Dear Mr Timmermans,
Dear Mr Dombrovskis,
Dear Mrs Thyssen,
Dear Mr Moscovici,
During the November plenary in Strasbourg, Mrs Thyssen took part in a debate in the plenary at the request of the European Parliament on the “Independence of statistical authorities in the European Union and the case of Andreas Georgiou”.
With this email, we want to stress once again that we consider this issue to be of the utmost importance: this situation has grave negative human consequences for Mr Georgiou and his colleagues as well as significant political consequences for Greece and the whole European Union.
We do not need to expand on the human consequences: you know them well. We wish to call on the Commission to liaise with the Greek authorities in order to make sure that law 4487 of 2017 is implemented in an appropriate and timely manner. This law enables the Government to bear the judiciary costs borne by Mr Georgiou and his colleagues following the legal cases against them. The Commission should at the same time assess whether the law protects them sufficiently.
The political consequences are of a different nature: trust is key both for the planification of national public policies and for the continued development of the Economic and Monetary Union. Independent statistical authorities play a crucial role collecting figures on which policy makers can build sound policies. Our democracies are being challenged by non-reliable facts and it is therefore vital to ensure that there are independent facts available. Mr Georgiou and his colleagues performed their functions well and therefore should not be prosecuted.
In addition, let us underline that in order to improve or deepen the Economic and Monetary Union, trust is a sine qua non condition. Independent statistical authorities are part of that.
We ask you to follow up with concrete actions to guarantee that this independence is ensured and will not be put into question in the future, as it has been concerning the case of Mr Georgiou and his colleagues. We trust that you will grant the necessary attention to this issue.
We would appreciate to receive an answer from each of you concerning your respective fields of competence.
Yours sincerely,
Jean Arthuis,
Ingeborg Graessle
Esther De Lange
Sven Giegold
Lieve Wierinck
Wolf Klinz
Nils Torvalds
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells
Thierry Cornillet
Caroline Nagtegaal
Enrique Calvet Chambon