Athens News Agency: News in English, 08-02-27

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

CONTENTS

[01] New national spatial plan, chief of police

[02] FinMin sees strong growth

[03] Archbishop meets President, PM

[01] New national spatial plan, chief of police

"Greece has for the first time acquired a comprehensive spatial plan," Souflias said in statements after the meeting, adding that the plan he presented was one of the most important reforms to take place in Greece in the last decades and would allow Greece to achieve well-rounded development with absolute respect for the environment.

"This means, quite simply, that everyone will know what they can do and where and all activities will have rules that are known in advance," he stressed.

Lt.-Gen. Tsiatouras named new Chief of Police (ADDS)

Lt.-Gen. Vassilis Tsiatouras was on Wednesday appointed as the new Chief of the Greek Police (ELAS), replacing outgoing chief Anastasios Dimoschakis, during a meeting of the Government Council on Foreign Affairs and Defence (KYSEA) to decide annual promotions and retirements in the military and the police force.

Tsiatouras has served for years in key departments within the police force, with an impressive history of successes as the head of the organised crime squad.

He is married, and the father of two children.

The promotions and retirements in the police will continue in the Higher Council, to be chaired by the new Chief of Police, with the participation of senior army and police officers.

Commenting on the appointment, main opposition PASOK's "shadow interior minister" Dinos Rovlias said that the government had cast yet another head of the Greek police "to the lions" given that there were 5,376 unfilled permanent positions on the force.

"We wonder what he can achieve under these conditions but sincerely wish him all success in his work, which will be very difficult given the conditions of disintegration in the Greek Police created by the New Democracy government," Rovlias added.

The KYSEA meeting was also briefed on the status of procurement programmes underway for the Greek armed forces by National Defence Minister Evangelos Meimarakis.

"We are trying to get the best price and the best quality but mainly to support the domestic defence industry," Meimarakis said afterwards.

Regarding the purchase of tank missiles, the minister said that talks and negotiations were still underway and that KYSEA would reconvene to make a final decision once they were completed.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photograph of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.

[02] FinMin sees strong growth

Alogoskoufis said the economic growth rate would be around 4.0 pct this year, while he stressed that the government was clear in its intentions over the future of Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation. "Anyone wishing to own more than 20 percent of the organization should meet certain criteria," he said, adding that the government was open to examine any interest by a telecoms operator but there was hurry since OTE could continue investing on its own and achieving its strategic goals.

The Greek minister said the government would announce its incomes policy for 2008 in the next few weeks and noted that pay rises would be "within the limitations of the Greek economy". Alogoskoufis said the privatization program has entered a new phase covering infrastructure management and network management enterprises, while he announced that the government was preparing a practice for the partial privatization of the Athens international airport.

He stressed that tax evasion was mainly a problem because of attitudes, which in Greece were too indulgent, while he noted that the government would immediately begin a publicity campaign aimed to combating tax evasion. He underlined that the government would fully exploit all information from abroad, in cooperation with other European states, over a list of large tax evaders with deposits in banks in Lichtenstein. Commenting on developments in the energy sector, Alogoskoufis said energy policy issues were depended on energy safety and adequacy, combined with environmental protection and underlined that any investments in the sector would be examined in this framework.

He supported a demand to scrap a tax on securities transactions, saying it should be replaced by a hypervalue tax.

The Greek minister said he was very satisfied with the work done by the Economy and Finance ministry, saying "we have a lot of work to do". He added that he had no wish to leave the ministry.

Caption: Economy and Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis addressed a news conference held at the Foreign Press Association dinner on Wednesday. ANA-MPA - PANTELIS SAITAS

[03] Archbishop meets President, PM

Emerging from the presidential mansion, the archbishop said the meetings were being held one day before the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece was due to convene. Regarding his talks with Papoulias, he said these had focused on issues of substance, such as the Church's charitable and social work and legislation that concerned ecclesiastical affairs.

He said the name dispute with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) had not been discussed during the meeting and repeated the statements he had made in Ioannina on Tuesday regarding the stance of the Church on this issue.

Caption: Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece (Right) met with President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias (Left) at the presidential mansion on Wednesday. ANA-MPA - Katerina Mavrona.

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