There will be two disputes that will occupy its work from the first days, the invocation of privacy and the preservation of the secrecy of the closed process.
By Antonis Anzoletou
29 MPs. Fifteen from the ND, eight from SYRIZA, two from PASOK, one from the KKE, Hellenic Solution and MERA25 and one independent will start the work of the Inquiry Committee today. The meeting will start at 11 am and the battle between the government and the opposition is expected to be fierce. SYRIZA and PASOK consider that its development case of monitoring from the EYP can be a “game changer” of political developments. The majority side points out that the point is not to leave any shadow on what has already been revealed.
The plan includes the Committee meeting three times a week. The goal is about October 10 to have completed its work. This will be followed by the drawing up of the conclusion and the discussion in the Plenary. In the procedures, the presidium is expected, as in the previous examination, to be constituted by the majority and, barring unforeseen circumstances, the chairman will again be nominated Giannis Kefalogiannis. The next step will include the summoning of the witnesses, but also the documents that will be requested to be submitted in order to start the work.
The big difference with the Parliament’s Institutions and Transparency Committee is that now, in the Inquiry, the majority has the first say on the persons who will be invited to the meetings. If, for example, PASOK insists that the prime minister also testify – a proposal that SYRIZA will support – the ND has the parliamentary power to reject it. It is a fact that the opposition will try to frame him Kyriakos Mitsotakis since the EYP by law in 2019 had been placed under his authority.
There will be two disputes which will occupy its work from the first days. First, the invocation of privacy which according to the opposition is an illegal action. Officials of the opposition point out about the previous meetings of the Committee on Institutions and Transparency, that it is the body that, according to the regulation, is responsible for controlling the EYP. Therefore, the minority prejudges that the confidentiality of the investigations will be presented as an excuse so that there are no answers. The second issue is preserving confidentiality of the closed process from press leaks. In the past, however, as in the recent Media Inquiry, there was information about the dialogues and statements of the witnesses before the Commission with each party presenting its own version.
As far as the persons are concerned, the current commander of the EYP Themistocles Demiris, the former head Panagiotis Kontoleonbut also the former commanders Panagiotis Roubatis and Theodoros Dravillas they are expected to be in Parliament. THE Nikos Androulakis and the journalist Thanasis Koukakis they will also be called to testify after their mobile phones were found under surveillance. The opposition will request the summoning of the former secretary of the prime minister’s office Grigori Dimitriadis, but also the ministers Giorgos Gerapetritis and Kyriakou Pierrakakis, as well as the head of ADAE Christos Rammos. It is considered certain that the majority wishes to open the case from the 2012 period to date, stressing that it is necessary to carry out an in-depth investigation so that the National Intelligence Service’s operating framework acquires the appropriate filters that will ensure that there will be no similar failures in the future. The scenario of submitting an additional request to the Plenary to expand the investigations is interesting.
For the case of his indirect followers Spyrou Saya, former secretary of the SYRIZA Cabinet and Stergio Picciorla, former president of TAIPED and minister of his party Alexis Tsipras from Koumoundourou emphasize that it is a case with a completely different object. They argue, that is, if the ND wants to focus on this case, it should proceed with the formation of a new Commission of Inquiry.
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