Former finance minister Yanis Varoufakis caused an uproar when he had hired Korean finance consultant Glen Kim to accompany him in meetings concerning Greek negotiations. At the time, there was a media storm concerning the adviser’s fees and downgrading his role as an associate of German Finance Minsiter Wolfgang Schaeuble. Instead, there were reports that he was just an ordinary consultant and not the “creator” of the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) that he had claimed to be. For this reason, more than a few eyebrows were raised when the same controversial Korean consultant accompanied Finance Minsiter Euclid Tsakalotos in meetings with his European counterparts from Italy, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Berlin and Brussels.

He was present in meetings between Tsalakotos and Schaeuble was well as with Dutch Eurogroup Chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem despite the fact that Varoufakis and Dijsselbloem had been seen as his nemesis.

It is a common secret that Kim has no institutional role in the Greek Ministry of Finance, there is no contract, no job description and no known fees and yet it appears that he is involved in decisions concerning the Greek people’s non-performing loans, the future of Greek banks and debt.

For this reason, it is surprising that Tsakalotos is not accompanied abroad by the relevant designated alternate Finance Minsiter George Chouliarakis – who appears to ‘mysteriously’ disappear and reappear in meetings. Furthermore other people like Fiscal Policy General Secretary Frangiskos Koutendakis etc. also appear to take the backburner in these meetings.

Η φωτογραφία του υπουργείου Οικονομικών

Tsakalotos cut out Glen Kim from his Tweet showing the meeting with Dijsselbloem.

Το tweet του Γερούν Ντάισελμπλουμ

In Dijsselbloem’s Tweet.