Avramopoulos: We had no idea what Pancheri was doing – I had asked myself to stop the payroll from the NGO

“There is no mandate from the European Commission for an investigation but for an investigation. The Commission, following an Italian newspaper publication which had its purpose, deemed it appropriate to investigate what we had agreed three years ago when I had requested permission to become an honorary member of the committee of the NGO Fight Impunity which had a specific purpose and at that time it did a lot good work in the field of human rights” former commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos told ERT.

“Pancerri was a big figure in Italy. When it was proposed to me, I did not immediately accept, I asked the Commission, the Ethics Committee, if this organization is correct and if I am allowed to join it and receive a small compensation. The answer came to me in writing. All this time we had nothing to do with Pancheri’s other activities, what he was doing far and wide. If we had taken it lightly we would have left from the first moment. Over time, when I found the organization inactive, I asked for my payroll to be stopped,” he said.

Responding to a comment that the salary was relatively high for honorary participation, he said that the earnings were declared in Belgium and taxed in Greece, he said that he was the only one without an institutional and political role. “After I was done with the Commission I could do other things and why not. I stopped by myself in February 2022, and at the end all the members of the honorary committee asked that our names come out as well, but not under the state of developments” he said.

The mandate from the Commission is not for research but for investigation. There is no question of lobbying, he said.

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