Letters | Sunday, 28 February 2010

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Greece: how could Brussels ever let this happen?

It is a damning indictment on Brussels to have let this Greek Tragedy reach such proportions.
It almost surpasses the ignominious mass resignation of Jacques Santer’s (20-member) European Commission nearly eleven years ago.
The signals had long been loud and clear and while Athens burned Brussels seems to have been playing the (second) fiddle, whilst someone somewhere was fiddling the books.
Greece is a country riddled with corruption. VAT receipts are so rare they can almost be prized as collectors’ items and IR inspectors have been known to be sent round to shake down would-be whistleblowers on income tax evasion.
Most professional fees are accepted only in cash and millions of euros are spirited out of the country on almost a daily basis.
Crete’s scam, several years ago, in EU funds for its olive industry is one for the books. After having shelled out, Brussels found that the harvest in olives claimed by the Islanders could have been achieved only by trees occupying fertile land many times bigger than… the Island itself.
And now, with egg on their face, the know-alls in Brussels are trying to get their money back. And it looks like they’re in for a long haul.
Aren’t the EU’s Auditors responsible for this can of worms? Doesn’t the audit trail lead to them?
Thank you, Auditors, for opening the gates to a Trojan Horse.

Joe Genovese
Birkirkara

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