“By convicting an honest statistician, Greece condemns itself,” is the title of an opinion article published this morning on conservative Politico.eu. Author Megan Green underlined among others that “The prosecution of Andreas Georgiou raises questions about the integrity of the country’s institutions.”
To make the long article short… the general idea is that the former chief of Greek Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) managed to “free the agency from political influence” and told the truth about the Greek fiscal situation. Instead of earning praise he was rewarded with “prosecution and, ultimately, conviction.”
Honest statistician “Georgiou has arguably become a scapegoat for politicians on both the left and the right trying to deflect responsibility for Greece’s fiscal problems.”
The article has one valid point: that Statistic Agencies need to be trustworthy.
Too bad, though, that Greeks have a genuine mistrust against Georgiou for the simple reason that he was still working for the international Monetary Fund when he gave away ‘Greek Statistics’ and he did not even bother to inform Greek authorities.
How much more, that the country’s lenders have intervened several times in favor of the ex ELSTAT chief, as they did in favor of six former EU technocrats advisers at the country’s Privatization Fund. Not only the Commission demanded “immunity” for the 3 Greeks and 3 EU-nationals. It also blackmailed Greece and threatened “either the 6 go free or no bailout tranche of 8.5billion euros.”
On Wednesday, the European Commission expressed concern over the decision of the Athens appeals court to convict Andreas Georgiou for breach of duties during his tenure and hand him a two-year suspended sentence.
“What is important to [the Commission] is that the independence of ELSTAT is protected in line with the law and that people who do their jobs are also protected in line with the law,” Annika Breidthardt, spokeswoman for economic and monetary affairs, said at a news conference. “That’s why we follow these developments with concern.”
The spokeswoman said the case will be examined by member-states at the Eurogroup, adding it is open for an appeal.
Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis commented on Twitter:
Important that independence of #ELSTAT & people who do their jobs are protected in line with the law. Following latest devs. with concern.
— Valdis Dombrovskis (@VDombrovskis) August 2, 2017
Is for the Commission the independence of ELSTAT more important than the independence of Justice?
A day later, the Greek Union of Judges and Prosecutors made clear to European Commission that:
“The Greek judicial authorities and Greek law must treat all citizens equally without taking into consideration the special relationship that they can have with services belonging to the European Commission.”
In a statement, the Union said that “the judgment of judges and prosecutors is not allowed to be influenced by political balances, pressures or inducements,” the Union added and reckoned a press release it had issued on 30.August 2016 in which it criticized the “unacceptable and extra-institutional interventions of the European Commission in the case of former ELSTAT chief Georgiou that was open back then.”
Now the point is: what will the Eurogroup do? Punish Greece? Buy Georgiou free? Impose another austerity package? Kick us from the eurozone?
The lenders need to defend Andreas Georgiou to bitter end, otherwise the whole bailout system will collapse. And they will be exposed.
Anyone who has confidence in Greek justice is a fool. The judicial process in Greece is neither independent of politics nor competent in legal matters — as has been adjudicated repeatedly by the CJEU and ECtHR.
And anyone who has confidence in the EU commission, the IMF or the lawbreaking ECB and their various armies of trolls is an even bigger fool.
I am amazed that people on this forum would support the Greek government over Andreas Georgiou.
If this statistician was “honest”, why on earth would he not consult with the rest of the board? This was why he was convicted, anyway. Why does he not explain to us, why he had to ignore the board? Maybe he was not so “honest” after all, or his loyalties leaned to the German-US side, who desperately, at the time, wanted a Eurozone victim country?
Because the board was full of corrupt people who are politically motivated. He is the boss, the EU verified the figures. If you are saying that the EU has an agenda, maybe it’s time for Greece to leave the EU then.
Then the Greek government doesn’t have to answer to anyone and can do whatever they want!
But then no begging the EU for money to finance the whole country!
Ianni: this legal case is a political show trial and has nothing to do with professional statistical standards. As for your question, I do not know the answer. I can speculate that he knew the Board would tell him to fiddle the figures to benefit Greece, and his job was to bring international standards to Greece. But i can only speculate. Others will assert, doubtless, that Greece should be able to use its own invented accounting standards.
@Martin Baldwin-Edwards
One simple question:
Can you show me ONE country in world, that sticked to the rules of the IMF, and after applying all of their “reciepes” has how a flourishing economy, full employment, good healthcare and a good education system?
@Lina. I am not supporting the economic policies of either the IMF or the incompetent and useless eurogroup. There is a big difference between accounting standards — about how accounts and statistics are prepared — and what a government or country has as its economic policies. There is no doubt in my mind that the destruction of the Greek economy is a savage and wilful act by the eurogroup. Equally, there is no doubt in my mind that the policies and analyses advocated by the IMF for Greece were wrong and totally misguided: they also concede this.
But Georgiou is not a politician or even a policy-maker. He is a statistician whose job is to prepare statistics to the highest possible standards. As far as I know, that is all he ever did. This political show-trial by Greece is like prosecuting the piano-tuner because the audience didn’t like the piano concerto they heard. It is offensive to all professionals who have nothing to do with the criminals called politicians.
AND did you know that many German cities did the same “Goldman-Game” as Greece and were betrayed?!
SO….what are we REALLY doing here?!
Hiding the real EUROPEAN problems and play “national-mentality-blaming” game.
Since the WORLDWIDE financial crisis started and of course it had a big impact on Greece or better the PIGS (funny word?!) I am tired and of reading the narrative about lazy, betraying Southerners and impacable Northeners.
There were TWO accounting standards in Europe at that time. TWO (2)!
@Lina:
The asian tiger states look quite good again after taking the hard measures the IMF insisted on, plus they created legislation to prevent every again getting into the situation of having to call the IMF in the first place. Great Britain had to call the IMF in the 70s too and got over it.
@Iannis:
The rest of the board members were exactly the people who had faked greek numbers all the years before, so of course their interest was NOT to release the numbers Georgiou found. For example, the profit/loss of 100% state owned enterprises like the Greek railways was not included in Greeces deficit numbers although the Greek state year by year had to pay for the horrendous losses, and the rules for the calculation of state deficites of the EU REQUIRED those profits/losses to be included.
One of the big accusors, Zoe Georganta, a former board member of ELSTAT claimed that her calculations lead to a Greece deficit number of 4 percent in 2010, and as Greece had to pay about 5,2% of GDP for debt service, which would mean that Greece was in primary surplus of 1,2% in 2010. If anyone really believes that, i have a nice bridge i d like to sell
Pied Piper:
Malaysia was the only country to refuse IMF ‘assistance’ to the Asian Tigers. It imposed trade controls and capital controls and was the first to bounce back within a year, as opposed to the 5 years it took the others, none of whom really followed the IMF formula. The important question is WHY they returned to “growth” at all? Because they were manufacturing high-value economies, NOT service economies. Which is why IMF-Washington wanted its greedy share.
Following this Washington has done everything it can to isolate and punish Malaysia.