The Troika is the informal name of the “decision making” group made up by the European Central Bank (ECB), the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Commission (EC).

These three multilateral agencies – integrated by various countries – study the economic situation of countries to point out what measures and economic reforms should be carried out if they want to consolidate their accounts and grow. These analysisare made from a clear neoliberal point of view,subject to pressure from corporate lobbies. The EU itself, in its voluntary «Transparency Register”, has 2524 registered corporate pressure groups, though, according to other sources, they are less than half of the existing «lobbies».

When receiving funding from the IMF or the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), countries compromise to strictly follow the «conditionalities» set out in a document known as a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

We can say that a country funded by the Troika is intervened because, when following their guidelines, it loses much of its political independence. In fact, in the words of former Prime Minister of Italy, Mario Monti, «The arrival of the Troika (…) is a very intrusive presence and, de facto, an asymmetric loss of sovereignty.»

The Spanish State receives regular visits from the Troika after signing the Memorandum of Understanding to recapitalize private banks. Those 100,000 million euros are going to turn out very expensive.

We don’t owe, we won’t pay!
Without debt we all win.  Rise up!

SOURCES
EU Transparency Register: http://ec.europa.eu Retrieved on June 9th, 2013.
Mario Monti (14-11-2012). Le parole e i fatti. Rizzoli: «.. arrivo della troika (composta da Commissione europea, BCE e FMI«). pp. 19 -. ISBN 978-88-586-3901-6. Retrieved June 9th, 2013.