Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-04-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] PASOK reiterates criticism on bonds issue

[02] Transport minister concludes visit to Tokyo

[01] PASOK reiterates criticism on bonds issue

"Regardless of the outcome of the issue, at the level of political, penal or civil responsibility, what must happen is for them to return the money to the social insurance funds before the elections," Efthymiou said.

He added that not only has the government "lost the trust of the Greek people, but it is leading the country to a deadlock in all sectors" and stressed that "it is natural for all this to be led before the judegement of the Greek people."

PASOK's spokesman also mentioned that the bonds case "could only have been made possible with an organised plan and with the complicity of the two ministries:The finance ministry that includes (Economy and Finance Minister George) Mr. Alogoskoufis and (Deputy Finance Minister Petros) Mr. Doukas and secretary general Mr. Kouris and the employment ministry that includes (Minister Savvas) Mr. Tsitouridis, Evgenios Papadopoulos and the system of partisan appointed social insurance funds' governors."

In another development, PASOK's employment rapporteur Maria Damanaki said on her part that "the amendment that was ratified and that concerns the way with which social insurance funds are run is the 'screen' behind which the government and the employment minister in particular are trying to conceal their responsibilities."

Gov't spokesman

Responding to the main opposition's charges over the pension funds issue, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos on Thursday countered that these were made without due consideration, while stressing that the government had done everything it had promised to do.

"The charges made by PASOK members were outlined just half an hour or one hour after the contract with JP Morgan [for the structure bond issue] was submitted to Parliament - this is a contract that runs to several hundred pages - and were made with the same carelessness with which they earlier claimed that the bond was for 300 million euros when it was actually for 280 million euros," Roussopoulos said.

The spokesman also pointed out that the issue had been referred to justice precisely because there had been suspected overpricing in the transactions involving the specific bonds.

"The government is doing those things it made a commitment to do. It submitted the contract to Parliament, it referred the case to justice, it involved the authority against money-laundering, while the Capital Market Commission yesterday released the first evidence, whereas the previous government had not strengthened the Capital Market Commission.

"It is indicative that evidence has arisen for similar overpricing in 2002-2003 involving the Acropolis Brokerage, which had no time came to light. Therefore, some people were either unaware or knew and covered up [the irregularities]. In any case, the government now says that everything must be dragged into the light," he added.

[02] Transport minister concludes visit to Tokyo

The Greek minister proposed the scheduling of special charter flights at an initial stage for the Athens-Tokyo route during holiday and vacation periods.

Liapis also had consecutive meetings with the interior and communications minister and deputy minister Yoshihide Suga and Hideo Shimizu, respectively, with whom he discussed communications, informatics and communications technologies.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Liapis.

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