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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-03-03Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] FinMin optimistic Greek programme review will be completed soonGreek 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 phonePrime 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 violenceDeputy 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. Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |