Parliament President Zoe Konstantopoulou said on Monday she plans to summon Bank of Greece (BoG) governor Yiannis Stournaras, a former Greek Finance Minister, to testify before the Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee in connection with the Siemens case, so that he might brief MPs on an out-of-court settlement between the Greek state and the German multinational that he had signed as Minister.
Konstantopoulou said that she questions the validity of the settlement, given that it was signed in August 2012 when the country “was in such a dire position that I do not think anyone had the authority to waive such claims.”
She noted that a Parliamentary inquiry had reached a conclusion that the damage to the state as a result of Siemens’ actions was a minimum of two billion euros and that, as a result of the settlement signed by Stournaras, the Greek state had given up the overwhelming part of these financial claims in an agreement that she called “shameful and damaging” to Greece’s interests.
Her view was attacked by opposition MPs, who pointed out, among others, that Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis had cited the difficulty of cancelling the out-of-court settlement since its implementation had already begun.
(source: ana-mpa)
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