Athens News Agency: Daily News Bulletin in English, 16-12-13

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Tsipras urges business leaders to invest in Greece in Capital Link forum

[02] PM Tsipras to hold a series of international contacts

[03] President Pavlopoulos to meet French counterpart Hollande on Monday

[04] IMF must insist on 1.5 pct primary surplus and not ask for more measures, PM tells SYRIZA group

[05] Tsipras to present announced plan for VAT rise suspension from Nisyros

[06] Tsipras discusses refugee relocation with Irish justice minister

[07] Institutions' representatives return to Athens to resume negotiations, Breidthardt says

[08] Labour reforms, fiscal gap the main issues in talks between government, institutions, says source

[09] Meetings between gov't economic team and institutions to start on Tuesday

[10] Greek government very close to EU partners positions, sources tell ANA

[11] The government will not hand over the country, gov't sources say

[12] Government's intention is more measures for the weakest, Interior Min Skourletis says

[13] Labour minister in Thessaloniki on Monday

[14] Labour ministry submits amendment on PM's one-off benefit for pensioners

[15] New Democracy will win if elections are held in 2017, ND leader Mitsotakis says

[16] Kotzias has meeting with Cuban foreign minister in Brussels

[17] Digital policy minister says new TV regulator will have government's full support

[18] Kountoura and Koniordou to cooperate for the promotion of culture and tourism

[19] Counter-terrorism services to further investigate people smuggling network

[20] SETE welcomes gov't decision to keep VAT on northern and eastern Aegean islands stable

[21] Series of actions to promote the Greek kiwi

[22] Greek stocks stabilise in slow trade on Monday

[23] Greek bond market closing report

[24] ADEX closing report

[25] Bomb neutralized outside labour ministry in Athens

[26] Bomb threat in POSPERT offices was a prank call says police; road reopens

[27] Armed robbery in central Athens

[28] Archaeological collection of Kozani reopens after 20 years

[29] Athens city hall to be lit in the colours of the Turkish flag in memory of Istanbul victims

[30] Only 95 migrants and refugees arrived on the Greek islands in the last 48h

[31] Rain and temperature drop on Tuesday

[32] The Monday's edition of Athens dailies at a glance Politics

[01] Tsipras urges business leaders to invest in Greece in Capital Link forum

"Greece is being reborn. You should choose to be part of this rebirth. You can only benefit from this choice," Tsipras said in a message delivered through a webcast, aimed at presenting the new prospects that have opened up for the Greek economy.

"I am certain that those who attempted it have not regretted it today, because during 2016, our economy regained its positive growth dynamic, outperformed its fiscal targets and implemented a series of structural reforms which boosted its competitiveness and promote a stable, investor-friendly environment," he said.

Tsipras went on to present the forecasts for the Greek economy, saying it is expected to grow 2.7 percent in 2017 and 3.1 percent in 2018. "In recognition of our efforts, the recent Eurogroup of December 5 decided to implement the short-term measures for debt relief, in line with the agreement last May, and is expected to access the markets in 2017," he said.

"Therefore, this year I renew my invitation towards you."

[02] PM Tsipras to hold a series of international contacts

On Wednesday, Tsipras will depart for Brussels where he will meet with Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades. Greece and Israel's Foreign Ministers Nikos Kotzias and Ioannis Kassoulides will also participate in the meeting.

On Thursday, he will meet with the President of the European Parliament Martin Schulz. Tsipras will also meet with the French President Francois Hollande on the sidelines of the summit. After the summit, Tsipras will visit Berlin where he will meet with the German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Friday noon. He will then meet with German Vice-Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel. In the afternoon he will meet with the leaders of the German Left Party (Die Linke) and the Greens.

On Saturday morning he will address the congress of the European Left party and then will return to Greece.

[03] President Pavlopoulos to meet French counterpart Hollande on Monday

In the morning Pavlopoulos will visit the Napoleon's tomb in the Invalides military museum, where an official welcoming ceremony has been scheduled.

Then he will meet with the President of the French National Assembly Claude Bartoli, while in the afternoon he will meet with the presidency of the Council of State.

On Tuesday a Divine Liturgy in the church of St. Stephen, at 11:00, officiated by the France Metropolitan Emmanuel has been scheduled, followed by his proclamation as an honorary doctorate at the University of Sorbonne. At 12:00 Pavlopoulos will meet with the rector of Sorbonne Gilles P?cout and the President of the University Paris II Pantheon-Assas Guillaume Leyte.

In an official ceremony, Pavlopoulos will be declared as honourary Doctor of Legal Sciences of the University Paris II Pantheon-Assas.

The Greek President will lay a wreath at the "Greek Soldiers Memorial for Freedom." A visit to the French Senate and a meeting with President Gerard Larcher will follow. Before leaving for Athens at 21:15 the Greek ambassador Maria Theofili will give a reception in honour of Pavlopoulos, at the Greek embassy in Paris.

[04] IMF must insist on 1.5 pct primary surplus and not ask for more measures, PM tells SYRIZA group

The leader of the party informed the secretariat about the ongoing negotiations with the country's creditors and the completion of the second program review noting that the government has implemented the agreement of August 2015 and it expects its partners to do the same, party sources said.

Commenting on the one-off economic relief measure for low-income pensioners and the VAT rise freeze for the islands announced last week, Tsipras said they are "the self-evident right of Greek government", along with its responsibility towards the weakest social groups which have been hit by the economic crisis and the islanders who have borne the brunt of the refugee crisis.

[05] Tsipras to present announced plan for VAT rise suspension from Nisyros

He is also expected to announce the inclusion of the insularity clause in the Constitution in view of the constitutional review. The clause has been a continuous demand of the islanders and its inclusion in the Constitution will create specific obligations of the state towards the islanders, the source said.

[06] Tsipras discusses refugee relocation with Irish justice minister

During the meeting, Tsipras said Ireland's active role in relocation of refugees must be an example for other EU member-states. Fitzgerald was accompanied by Ireland's Minister for Children and Youth Affairs Katherine Zappone.

[07] Institutions' representatives return to Athens to resume negotiations, Breidthardt says

The representatives of the institutions will return to Athens in order to resume negotiations on the conclusion of the second economic programme review, according to EU Commissioner Pierre Moscovici's spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt.

"The work will start tomorrow on the conclusion of a staff level agreement as part of the second programme review," she said and added: "Depending on the progress made in particular as regards the agreement on the 2017 budget, the Commission is confident that all partners will cooperate constructively so that the work is completed as soon as possible."

Asked whether Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' statement on an additional pension will affect the negotiations, she reiterated that the European Commission will examine in detail the announcements and will cooperate with the other institutions on how they will move.

[08] Labour reforms, fiscal gap the main issues in talks between government, institutions, says source

Labour reform issues and the fiscal gap in 2018 will be the focus of the meetings between the Greek government and the heads of institutions who will return to Athens on Tuesday for talks on Greece's second program review, a European Commission official said on Monday.

According to the source, the institutions will also want to discuss the announcements made by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on the one-off benefit for low-income pensioners and the suspension of the VAT for the islands.

The aim of the mission will be to achieve a staff-level agreement on the completion of the second review which will not include the issue of primary surplus targets after 2018, the same official said, adding that this is the clear position of the European Commission which is trying to disconnect the review from the ongoing talks on how many years will Greece have to maintain a primary surplus of 3.5 percent of GDP.

This aim always "stumbled" on the IMF's intransigence, the official continued, however the fact that the IMF will participate in the mission has created positive expectations in Brussels. "It remains to be seen if it will arrive with a constructive mood," the source said.

[09] Meetings between gov't economic team and institutions to start on Tuesday

The heads of the institutions' missions are already in Athens and the timetable of the meetings will be announced in the coming hours, the same sources said.

[10] Greek government very close to EU partners positions, sources tell ANA

The representatives of the institutions are returning gradually (starting from Monday) to Athens and the negotiations with the government are expected to starte on Tuesday, said the same sources.

The changes in labour relations are still a thorny issue while the gap with the International Monetary Fund regarding 2018-2019 primary surpluses is still pending. Nevertheless, the same sources speaking to ANA expressed optimism over the completion of the second review noting that the Greek government's positions are now very close with the position of its European partners.

[11] The government will not hand over the country, gov't sources say

The same sources ruled out the possibility of early elections as well as measures for the period after the conclusion of the programme.

"The second programme review will be concluded without taking new measures and the government will take the deisive step to take the country out of the crisis," they added.

[12] Government's intention is more measures for the weakest, Interior Min Skourletis says

The crucial point is to improve the citizens' everyday life, Skourletis stressed.

Tsipras' announcements for an additional pension and the tax relief measures for the islands that received most of the refugee flows will directly affect the citizens.

"More initiatives of this kind will follow as long as the current growth trend does not change," Skourletis said adding that this can't be ruled out bearing in mind the unreasonable demands of the creditors and mainly of the IMF.

However, he ruled out the possibility of a fourth memorandum.

[13] Labour minister in Thessaloniki on Monday

They installed themselves in the Macedonia-Thrace deputy ministry and had a series of meetings with local groups of employees, who briefed them on various problems. They also met the head of the Thessaloniki prime minister's secretariat office Katerina Notopoulou.

[14] Labour ministry submits amendment on PM's one-off benefit for pensioners

In his televised message last week, the prime minister said the government would distribute 617 million euros to low-income pensioners who receive a pension lower than 850 euros per month.

[15] New Democracy will win if elections are held in 2017, ND leader Mitsotakis says

SYRIZA won the elections in 2015 because it had promised to negotiate with the country's creditors to write off at least part of the country's debt and increase public spending, ND's leader added, offering "easy and convenient solutions to difficult problems".

Asked whether it might not be better to let the government carry on with the reform programme agreed with Greece's creditors, rather than risk instability with an early election, Mitsotakis said the problem was that the government did not "own the reform agenda".

"There's still significant internal infighting among various ministers every time we try to do a privatisation or every time we try to support entrepreneurship and private wealth creation," he said.

In the wake of Donald Trump's election in the United States and as the political centre was collapsing in Europe, Mitsotakis told "Newsweek" he is "happy to call himself a centrist and a reformer" and believes that moderates preparing for battles with populists elsewhere can look to Greece as an example.

[16] Kotzias has meeting with Cuban foreign minister in Brussels

The discussion focused on the domestic political situation in Cuba, the Cuban diaspora living in the United States and their participation in the country's political system. Kotzias briefed his counterpart on developments in the Cyprus issue, in Greece's relations with Turkey and on a series of Greek initiatives to reinforce stability and security in the southeastern Mediterranean.

The two ministers also exchanged invitations to visit Athens and Havana, respectively.

[17] Digital policy minister says new TV regulator will have government's full support

"I gave the leadership of the Council my personal commitment on behalf of the government that they will have full support, both on a financial level and in terms of human resources," he said after meeting NCRTV president Athanasios Koutroumanos and vice-chair Rodolfos Moronis.

"I noted that our work to regulate the television landscape is under the watchful eye of the Greek society and democracy itself, which demand of us to speed up the procedures for the licensing of the private television stations," he added.

[18] Kountoura and Koniordou to cooperate for the promotion of culture and tourism

They also decided to cooperate in order to facilitate the licensing of film productions, and promote the use of digital material and e-tickets in museums and archaeological sites. The two ministers also agreed on further developing diving tourism (submarine museum and archaeological diving parks) and in general boosting cultural actions abroad.

[19] Counter-terrorism services to further investigate people smuggling network

The transnational organised crime group operated by supplying and producing fake documents, including passports, visas and IDs, to transport migrants from Iran to the UK, via Greece and other transit countries. At least one individual, a 28-year-old Algerian with a key role in the organisation, is facing terrorism-related charges in Spain. Permanently based in Barcelona, the Algerian was the main supplier of stolen or lost passports, IDs and other documents that were sent to Greece to be forged and illegal transport migrants via Greek airports.

A total of 33 individuals have been arrested in Greece and the UK so far, while authorities have located three document-forging workshops in the Athens districts of Petroupoli, Gyzi and Kato Patissia.

In order to discover whether the ring has also helped jihadists enter Europe, Europol is now gathering all the evidence and information found by Greek and British police in simultaneous operations in order to convene a meeting of European security services. The meeting will discuss the coordination of an investigation at a higher level, under the supervision and coordination of the European Police, to arrest all individuals involved.

In announcements regading the case at Hellenic Police (ELAS) headquarters on Monday, Police Lieutenant General Christos Papazafiris of the Hellenic Police Security Division of Attica said that the Attica Security Police cracked the case following an investigation launched last July, based on a tip-off from British authorities about an Iranian in Athens. The man was identified as the head of the trafficking ring, coordinating the document forging and trafficking operations.

The 28-year-old Iranian was finally tracked down by the Greek police in collaboration with the UK's National Crime Agency (NCA), along with evidence regarding the group's activities in countries throughout Europe.

Papazafiris said that 24 of the 33 arrested were detained in Greece. The arrests were made as part of a joint investigation by the UK's Organised Immigration Crime Taskforce, Project Invigor, and the Organised Crime Unit of the Hellenic Police with support from Europol.

The men, aged between 26 and 45, were held after a series of raids in Athens last Thursday and were remanded in custody.

All 24 were arrested for their suspected role in the transnational organised crime group (OCG) believed to be facilitating the smuggling of Iranian illegal migrants from Iran via Turkey, Greece, Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, into the UK.

Investigators believe the OCG would charge between 3,000 and 15,000 euros per person to supply migrants with fraudulently obtained or altered identity documents and arrange for their onward journey to the UK.

Four forgery factories, where it is alleged the group produced the counterfeited documents, were dismantled in the operation. Forging equipment, 50,000 Euros in cash and hundreds of documents were also seized.

In a linked operation, Home Office Immigration Enforcement officers arrested nine individuals suspected of being part of a UK-based arm of the organised crime group in a series of raids in Glasgow, Manchester and Northampton last Monday and Tuesday. The investigation was supported by the NCA, the French Police Aux Fronti?res, Europol, and Eurojust.

Chris Hogben, from the NCA's Border Policing Command and Deputy Head of Project Invigor said the arrests were a result of close collaboration and intelligence sharing with the Greek authorities. "This operation has led to the arrests of those we believe are key members of a criminal network responsible for smuggling hundreds of Iranian migrants from Iran to the UK," he added.

Outlining what the investigation had revealed about the OCG's operation, Papazafiris said the counter-terrorism squad is now starting its investigation into a 39-year-old Algerian, who acted as a contact for the Algerian based in Barcelona. The 39-year-old entered Greece illegally and has no documents to justify entry, he said.

According to police sources, Spanish authorities have charged the 28-year-old Algerian with terrorism based on evidence that he supplied jihadists with fake passports.

The 28-year-old Iranian in Greece is alleged to be the group's leader in the country and has applied for asylum, receiving an asylum card, the sources said. Most of the other group members arrested in Athens are also asylum applicants, while the rest are in the country illegally.

The 24 suspects arrested in Greece include 17 Iranians, two Iraqis, two Pakistanis, one Algerian, one Azerbaijani and one Tunisian. Another 12 people face charges of participating in the group's activities but have not been arrested.

Hogben and Papazafiris said that any possible connection between the group and terrorism will be investigated by the counter-terrorism services.

Financial News

[20] SETE welcomes gov't decision to keep VAT on northern and eastern Aegean islands stable

Andreadis explained that the cost on fiscal figures is not important while the impact of the refugee issue on local communities is extremely heavy. "The state proves that it supports them; we all support the islands and it is very positive that the prime minister took that decision," he underlined.

However, he expressed his concern over the IMF pressure to increase the VAT from 13 percent to 14 percent.

[21] Series of actions to promote the Greek kiwi

According to an annoucement, the members of the programme HELLO KIWI implemented by the executive organisation NOVACERT participated in business missions between 8 and 11 November in Minsk, Belarus for the exhbition PRODEXPO, from 13 to 15 November in WOP DUBAI in UAE and from 28 November to 1 December in Kiev, Ukraine for the FRESH BUSINESS EXPO.

A series of events were organised on the sidelines of the exhibitions. The guests, importers, food wholesalers and media representatives had the opportunity to taste and get informed on the product.

Moreover, representatives of Belarus media were hosted in the region of Imathia, part of the actions to inform the consumers.

[22] Greek stocks stabilise in slow trade on Monday

The Large Cap index ended 0.10 pct up and the Mid Cap index gained 0.82 pct. Turnover was a low 37.580 million euros in volume of 59.655 million shares.

Piraeus Bank (3.6 pct), OTE (2.56 pct) and Eurobank (2.01 pct) scored the biggest percentage gains of the day among blue chip stocks, while PPC (2.30 pct), OPAP (2.3 pct) and Alpha Bank (2.04 pct) suffered the heaviest losses.

Among market sectors, Financial Services (3.00 pct) and Telecommunications (2.56 pct) scored big gains, while Travel (1.96 pct) and Public Utilities (1.37 pct) suffered losses. National Bank and Piraeus Bank were the most heavily traded securities of the day.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 47 to 43 with another 23 issues unchanged. G.E. Demetriou (20 pct), Alpha Astika Akinita (19.96 pct) and Dionic (19.94 pct) were top gainers, while Boutaris (19.7 pct), Pigasos (19.23 pct) and Audiovisual (14.85 pct) lost the most ground.

[23] Greek bond market closing report

In interbank markets, interest rates were unchanged. The 12-month rate was -0.081 pct, the nine-month rate was -0.138 pct, the six-month rate was -0.217 pct, the three-month rate was -0.316 pct and the one-month rate was -0.371 pct.

[24] ADEX closing report

General News

[25] Bomb neutralized outside labour ministry in Athens

The device was placed in a bag and it was neutralized by bomb technicians through three controlled explosions.

[26] Bomb threat in POSPERT offices was a prank call says police; road reopens

Police had closed off both traffic lanes earlier in the day while bomb disposal specialists searched POSPERT premises for the bomb which was due to go off at 17:20.

[27] Armed robbery in central Athens

The robbers shot twice in the air and fled. Police has launched a manhunt.

[28] Archaeological collection of Kozani reopens after 20 years

The initial exhibition was inaugurated in June 1989 and its operation was interrupted after the strong earthquake (6.6 on the Richter scale) that hit the region in 1995 provoking huge damages to the building that hosted the exhibition.

The new Collection is housed in a two storey neoclassical building of the early 20th century situated in the historic city center owned by the Culture Ministry.

The exhibits from the prehistoric, archaic, classical, hellenistic and Roman era are displayed in five halls while statues, votive stele and vases and ancient tomb relics are exhibited in the outdoor areas of the building.

[29] Athens city hall to be lit in the colours of the Turkish flag in memory of Istanbul victims

Forty four people were killed and about 150 wounded in a twin bomb attack outside an Istanbul soccer stadium.

[30] Only 95 migrants and refugees arrived on the Greek islands in the last 48h

According to police, 11,514 migrants and refugees that have applied for asylum in Greece remain stranded on the northern Aegean islands.

Weather forecast

[31] Rain and temperature drop on Tuesday

[32] The Monday's edition of Athens dailies at a glance

ETHNOS: 70,000 supplementary pensions unblock

ELEFTHEROS TYPOS: The window for pension before 60

ESTIA: The critical national negotiation. There is no room for political adventure

EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON: In Berlin for political solution

TA NEA: Double language for the programme review

NAFTEMPORIKI: Critical appointment with Merkel in Berlin

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