State Legal Council

The government has withdrawn an application to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) requesting a review of the decision vindicating former president of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) Andreas Georgiou that his right to a fair trial had been violated in Greece.

French company Lazard will be the new consultant of the Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA), replacing Rothschild, with the aim of bringing Greek bonds back to investment grade within the next couple of years.

This decision was reached on Wednesday by the government's Economic Policy Council on the recommendation of the PDMA and an opinion by the State Legal Council.

The Finance Ministry tabled a draft law in Parliament on Thursday that provides for the immediate repayment of deducted income tax and value-added tax to corporations and individuals for amounts up to 10,000 euros.

The rebates will be paid out without the prior scrutiny of each taxpayer, although the tax administration will be granted the right to perform random checks.

The State Legal Council is passing the hot potato of the statute of limitations for old tax violations (before 2006) to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue.

The government's request for the review of a European court ruling ordering Greece to pay some 600,000 euros in damages for failing to protect 42 migrant strawberry pickers who were shot at by their foreman in Manolada in the Peloponnese in 2013, will be revoked, according to the State Legal Council.

Greek assets in the US face confiscation, Kathimerini understands, after an American court of arbitration upheld an older judgment by the International Chamber of Commerce ordering Athens to pay 40 million euros to a US-based company that supplied it with a security system for the 2004 Olympics known as C4I.

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue is seeking out the real owners behind shell companies that owe the Greek state huge amounts of money, and a recent verdict by the State Legal Council should facilitate the authorities' search to that end.

Justice Minister Haralambos Athanasiou on Tuesday expressed opposition to a State Legal Council ruling according to which officers of the Finance Ministry’s Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) are entitled to raid the homes and businesses of taxpayers with debts to the state without having a judicial official present.

The Finance Ministry is to refer to the Supreme Court its request for the power to raid taxpayer’s homes and business without having a judicial official present.

Retroactive pension cuts imposed on judges, prosecutors and members of the State Legal Council were unconstitutional and in violation of the European Convention on Human Rights, the plenary session of the State Audit Council ruled Monday.