Athens News Agency: News in English, 04-01-22

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Rain, storms, snow on Thursday

[02] Greece moves fast towards achieving Lisbon targets, report says

[03] IOC Coordinating Committee president satisfied with Olympic Games

[04] Greek, Lebanese presidents hold talks, cooperation agreements signed

[05] FM and PASOK leadership candidate holds dialogue with working women

[06] Greece, Turkey to sign EU transport pact on Thursday

[01] Weather Forecast: Rain, storms, snow on Thursday

Rain and storms are forecast in most parts of the country. Snow will fall in the east and south, including in low-lying areas. Winds southwesterly, very strong to gale force. It will be colder from late afternoon. Temperatures in Athens 5C to 7C and in Thessaloniki 1C to 2C. It may snow in Athens.

[02] Greece moves fast towards achieving Lisbon targets, report says

BRUSSELS (ANA/G. Daratos) - Greece is staging a strong counter-attack in the last few years aiming to improve its economic and social performances and to move closer to targets set by the Lisbon Summit, to contribute positively in the transformation of the European Union into the world's largest and more powerful economy by 2010, a report by the EU Commission said on Wednesday.

The report, expected to be approved by the European Commission, on achieving Lisbon agenda priorities, shows that Greece - although it remains at the bottom of the EU league - has made significant progress in the last couple of years. The EU's executive describes the country's progress as one of the most satisfactory within the Union.

The report says that although Greece has not managed to drastically reduce unemployment, it managed to raise employment rate above a 70 percent target set by the EU Commission as a percentage of men aged 15-64 years.

Greece also reports improvement in productivity in the last two years moving closer to Spain but lagging behind compared with Portugal.

The report said that Greece's comparative position in the EU was low along with Spain, Italy and Portugal.

Greece, however, along with Belgium and France, reported significant progress in achieving Lisbon targets since 1999, in contrast with Germany, Luxembourg, Austria and Portugal whose progress was ''disappointing'' according to the Commission.

[03] IOC Coordinating Committee president satisfied with Olympic Games projects

International Olympic Committee Coordinating Committee President Denis Oswald appeared satisfied with the course of Olympic Games projects in statements on Wednesday, but continued to voice concern over the Calatrava roof at the Athens Olympic Stadium, the suburban railway and the tram network.

Oswald was speaking after a meeting between the IOC's delegation, which has been in Athens over the past two days, and Deputy Culture Minister Nasos Alevras, Olympic Games Secretary General Costas Kartalis and members of the Organising Committee.

Government officials, however, do not share Owald's concerns and are confident timetables will be implemented absolutely.

Regarding projects which are lying marginally inside timetables, Oswald said he received assurances that they will be delivered in time without any delay resulting from the election period in the country.

The Coordinating Committee's president and his associates will be visiting Athens on a monthly basis until the projects have been completed.

[04] Greek, Lebanese presidents hold talks, cooperation agreements signed

BEIRUT (ANA/N. Megadoukas) - Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos, currently on a three-day official visit to Lebanon, on Wednesday evening met with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud at the Baabda Mansion and discussed with him bilateral issues, economic and business cooperation between the two countries, as well as the situation in the Middle East.

Stephanopoulos, in his talks with Lahoud as well as earlier in the day with the parliament president, prime minister and deputy prime minister, noted the impressive changes in Lebanon and the reconstruction of Beirut after the end of the civil war, and stressed the need for the further strengthening of relations between Athens and Beirut.

Following the conclusion of the talks between Stephanopoulos and Lahoud, Deputy Foreign Minister Andreas Loverdos, who accompanies the president to Lebanon, signed, on behalf of the Greek government, with Lebanese ministers a tourism cooperation agreement and another on the international transportation of goods and people, as well as a protocol on scientific and technological cooperation in the agricultural sector.

[05] FM and PASOK leadership candidate holds dialogue with working women

Foreign Minister and PASOK party leadership candidate George Papandreou held a dialogue with working women at a municipal theatre in the Athens district of Kallithea on Wednesday, making a series of proposals on the interests and rights of women in Greece.

Most questions put to him concerned the acute problem of unemployment facing women, and mothers in particular, and the even more acute problems experienced by single parent families, as well as such issues as violence in the family and the participation of women in politics.

Proposals made by Papandreou included the creation of a network of small model children's day care centres which can even be based in the homes of women capable of looking after children of a pre-school age. The centres will function under specific preconditions, of course, and will be subsidised and controlled by local administration.

Papandreou also proposed more flexibility in part-time employment programmes for women and the establishment of a paternity licence for fathers accepting to exercise parental duties at home, to enable their wives to work, in accordance with the Swedish model.

[06] Greece, Turkey to sign EU transport pact on Thursday

Greece and Turkey are to sign a memorandum of cooperation for the creation of a European Union transport link between the northern port city of Thessaloniki and Istanbul.

Under the terms of the memorandum, Greece's Egnatia highway, which links the country's northwest and northeast, will extend to Istanbul.

The move will give new impetus to European transportation, opening the way to the Middle East with Greece as a hub.

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