European Parliament to probe troika role

It’s accountability time for the troika, according to members of the European Parliament who plan toinvestigate just how they carried out their jobs in the four programme countries, including Ireland, over the past three years.

While there is no doubt that the plans have produced much higher than expected increases in unemployment and government debt and loss of national wealth — 8.4% in Ireland and 18/% in Greece — the troika’s methods will be under the spotlight.

The members of the parliament’s powerful economics committee will visit Ireland, Greece, Portugal and Cyprus, to talk to ministers, bankers, civil servants, trade unions and the troika themselves, explained MEP Gay Mitchell.

A member of the committee, he said they will look at the issue of transparency, who influenced the troika’s actions, were they legitimate and what authority did they have, he said.

“A lot of decisions were taken outside the normal democratic process as they had to act. We are saying to them now that we want the Commission, the ECB and also the IMF to tell us how they discharged their responsibilities — we would expect that they kept detailed records”, he said.

As far as Ireland is concerned — it will be the only country examined that is ending its programme — Mr Mitchell said he has an open mind. “The troika were also involved in a 3am scenario and I would be very interested to find out if the country was treated the same as the other three and if all were treated fairly,” he said.

However, the extent of the enquiry and whether it will pass judgement on the troika has still to be finalised with the centre right European People’s Party — to which Fine Gael belongs — seeking to limit its scope.

The enquiry is expected to get the formal go-ahead from the presidents of the parliaments political groups on Nov 14 and the committee hopes to have the inquiry wrapped up by March and voted on in April before breaking for elections in May.