Greece Wants a Debt Break. What About Its Poorer Neighbors?

But if Tsipras is to bring home the deal he feels Greece deserves, he will have to more than face down the Germans. He’ll have to win over skeptical taxpayer in other euro zone countries, reassure European leaders worried about insurgent challenges of their own and make the case that – in a Europe still reeling from the 2008 global financial crisis – Greece is uniquely deserving of assistance.

Even after seven year of devastating recession, Greece remains much richer than most of its neighbors. Its gross domestic product is $22,000 a person. Albania's is $4,000, Macedonia's $5,000. In Bulgaria – like Greece, a member of the European Union – it’s $8,000.

“It’s very difficult to make the point to a worker in Bulgaria that they should give part of their taxes to help people in Greece who are richer than they are,” said Ruslan Stefanov, director of the economic program at the Center for the Study of Democracy in Sofia. “If you are spending money like that in Greece, you should spend money in Bulgaria and other Eastern European countries. This is an argument that is being made by politicians here.”

“There is a clear understanding that Greece has not done enough to request more help from its partners in Europe,” said Stefanov. Like Bulgaria, Greece is a net beneficiary of the EU, receiving far more than it sends to Brussels, in agricultural subsidies and funds the union allocates to its poorer states. Between 2014 and 2020 it is slated to receive more than €17 billion from the EU.

“Greece has been receiving EU funding since 1982. I mean, come on, it’s been quite lavish funding," Stefanov said. "Is this not a Marshall Plan?”