PRESS RELEASE
Greek Parliament To Announce Debt Audit Commission
March 16, 2015 (EIRNS)—The Greek daily Ethnos asked Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras if his government has an alternative plan if the EU rejects Greece’s demands. Tsipras replied,
"Obviously there is an alternative plan. However, I do not think that we will need to implement any, since the Greek matter will be solved on a political level before week’s end, prior to the Summit, or during the Summit meeting."
He gave no details on this Plan B or why he expected a resolution, but within a few hours of his statement, Speaker of the Parliament Zoi Konstantopoulou announced that on March 17 there will be a news conference to announce the formation of Debt Audit Commission under the auspices of the Greek Parliament. Such a commission is formed to determine how much of the nation’s external debt is legitimate, and how much was forced on it either by corruption or solely for the benefit of foreign interests.
Among the speakers will be Sofia Sakorafa, a Member of the European Parliament, representing Syriza, and Eric Toussaint.
Toussaint, a Belgian political scientist, is the president for the Committee for the Abolition of Third World Debt (CADTM), and was a member of the debt audit commission of Ecuador, established by President Raphael Correa. This was the only official such commission. Now Greece’s will be the second. Toussaint also served as an advisor to Correa in the development for the Bank of the South. He has advised other unofficial national debt audits. Already, in both 2012 and 2013, he was invited by Tsipras to Greece to discuss the debt situation.
Konstantopoulou said the debt audit committee will be a "very powerful negotiating tool of society, the people" not just for Greece but all of Europe.
