EU neemt juridische stappen tegen Griekenland tegen oppoetsen economische statistieken (en)

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission on Wednesday (1 December) launched a bid to "clean up" the reporting of EU statistics.

In a statement, Brussels said it would soon propose "concrete measures to ensure the credibility of the entire statistical system".

This follows a recent crisis over some Greek economic data, which were found to have been misreported since 1997.

Announcing the launch of an "infringement procedure" against Greece today, a spokeswoman for Commission President Jose Manuel Durao Barroso declared, "it is quite obvious that there are systemic problems in the Greek statistical departments".

Brussels told Athens that it "still needs to address a number of problems in its reporting and control of deficit-related data".

Athens admitted earlier this month that its deficit figures had broken the EU's three percent limit every year from 1999 onwards, although it had reported figures below the threshold.

And Eurostat - the EU's statistical body - has found that Greece has breached the limit since 1997.

There will be no sanctions levelled at Greece and there is no question of Athens being removed from the 12 country euro zone, although a spokeswoman for Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said "Greece would not have joined the euro with the figure we now have".

But the Commission wants to look to the future. "What we need to do _ is to fix things up for the future so that this doesn't happen again", said Mr Almunia's spokesman.

The Greek government now has two months to respond.