Greek Parliament approves setting up committee to investigate bailouts and PSI

Greek lawmakers voted on Tuesday in favor of setting up a committee to examine the circumstances under which Greece agreed to bailouts totaling 240 billion euros with the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

The proposal was approved with 156 of the 250 lawmakers present voting in favor, 72 against and 22 abstaining. 250 lawmakers for 300 total were present.

“After five years of parliamentary silence on the major issues that caused the bailout catastrophe, today we commence a procedure that will give answers to the questions concerning the Greek people,” Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras told lawmakers before the vote in the early hours of Tuesday.

The committee, proposed by Tsipras’s leftist Syriza party and its coalition partner, the right-wing Independent Greeks, will look into how Greece entered the agreements and any other issue relating to the bailouts and their implementation.

This includes the revision of the 2009 budget deficit, whose wildly gyrating figures triggered the country’s fiscal crisis, a debt restructuring in 2012 and the recapitalization of the country’s banks.

Former PM Antonis Samaras (Nea Dimokratia) had tabled a proposal to extend the investigation back to 1981. This will be discussed in the Parliament in a later session.

However ND voted against the committee establishment, the same did PASOK. To Potami and KKE voted “present”. Golden Dawn MPs were absent.

The bailout committee will consist of 17 members proportionally from all parliament parties and will conclude it’s works in six months.

Another parliamentary committee has been set up to audit the reasons that caused the Greek debt to have swollen.