Six major statistical organizations join to issue a commendation for Andreas
At a satellite meeting for the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS) and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris, several statistical organizations joined together to issue a commendation to Andreas “to acknowledge Andreas Georgiou’s upholding of the highest professional standards in his public service in the pursuit of integrity of statistical systems”. The commendation mentions in particular “his competency and strength in the face of adversity, his commitment to the production of quality and trustworthiness of official statistics and his advocacy for the improvement, integrity and independence of official statistics“. This was also a very unexpected surprise for Andreas, and he expressed deep honor and gratitude, as well as the belief that the commendation is an important signal to all statisticians in the world who are fighting for independence and integrity of statistics – that they are not alone. The commendation is available here. The accompanying press release can be found here.
Andreas’ case as an example of “rule of law” challenges in Greece
In this troubling article in the Financial Times (subscribers only), Kerin Hope mentions Andreas legal plight in an article that reviews concerns about the rule of law in Greece. “Greece is no longer a normal European state as far as the rule of law is concerned.” said Manolis Vassilakis, a political and legal commentator and the publisher of the monthly Athens Review of Books. “The situation in the judicial system has deteriorated to the point where we are only one step behind the EU outliers, Poland and Hungary.”