Mitsotakis writes to European competition commissioner on Thanou nomination
Conservative opposition leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has written a letter to the European Union’s Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager on the issue of the government’s nomination of former Supreme Court chief Vassiliki Thanou for the director’s chair of the Hellenic Competition Commission.
In the letter, which was also addressed to European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici, the New Democracy leader reportedly expressed concerns that Thanou’s nomination to head the independent authority is politically motivated, as the former Supreme Court judge is presently in charge of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s legal office.
Thanou’s current position, Mitsotakis reportedly said in his letter, makes her appointment incompatible with the role of directing an independent authority.
Mitsotakis also accuses the leftist-led government of “attempting to turn the Competition Commission into a de facto instrument” serving its interests, and of already having taken excessive political control of other watchdogs by appointing officials close to the administration to key posts.
