Varoufakis tells Parliament that Siemens-state agreements will be reviewed
The compromise agreement between the Greek state and Siemens dated August 2012 will be reexamined, Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis told Parliament in a document submitted for parliamentary review purposes.
Following a query by Deputy Nikos Nikolopoulos, of the junior coalition Independent Greeks (ANEL) party, Varoufakis said, "The government has announced at the highest level that it will investigate every aspect of the Siemens scandal," underlining that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had "himself introduced the issue of German legal assistance during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel" in Berlin.
"It should be taken for granted that the Greek state's compromise agreement with Siemens in August 2012 will be reviewed, as will every agency and individual involved in the case. In the framework of such reviews, any liabilities identified concerning the GSM/R [dispatch and control system for railways] project will be called out," he said.
The deputy also asked the minister about a similar compromise agreement in the health sector, signed by then-finance minister Yannis Stournaras with Siemens, by which he said the company had tried to gain an exclusive agreement to supply the national health system (ESY) with medical equipment. He added that former health minister Makis Voridis had signed an agreement with the German company in 2014 under which Siemens would supply 16 hospitals with equipment; this contract resulted in the intervention of the European Commission, which asked the government for clarifications.
Varoufakis said the agreement would be reviewed for agreement with EU regulations on medical supply equipment and seen in terms of the Greek people's interests.
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