More byzantine intrigue and nervous times for the EU, as Greece’s former chief statistician will stand trial to face criminal charges over allegedly undermining the ‘national interest’ by exaggerating Greece’s budget deficit, after the Court of Cassation, the supreme court of Greece for civil and criminal law, overturned an earlier ruling for him to be tried for a lesser offence.
Andreas Georgiou, who faces up to 10 years imprisonment, headed the Greek National Statistical Service known as ELSTAT, and was responsible for producing financial data concerning the country’s deficit which was submitted to the European Commission and the European Central Bank for assessment during the period leading up to Greece’s first international bailout.
It should be noted that in 2013, a prosecutor brought felony charges against Georgiou which were later dropped, accusing him of inflating the deficit numbers to justify austerity measures later imposed on the country. Prior to his appointment as the head of ELSTAT, Georgiou worked for the IMF for more than twenty years.
“There will be a battle to explain and present the history of what exactly happened, and what and whose interests were served in the country’s path by previous governments, and where each political force wants to lead the country,” said Nikos Pappas, Minister of State.
These new developments put the European Commission and the European Central Bank in a very difficult position given they accepted the veracity of the data without scrutinising it and based on them, effectively imposed severe austerity measures on the Greek people.
