Brussels, 02/12/2004 (Agence Europe) - As expected, on Wednesday the European Commission adopted a communication on the Greek statistics affair and sent a warning letter to Greek for failure to meet its obligations (EUROPE 1 December p 10). By failing to sent in reliable data, Greece contravened the obligations in the protocol on procedures for excessive deficits annexed to the Treaty, as well as rules in the European System for National and Regional Accounting (ESA 95). Infringement procedure objectives are to encourage countries to "put their statistical services in order", indicated the Commission's spokesperson, Françoise Le Bail. The Commission's communication observes "systematic weaknesses", causes by the Greek authorities and legislation in force which does not allow Eurostat to directly control the accounts of Member States. By highlighting these difficulties, the Commission specifically underlines the need to revise the system.
In Greece the Commission revealed a "lack of competencies" and use of approximations which "did not provide reliable data". At a European level, responsibility is shared between Eurostat, "which could have signalled possible problems of conformity with SEC95 earlier" from 1999 or 2000 and Member States' technical and political bodies, which could have "paid more attention to statistical revision", notably, that of 2002. Although Eurostat could have carried out a "more far-reaching and systematic probe" and have alerted the Economic and Financial Committee earlier, the technical and political bodies in Member States could have themselves responded to the data sent by Eurostat and expressed doubts about in its evaluations. The Commission notes, for example, that the report from Eurostat missions were sent to a committee bringing national statisticians and accountants together with national statistical institutes, Member State central banks, as well as Commission and ECB representatives and observers from the Economic and Financial Committee.
Amelia Torres, spokesperson for the Commissioner for economic and monetary affairs said that the main responsibility lay with the Greek authorities (from the government and statistical authorities) when the data was collected. She insists that if this had been the case many people could have sounded the alarm and Eurostat should not be the only one held responsible. Asked about the specific responsibility of the Bank of Greece, for which the president at the time was Lucas Pademos, currently vice president of the ECB, Ms Torres provides assurances that the Central Greek Bank had not co-signed documents certifying the national accounts.
Acknowledging the responsibility of Eurostat in this affair, along with others, the Commission specifically highlights the shortcomings in the current system and is paving the way for reform. For the instant, it is not able to say to what point it could encroach on Member States but that it was prepared to devise a code of conduct in the form of a directive, as well as strengthen the capacity of Eurostat inspections. Detailed proposals for improving statistical governance are planned at the end of 2004 or beginning of the new year.