Greece and UN cross swords for the second time in a month

The Greek government as been the target of United Nations criticism for the second time in less than a month. Last week the Greece was the first country ever to be suspended from the UN's carbon trading scheme over its inability to provide reliable data concerning greenhouse gas emissions.

In addition the United Nation High Comisson for Refugees has said that no country should return asylum seekers to Greece. Norway, Sweden and Germany have already stopped returning asylum seeker, dissatisfied with Greece's treatment of refugees.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos, the Greek interior minister angrily defended his country's record by saying that the criticisms were based on unfair and inaccurate date. According to UNHCR just 0,04% of the 25,113 applying for refugee status had their initial requests accepted. In contrast, UK granted refugee status to 34% and Sweden, 56%.

The scenes of immigrant workers being attacked landowners in the Greek region of Nea Manolada over their demands for 3.5 euro a day rise while the police stood by has done little to convince foreign observers that the country takes its commitment to European Union accords over the treatment of immigrants seriously.

The country's suspension from the Kyoto Protocol also produced a stormy reaction from the media and opposition parties who were quick to attack the ruling New Democracy. However, Giorgos Souflias, the minister for the Environment and Public Works defended the government claiming that the previous PASOK administration which lost power in 2004 was to blame for the situation. On the other hand ex - head of the National Observatory, Dimitris Lalas said that United Nations bureaucracy was to the reason why Greece was supended as they had not sent monitors from Bonn in time according to Skai TV channel.

However, according to the Kathimerini newspaper the problem started when the National Observatory, Athens the organisation given responsibility for measuring monitoring greenhouse gas emissions contract ran out in April 2007 without a successor being named. As a result Greece did not send data to the  from April 2007 till February 2008. When the UNFCCC attempted to find out who responsible for the lack of data the Ministry of the Environment and Public Works they were told to ask for Anna from Kaiafa.

The minister for the Environment and Public Works, Giorgos Souflias is himself no stranger to controversy as he is currently under parliamentary investigation over allegations that homes he had built in Markopoulos do not have planning permission.