This morning the European Commission presented the first report of its Task Force for Greece. (Embarrassing, isn't it, how these over-protected low-testosterone eurocrats like to dress up their committees with military-sounding names?)
The 'task force' was set up by commission president Barroso in July. It claims to be offering 'technical assistance' to the Greeks to help them begin, as today's report puts it, 'a programme of profound structural reform and work towards a more efficient public administration.'
In other words, it is a cadre of eurocrats which the occupying powers have put in place in Athens to run Greece, and to over-ride the powers of the native bureaucrats -- not, of course, that the eurocrats see it that way. The official line of the commission is that the task force has not been forced on Greece. 'Absolutely not,' they insist, it was at the 'invitation' of the Greek government.
As proof of that, when the thing was launched in July, the commission insisted 'its [the task force's] creation and mandate were decided by the President of the Commission and the Greek Prime Minister.'
Ah, the Greek Prime Minister. That would have been Mr Papadreou. First he was 'invited' to ask for this Brussels colonial occupation as part of the bail-out, then he was toppled by Brussels when he announced he was going to offer the Greek people a vote on whether they really wanted this bail-out and its task force or not.
Here is what the task force is up to at the, ahem, invitation of the Greek government. Its members are now overseeing the administration of tax collection and public procurement. They also oversee judicial reform, national budget preparation, competition policy, privatisation, public health, and on it goes. In short, they are running the country.
But as the commission's euphemism has it, the task force's job is 'to identify, coordinate and provide technical advice to Greece.' Yes, technocrats running the government, technical advisors running the public administration. Greece used to be run by words beginning with demo, not techno.
In short, the coup is complete.
I could give you a few lines from the report that could interest you, but here is the one line I like best: 'In total, it is estimated that there are €60bn [£51.3bn] outstanding in upaid taxes. €30bn [£25.6] in uncollected tax revenues are the subject of court cases -- some of which have been running for over a decade.'
Most of the really enlightening stuff came after the presentation, and it was all off the record -- which is to say, it was the same two eurocrats standing on the podium in the press room facing the press but after the presentation of the report, the commission spokesman, a Frenchman, hit a switch before questions started and a red light came on. That meant 'off the record.'
So I can't tell you what Horst Reichenbach, the head of the task force said in answer to questions from journalists. But I did save that best bit until last, because, yes, the man that Brussels has sent to Greece to act as Chief Colonial Administrator is indeed a German named Horst Reichenbach. He is a former director-general of the European Commission and vice president of the European Bank for Resconstruction and Development.
But send a German named Horst Reichenbach?
It's bad enough Volker Kauder, parliamentary leader of Chancellor Merkel's CDU party, proclaimed yesterday that 'All of Europe is speaking German now.'
Add to that all those old wounds and furies that persist in Greece about the German invasion during the last war (or, if you listen to Angela Merkel and her talk of war as the alternative to her euro, merely the most recent war), and the man who is put in to run the new invasion of Greece is a German with a name that is half-bier keller and half-Sherlock- Holmes-meets-his-killer-in-Germany.
But here's the real killer. A Greek reporter had himself lined up to ask the first question. As he launched into his question, all one could hear from Herr Reichenbach's podium was a scrabbling against his mic, as he tried to get hold of the ear-piece to listen to the simultaneous translation.
Because, yes, the man the commission has chosen as Colonial Administrator does not speak the language of the natives.
But then, why should he? It is the traditional job of any Colonial Administrator to ensure the natives are educated to speak his language. As Herr Kauder said: 'All of Europe is speaking German now.' And if not quite all, Herr Reichenbach is going to teach them.
Meanwhile, until the Greek natives do learn to speak German, why should he worry he can't understand a thing any of them says? It's not like they could vote him out of office or anything.
After an hour of Herr Reichenbach, I left the commission headquarters and ran into a Greek reporter-friend. I asked him why he missed the Greek briefing. 'Why should I go?' he replied. 'I don't care what they say. I just want to know if they are going to go on giving the money.'
Which was a reminder to me of why I am liking the Greek people more and more as this thing goes on: they don't want to know about commission task forces or ECB analysis.
Instead, they just riot, resist and take the money. Simple.
The Greeks have mastered philosophy as doggerel has it: 'As you go through life, let this be your goal: keep you eye upon the doughnut, and not upon the hole.'
That's about €130bn's worth of doughnut and counting...