Eurogroup to discuss prosecution of Greek former chief statistician
The persistent prosecution of the former head of Greece’s statistics agency ELSAT will be reviewed on Thursday’s Eurogroup, after the country’s Supreme Court recently upheld a suspended two-year prison sentence for breach of duty.
A lower court had handed down a suspended sentence to Andreas Georgiou in August 2017, finding him guilty of not getting approval by the then board of ELSTAT before transmitting the 2009 deficit figures to Eurostat.
Georgiou will also face for the third time charges over accusations he falsified budget data to justify Greece's first international bailout. He has already been cleared twice in judgments by the Council of Appeals Court Judges.
As Georgiou’s legal saga seems to have no end in sight, the Eurogroup is expected to issue a statement in support for the statistician.
Speaking at a European Central Bank forum in Sintra, Portugal, ECB executive board member Benoit Coeure mentioned the case, saying European institutions place a great emphasis on the independence and integrity of independent authorities, including Greece’s statistics agency.
