Brussels, 30/11/2004 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission is expected to adopt its final report on the Greek statistics affair on Wednesday, which will confirm the intermediate version and the existence of an excessive deficit between 1997-2003. In the Council's conclusions of 16 November, finance ministers sought to return to the question of who was responsible for erroneous budget information (EUROPE 17 November p 15). The Commission is therefore going to present a communication outlining the respective responsibilities and address a warning letter to Greece, which is guilty of not having fulfilled the terms of the treaty.
The Commission communication explains how the current system works and which depend on the good faith of Member States in collating data. In this case, the Commission considers that Greece failed in its duty but also noticed a lack of responsiveness from all the institutions and services involved in the verification procedure. The communication indicates what ways can ensure that the situation does not happen again. More comprehensive proposals still need to be elaborated but in October Commissioner Almunia had already presented three action areas for improving European statistics (EUROPE 21 October p 7): a) reinforcing the regulatory mechanisms and data monitoring devices; b) improving Euostat's operational capacity and that of DG ECFIN's for statistical verification; c) the adoption of minimum accounting standards to guarantee that national statistic institutes worked in complete integrity, independence and accountability.
The warning letter to Greece is part of the infringement procedures and does not include any specific sanctions or measures. It points out that Greece breached its obligations by not providing accurate figures. The Commission would therefore like to ensure that the Greek authorities provide accurate figures without delay and if these clarifications are necessary, that promptly supplied. Greece's participation in the euro is not being questioned and no freeze on cohesion funds is envisaged except for in the excessive deficit procedure when the Ecofin Council reaches a decision on what measures are planned by the Greek government in 2005.