The decision by the parliamentary committee on transparency confirmed the famous aphorism by American journalist Richard Harkness: “What is a committee? A group of the unwilling, picked from the unfit, to do the unnecessary.”

The initiative by New Democracy deputies to call it quits on the investigation into the mobile eavesdropping case gives Parliament a bad name. Also, it is paradoxical: for the deputies decided the outcome of the investigation by scrapping it altogether.

Greece was hit by a huge scandal. It was revealed that some people were tapping the mobile phones of the prime minister and a number of other ministers, among others. This is a challenge to which any democracy must respond. The political system must prove that this is not a lawless country where anyone can eavesdrop on the premier’s conversation amid Parliament’s paralysis.

The parliamentary inquiry has so far yielded more results than the police and judicial investigations. The committee must shed ample light on the case. Most importantly, it must make sure that such phenomena will not be repeated in the future.