EU Parliament: Query about Troika’s Decisions for Greece

A special committee of inquiry will be appointed by the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee of the European Parliament in order to investigate the role troika played in Greece, Cyprus, Portugal and Ireland.

The issue was discussed last week in Strasburg, France, however, the exact object of the investigation of the above mentioned newly appointed committee of inquiry, will be defined at the presidents conference during the next plenary session in mid-November.

According to sources, the methodology of troika will be put under evaluation during the collection of data, as well as the criteria on which troika makes decisions. Also under investigation will be whether there is a democratic legitimacy of troika’s decisions.

In addition, the committee will investigate the role of the global financial services firms, such as the US firm Alvarez & Marsal, to which the Cypriot government appealed during its negotiations with troika.

The committee of inquiry will call to testify troika’s employees and will also order independent economic studies which will put in question the assumptions and predictions of memoranda.

“Troika made a great deal of decisions beyond the normal democratic procedure because it had to act immediately. We want the Commission, the ECB and the IMF to tell us how they carried out their obligations. We expect them to have kept detailed archives,” said a member of the committee.

It is already agreed that the query will be led by Othmar Karas, MEP and member of the Austrian People’s Party, and his Social-Democratic colleague from France Liem Hoang Ngoc, while Belgian MEP Philippe Lamberts from the Greens and his Dutch colleague Derk Jan-Eppink from the Conservatives will assist them in this tough process.

Finally it should be noted, that if the report is eventually approved, it will be communicated to the plenary session of the European Parliament in late April of 2014.