Cyprus News Agency: News in English, 12-02-29

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From: The Cyprus News Agency at <http://www.cyna.org.cy>

CONTENTS

[01] President to visit the Court of Justice of the EU

[02] Lebanese House President to visit Cyprus

[03] Cyprus to host Nordic Trade Fair

[04] Hellenic Bank announces losses of 87 million euro

[01] President to visit the Court of Justice of the EU

According to an official announcement, on March 1, President Christofias will visit the Court and meet its President Vassilios Skouris. Christofias will also hold meetings with other Judges of the Court of Justice of the EU and of the General Court of the EU.

During a special ceremony, President Christofias will offer four copies of pieces of art from Nicosia Archeological Museum of Nicosia.

President Christofias will be accompanied by Justice Minister Loucas Louca, Government Spokesman Stephanos Stephanou, the Deputy Minister on European Affairs Andreas Mavroyiannis and the Permanent Representative of Cyprus to the EU Kornilios Korniliou.

On March 1, President Christofias will depart for Brussels to participate in the Spring European Council, on 1-2 March.

The Republic of Cyprus will assume the six-monthly rotating presidency of the Council of the EU in July this year.

[02] Lebanese House President to visit Cyprus

House President will host an official lunch in the honour of his Lebanese counterpart. Chairman of the Cyprus-Lebanon Friendship Group at the House of Representatives and Chairman of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee Averof Neophytou will host a working lunch in honour of their guest.

The Lebanese official will attend a lunch with members of the Lebanese community in Cyprus to be hosted in Limassol by Lebanon’s attache to Cyprus Constantin Tabet.

[03] Cyprus to host Nordic Trade Fair

“The challenge is to make the Cypriots come and visit our fair and we hope that our highly qualified lecturers and interesting programme will achieve that”, she said. Among the main lecturers is Marie – Louise Winbladh, an expert on the archeology of Cyprus, who has made a prize – winning film on Cyprus’ artifacts and is a former curator of the Mediterranean Museum in Stockholm. She is also the author of several books about Cyprus. Her latest book was published last year and is called “Cyprus: Love, war and cult”. Her book “The Bearded Goddess” has just been translated into English and will be launched during the fair.

Another guest at the fair will be Anders Wahlegren, director, author and producer of the film “Vasa 1628: The people, the ship, the times”. Part one of his film will be screened at the fair at its first international premiere. UN Spokesperson in Cyprus Michel Bonnardeaux will also speak at the fair about the UN mission in Cyprus, its past and its present. Speaking at the press conference, Bonnardeaux referred to the participation of many Nordics in the UN mission here as soldiers or police officers.

Ambassador of Sweden to Cyprus Klas Gierow said that the trade fair is an opportunity for Cypriots and Nordic citizens to congregate and meet each other, adding that the Swedish Embassy will be present at the fair giving information material about Swedish society and studying in Sweden. Ambassador of Denmark in Nicosia Kirsten Geelan said the trade fair is a good opportunity to highlight Nordic cooperation and the impact that Nordic countries have had on Cyprus, especially on the Cyprus Peace Keeping Mission, which was the largest mission Denmark has ever participated. Ambassador of Finland to Cyprus Riita Resch stressed the big number of Finns who have participated in UN mission in Cyprus. She also talked about the large number of tourists from Finalnd who come every summer to Cyprus and the potential to develop winter tourism further to attract more Finnish tourists.

[04] Hellenic Bank announces losses of 87 million euro

According to the Bank’s preliminary results for the year ending December 31, 2011, following the decision on the participation of the private-creditors in a debt write-down plan, the Hellenic Bank wrote off 77 million euro which represented 70% of the nominal value of the Greek government bonds it held.

On December 31, 2011, overall gross loans and deposits increased by 4% compared to December 2010 the Bank said, adding that in total gross loans and deposits amounted to 5.6 billion euro and 7.1 billion euro respectively.

Taking into account the macroeconomic environment and deterioration of the loan portfolio, especially in Greece, the Hellenic Bank increased provisions for depreciation of value of loans to 142 million euro.

On December 31, 2011, the Capital Adequacy Ratio of the Group, based on the relevant Directive of the Central Bank of Cyprus, was 13% and the Core Equity Index was 10%.

The Hellenic Bank estimates that 2012 will be a year of continuous challenges both for the Cyprus economy and the Greek economy, since it is expected that the fiscal consolidation program will last more than it was initially estimated.

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