|
|
Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-03
CONTENTS
[01] FinMin optimistic Greek programme review will be completed soon
[02] PM Tsipras discusses refugee flows with Davutoglu over phone
[03] Greek Football Cup cancelled due to violence
[01] FinMin optimistic Greek programme review will be completed soon
Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos on Thursday expressed his
optimism that a review of the Greek programme will be completed
soon. Speaking in Parliament, the Greek FinMin strongly criticized
the IMF for holding at hard stance both towards Greece, by asking for
more measures, and towards Europe, to see the Greek debt issue. On
the other hand, "our positions are very close" with the European
Stability Mechanism, the European Central Bank and the Commission and
differences existing are within the framework of negotiations and could
be discussed," Tsakalotos said.
He said that during a speech in the European Parliament on Wednesday,
he expressed "his strong concern" over the fact that "the institutions
came to Greece February 1-5, they left for 10 days and since then a
month has passed without returning". Tsakalotos said it was difficult to
comprehend why the IMF asked for many more measures, compared with the
ones agreed last summer, given the fact that economic conditions have
improved markedly since then "and there is no one economist suggesting
that we performed worse than expected, so the reasonable thing was to
talk about less measures".
The Greek Finance Minister said that pensions could be cut further
in Greece since they played the role of basic family income and they
have been cut 11 times in the past few years. Tsakalotos said he did
not know whether a solution could be reach in the next Eurogroup, but
expressed his confidence "that a solution will be found soon as there
were too many players pushing for a solution the soonest possible".
[02] PM Tsipras discusses refugee flows with Davutoglu over phone
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had a telephone conversation with Turkish
counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu on Wednesday, during which he called for the
need to reach an understanding between the European Union and Turkey
to make the refugee crisis more manageable, government sources said
on Thursday.
Tsipras noted this would create an exceptional background for a successful
and productive intergovernmental meeting in Izmir next Tuesday, on which
Davutoglu agreed with.
The same sources said the prime minister is in contact with all the
European governments on the refugee crisis ahead of the EU-Turkey summit.
[03] Greek Football Cup cancelled due to violence
Deputy Minister for Sports, Stavros Kontonis, called off the 2016 Greek
Football Cup season on Thursday, citing numerous violent incidents that
have plagued recent matches between football clubs.
"Imposing the law is justified in cases where legal rights are jeopardized
like social peace, which are unquestionably superior to other interests
which may be affected, economic or athletic (i.e. losing match tickets
or participation in European matches)," the minister said in a statement.
|