ATHENS
The Greek parliament passed Tuesday the government’s proposal for an investigative committee to examine the country's agreements with the IMF, the EU, and the European Central Bank.
Out of the 300 Greek MPs in parliament, 250 attended the voting session. A total of 156 MPs voted in favor of establishing the committee, while 72 voted against.
The committee will now dig into the circumstances and the policies of political leaders that made Greece sign memoranda with its international lenders.
The first memorandum was signed by George Papandreou's government, under the justification that, if it had not been signed, Greece would have been bankrupt.
The government later went ahead with the second memorandum between Greece and the "trio" of IMF, the European Commission and the ECB.
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, speaking ahead of the voting, said there are questions over what the country has been experiencing in the last five years.
Tsipras added that his aim is to put an end to austerity, adding that his country is not a memorandum colony.
He repeatedly called on the opposition to support a negotiation policy to abolish the memorandum.
Meanwhile, former prime minister and New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras argued that such an investigative committee will "produce enemies instead of reconciliation."
Samaras said his party is against Tsipras' proposal, and that he would submit his own proposal to the parliament.
A 17-member investigative committee, including representatives of all political parties in parliament, is supposed to submit a report to the legislative body after completing their work in six months.
