The EU Commission this week weighed in heavily into a languishing court case against the former head of Greece statistical service, EL.STAT, dating from the latter’s tenure in 2009.
Andreas Georgiou was charged with manipulating data dealing with Greece’s budget deficit while he was in office.
According to Reuters, the one-time IMF economist resigned a year ago after being charged in 2013 with inflating figures on the Greek budget deficit in 2009 “in a way that made bailout conditions imposed on Athens by euro zone creditors more onerous than they might have been.”
“Sound and reliable fiscal data are essential for sound economic decision making. Recent statements in the media, however, call into question the quality and reliability of official statistics in Greece. Although the Commission will not, as a matter of principle, comment on individual national legal proceedings, it is concerned about these statements as they also call into question the validity of the fiscal data underpinning the Stability Support Programme for Greece,” a Commission press release noted.
On her part, EU Commissioner Marianne Thyssen emphasized that “…the independence of the Hellenic Statistical Authority ELSTAT and the quality of its statistics are essential. For the Commission and Eurostat it is absolutely clear that data on Greek Government debt during 2010-2015 have been fully reliable and accurately reported to Eurostat.”
The press release noted that Brussels “now calls upon the Greek authorities to actively and publicly challenge the false impression that data were manipulated during 2010-2015 and to protect ELSTAT and its staff from such unfounded claims.
The Commission also cites a letter by EC Vice-President Dombrovskis, Commissioner Pierre Moscovici and Thyssen to Greek FinMin Euclid Tsakalotos over the matter.
In a later Reuters dispatch, Thyssen was quoted as directly disputing any notion that ELSTAT manipulated data on the country’s debt in 2010-2015. Her letter to the leftist Greek government, in fact, calls for the latter to refute any such allegations.
“For the Commission and Eurostat it is absolutely clear that data on Greek Government debt during 2010-2015 have been fully reliable and accurately reported to Eurostat,” Thyssen, who oversees the European statistical bureau, emphasized.
