Press Release: Commission reports on Greek statistics, starts infringement procedure

In a report to the European Parliament and the Council on 1 December 2004, the European Commission identified weaknesses with regard to the reporting of budgetary data by the Greek authorities, insufficiencies in the budgetary data provision by Eurostat, and limits of the budgetary data reporting and provision system as a whole. The report arose from the revision of the Greek deficit-to-GDP ratio not only for 2003 but for all years since 1997 which had resulted from earlier actions by Eurostat as well as the initiative taken by the incoming Greek government. The Commission believed that although the information provided by the Greek authorities had then allowed to reduce considerably the elements of non compliance with Greece's duty to provide statistical data in accordance with the EU rules, it still needed to address a number of problems in its reporting and control of deficit-related data. The Commission therefore launched an infringement procedure to prevent incorrect or incomplete data transmission in the future.