Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-05-15

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Thursday: Mostly sunny

[02] PM rejects industry fears of soaring unemployment

[03] FM notifies European Commission on Turkish violations in Aegean

[01] Weather Thursday: Mostly sunny

Mostly sunny throughout the country on Thursday, with scattered clouds from late afternoon on the central and northern mainland and a chance of rain in the north. Winds variable, light. Temperatures between 12C to 30C in the north; 14C to 33C on the rest of the mainland, and 16C to 31C on the islands. Sunny in Athens, 17C to 32C; sunny, turning partly cloudy in Thessaloniki towards the afternoon, 14C to 30C.

[02] PM rejects industry fears of soaring unemployment

Prime Minister Costas Simitis on Wednesday rejected fears voiced by industry earlier this month that joblessness could double to 18-20 percent if the government failed to take the right economic measures.

''Many people maintain that there will be an investment slump after the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, and they have forecast a decline in gross domestic product and a rise in unemployment. These forecasts are entirely erroneous,'' Simitis told the Association of Greek Industry's annual general meeting in a videotaped message.

It was the association's president, Odysseus Kyriakopoulos, who estimated the figure, saying the government should promote business activity through creation of necessary infrastructure and a business climate favouring the establishment of new firms, which would aid job creation.

''Unemployment will continue its downward course, and the era after 2004 will be better than the current one,'' the prime minister forecast.

In an indirect refererence to the closure of a Greek operation by the multinational Schiesser Group of Switzerland that will bring 500 redundancies, Simitis said it was imperative to ensure a greater flow of high technology investments from abroad.

''This type of investment would not be seeking cheap labour as in previous decades, but rather a business friendly environment, a modern telecoms and transport infrastructure, a stable tax regime, and highly trained personnel,'' he added.

Simitis also called on companies and their staff to work with the government for ''a giant leap forward'' in boosting alignment with other European Union economies.

''We are again asking firms to contribute creatively to the shaping of a Greece that displays economic clout and social sensitivity,'' he said.

In addition, industry should make more investments, focusing on the creation of quality jobs.

[03] FM notifies European Commission on Turkish violations in Aegean

Foreign ministry spokesman Panagiotis Beglitis said on Wednesday that Foreign Minister George Papandreou notified the European Commission on Turkish violations in the Aegean and the incident during a Greek aeronautical exercise on Tuesday.

''Foreign Minister Mr. George A. Papandreou notified the European Commission and relevant Commissioner Mr. (Guenter) Verheugen of the violations of Turkey in the Aegean and particularly of yesterday's (Tuesday's) incident during a Greek exercise. The Greek foreign minister also delivered a relevant note with all the evidence on Turkish behaviour in the Aegean during the past period,'' Beglitis said.

Tuesday's incident concerned the shadowing of Greek aircraft during the exercise code-named ''Triaina'' by two Turkish F-16 warplanes.

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