The submarine issue taken to Parliament

The revealing report by Proto Thema about the submarine deals is being submitted to Parliament tomorrow, after being published in the newspaper on Sunday.

Wanting to prevent reactions stemming from the uproar that the article has caused, tomorrow at 11:30 am the minister of National Defense Evangelos Venizelos will brief the Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee on the issue of acquisition of the two new Type-21 German submarines, for which the Greek government paid 50% more than the Turkish government.

Last week, Mr. Venizelos attempted to justify the price difference between Greek and Turkish submarines with statements by referring to the March 11th verdict of the Defense Council that the price of both submarines was quite satisfactory and constituted a good deal.

As revealed in Proto Thema, during the March 11th meeting of the Defense Council, a senior officer warned the members of the political and military leadership of the Pentagon that Greece is purchasing submarines at a much higher price than the Turks.

Under the chairmanship of Mr. Venizelos, members of the Defense Council were asked to approve the framework agreement with German company ThyssenKrupp to receive four Type-214 submarines, the transfer of the Scaramanga Shipyard to Abu Dhabi Mar and the construction of two new Papanikolis-type submarines instead of modernizing an equal amount of older vessels.

Despite the “tough negotiations” that the Secretary of Defense announced, aimed at improving the terms of the deal, the submarines eventually cost us 1 billion euro, while Turkey bought the same submarines at 50% less.
In fact, Mr. Venizelos instructed the military leadership to handle the matter with delicacy and invoked classified information so that the information would not get leaked to the public.

For all of the above, Mr. Venizelos will try to convince the committee that everything is fine.