EU to issue supportive statement for ex-ELSTAT head Georgiou

Georgiou accused of falsifying data

According to news agency Reuters, the EU will take a stand in favour of former head of the Greek statistical services (ELSTAT), Andreas Georgiou, who is accused of falsifying data. Reuters cites EU sources as saying that the European Commission, whose Eurostat EU statistics office has verified data provided by ELSTAT, would issue a public statement on the issue later on Wednesday. Andreas Georgiou, a veteran of the International Monetary Fund, stepped down a year ago under a cloud after being charged in 2013 with inflating figures on the Greek budget deficit in 2009 in a way that made bailout conditions imposed on Athens by euro zone creditors more onerous than they might have been. Brussels has been broadly supportive of Elstat in the past in the face of criticism of the agency’s work by various Greek politicians across the party spectrum. The EU executive is generally reluctant to step into domestic political rows, making any public stance in the Greece legal dispute significant.