The proposal submitted in Parliament for the formation of a Committee that will investigate the events that lead to Greece applying for bailout programs and austerity memoranda is likely to be discussed on Monday, the 6th of march. Although the initiative is likely to be supported by opposition parties, there is some frustration over the extent of the inquiry, as the proposal stipulates that the Committee will focus on the events that took place between October 2009 and January 2015.
According to the proposal, the Committee will examine the conditions, events, actions and omission that resulted in the singing of the bailout loan agreements. The Committee will also investigate under what conditions that Greek debt was restructured, how Greek insurance fund reserves were raided and what caused the need for a refinancing and restructuring of the Greek banking system.
This period covers the administrations of Giorgos Papandreou, Lucas Papadimos and the Antonis Samaras/Evangelos Venizelos coalition and critically leaves out previous administrations. SYRIZA MEP Dimitris Papadimoulis pointed this out in a tweet, stressing that the Committee must go to the “root” of the problem and mentioned the military procurement scandals and the costly 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, as examples.
Mr. Papadimoulis later clarified that the “fiscal debauchery” of the PASOK and New Democracy between 2000 and 2009 was marked by “scandals, deficits and creative accounting, which facilitated the bailouts” and stressed that the Konstantinos Karamanlis administration should also be included in the inquiry.
The full proposal (in Greek) is available online.
