Separation Of Church, State In Greece Likely To Top Up Public Purse - Lawmaker

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 14th November, 2018) The separation of church and state in Greece can promote an increase of public income as it will let the government redirect some additional funds for social needs, Dimitrios Papadimoulis, European Parliament vice president and the head of the delegation of Greece's ruling Syriza party, told Sputnik on Tuesday.

On November 6, Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and Archbishop Hieronymos II of Athens and All Greece reached an agreement on the conditions for the disestablishment of church and state within the framework of a constitutional reform. The reform stipulates that the clergy, traditionally receiving salaries just like other public servants, will not receive the remuneration any more. Instead, the government will pay annual subsidies to the church, amounting to a total worth of salaries that the clergy should receive as civil servants.

"Such a development, among other positive elements of the bilateral agreement, can increase public income and provide the necessary space for the government to possibly re-allocate public expenses to other areas, like for instance to the enhancement of the welfare state," Papadimoulis said.

According to Papadimoulis, the creation of a fund, co-directed by the state and the church, will help manage the dispute over the years-long contested property of the church, and will be "a positive step" toward financial independence by this religious institution and, possibly, the self-financing of the clergy.

"The proposal of the Greek government is progressive and utterly realistic, and it is already implemented in other European states. It also abides by the social need to have clear roles between the state and the church. Should this amendment pass, I believe that it would become the departing point for broader and deeper reforms," he added.

Papadimoulis described the agreement between the government and the church is "a big achievement" of Tsipras' government on its way toward resolving long-standing issues, "like the one defining the relations between the state and the church."

The constitutional amendments, advocated by Tsipras, who is known to be an atheist, are also expected to make 10,000 government jobs vacant, since the step will exclude the clergy from the official public servants' register, according to the Greek government.