Avramopoulos also says he will not appear before Novartis panel

Former health minister Dimitris Avramopoulos on Thursday said that he will not respond to a summons to appear before a special parliamentary committee investigating allegations that several high-ranking former officials took bribes from drugs firm Novartis.

In a letter to the committee's chief, Avramopoulos, who is now the European Union's commissioner for migration, challenged the panel's legitimacy after all of its opposition members walked out, saying that it now identifies entirely with the people who "signed the accusations."

Avramopoulos was the third official to refuse to appear before the committee on Thursday, after former prime minister Antonis Samaras and Andreas Lykourentzos, also an ex-health minister.