Statistics service, Finance Ministry squabble over Commission deadline

The head of Greece’s statistical service and the Finance Ministry traded accusations on Thursday about who was to blame for Greece being behind schedule in supplying the European Commission with detailed figures regarding its public finances dating back to 1995.

All European Union members were given a September 22 deadline to deliver reassessed figures as part of a new accounting framework, ESA 2010, being used by the Commission’s statistics agency Eurostat.

However, the head of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT), Andreas Georgiou, issued a statement late on Wednesday claiming that the Finance Ministry and the State General Accounting Office ignored four requests for the data during the course of the year.

Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras responded on Thursday by claiming that the first notification he received from Georgiou was on September 15.