Many of Greece's problems were aggravated by the EU