ATHENS: A Greek minister accused the European Commission on Thursday of violating the country’s constitution when it called on Athens to quash allegations that its former statistics agency chief had rigged data to help creditors.

The intervention by Deputy Justice Minister Dimitris Papangelopoulos added fuel to a spat between Athens and the Commission over former statistics chief Andreas Georgiou.

Georgiou, a former International Monetary Fund statistician, was highly regarded in Brussels when he ran the Greek statistics agency ELSTAT during five years of economic crisis until 2015.

Vouching for the data submitted by ELSTAT from 2010 to 2015, which were validated by EU statistics office Eurostat, EU Social Affairs Commissioner Marianne Thyssen on Wednesday called on Athens to actively challenge impressions that data were manipulated. A letter was sent to Athens to this end.

Published in Dawn, August 26th, 2016