New York is not Athens- police do go after traffic ordinance breakers, especially those that do not observe parking rules. This is the conclusion reached by Greek diplomats in the world’s most fascinating city who managed to reach a total value of $550 000 of parking tickets, says zougla.gr. The diplomats did not only park illegally but also refused to pay their fines because of their diplomatic immunity, which, however, means nothing for the mayor of the city Michael Bloomberg. When the bill reached the amazing number of over half a million dollars, he sent it to the Greek representation in the UN.

The Greek diplomats in UN also turned a blind eye to the fines and Bloomberg had no chose but seek cooperation from the State Department of USA in order to receive the money from Greeks’ illegal parking. From there they informed the Greek Ministry of foreign affairs, which assigned the case to Adamandios Vasilakis, the Greek permanent representative in UN and negotiator in the Republic of Macedonia’s name argument with Skopje. As a professional, Vasilakis tried to bargain with the New York mayor, offering him a number of choices- to free the Greek diplomats from paying the fines, as an exchange of which American diplomats will be allowed to park wherever they like; to pay half of the amount in cash, and give the rest in form of shares- in the Greek telecom OTE for example; to pay half of the amount in cash and negotiate about the rest of it.

Before becoming a mayor, however, Michael Bloomberg was the owner of a successful business of his own, realizing that the accurate accounts stay at the basis of each success. Therefore, he once more informed the State Department of his Greek problem. A Solomon decision was reached at the American diplomatic office- they decided to cut scholarships of Greek soldiers’ training in American military academies with the same amount- $550 000. This made the Greek ministry of foreign affairs to “stiff” and reach the conclusion that was clear since the beginning- that the only way to deal with the case is pay the money from the state budget. I.e. - out of the pocket of all tax payers in Greece.