ENISA: When in Greece do as Greeks do
OLAF the last resort of EU legitimacy
ENISA is the Greek based European Agency for Network and Information Security, under DG CONNECT (former DG INFSO). Its Chief Accountant, in the context of his duties, having reported financial irregularities was removed from his position by Udo Helmbrecht …for doing his job conscientiously and later was …fired!
The Chief Accountant took the case to the European Court of Justice which ruled this week that the Chief Accountant of ENISA was dismissed illegally from his duties after he reported financial irregularities about the agency. However, Udo Helmbrecht, in a move reminiscent of the Greek “patents” case fired the Chief Accountant just before the Court ruling was announced.
The Court Case
The Chief Accountant addressed the European Court of Justice which examined the case and confirmed that the dismissal was illegal because it violated Commission Decision C(2004) 1597. Moreover the Court concluded that the excuse brought forward by the Executive Director to the Management Board for the dismissal of the accountant was groundless. It should be added that the dismissed Chief Accountant had excellent performance reports and the Court of Auditors had praised his work to the Executive Director.
The Court annulled all the decisions pertaining to the dismissal of the accountant and ordered ENISA to pay all legal costs.
Another Lost Case
This is not the first time that ENISA has been condemned by the European Court.
Recently, the European Data Protection Supervisor reported that ENISA violated the Data Protection Regulation. This is a pretty serious situation for an agency that is dealing with Network and Information Security. However, instead of complying with Data Protection Regulation, ENISA sued the EDPS for having issued the report. It is worth noting that this was the first time ever that an EU institution sued the EDPS. It comes as no surprise that ENISA also lost this unprecedented law-suit.
The ENISA case is being widely reported in the Greek media, local and national, which take advantage of the case to speak of European corruption and maladministration claiming that the Greeks are innocent victims of the Europeans. With this logic, there are more and more voices in Greece questioning the value and role of the Commission’s Task Force and in particular the fact that one of the senior members of the Task Force was responsible for the Greek Cadaste, a few years ago. During her term, as chief executive of the Cadaste, the lady in question did not take to the Court the previous Cadaste administration resulting to a big loss and a penalty of €20 million for Greece.
The ENISA case is taking dimensions in Greek political and media circles and it should be addressed in an exemplary way or it will get out of control. The case, as it involves the Community budget, can be easily and efficiently addressed by OLAF, not only to save budget money but also to support the image of the European Commission in Greece as the Greeks are exponentially losing faith in the European institutions and it seems a very difficult task to bring that country back to European order.- new europe on line
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