On December 1, 2004, the EU Commission announced its decision to take Greece to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over accusations that the country disguised its violations of EU budget restrictions on reported deficits between 1997 and 2003. An EU report alleged that Greece under-reported its deficit by almost 3 percent of its GDP in order to stay under EU deficit limits. Greece's debt problems culminated in an economic crisis, leading the EU to offer a bailout package to the Greek government. However, the bailouts were conditioned on the imposition of severe austerity measures, which the UN warned could lead to violations of Greeks' basic human rights.

Flag of the European Union

Learn more about the European Union and the Greek debt crisis from the JURIST news archive.

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