Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-03-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy on Sunday

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

[03] Weather Forecast: Cloud, light rain on Saturday

[04] Unemployment still a problem in EU, PM tells ETUC conference

[05] ATHOC chief strongly protests to IOC vice-president's statement on

[06] Papantoniou meets allied forces deputy commander

[07] National Bank to open 15 new branches in Romania

[08] Greece welcomes Arafat decision to ask top PLO official to be prime

[09] Exhibition on new Acropolis museum inaugurated in New York

[01] Weather Forecast: Partly cloudy on Sunday

Partly cloudy weather is forecast in all parts of Greece on Sunday. Winds variable, light to moderate, turning strong in the Aegean Sea. In the north, temperatures will range from 0C to 11C; in the rest of the mainland from 2C to 15C; and in the islands from 7C to 16C. Scattered cloud in Athens and temperatures between 7C and 15C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 5C to 11C.

[02] Foreign Exchange Rates - Monday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.112

Pound sterling 0.692

Danish kroner 7.485

Swedish kroner 9.313

Japanese yen 129.7

Swiss franc 1.477

Norwegian kroner 7.946

Cyprus pound 0.586

Canadian dollar 1.629

Australian dollar 1.804

[03] Weather Forecast: Cloud, light rain on Saturday

Cloud is forecast in all parts of the country on Saturday with light rain in central, western and southern Greece. Winds variable, moderate to strong. In the north, temperatures will range from -1C to 12C; on the rest of the mainland from 2C to 15C; and in the islands from 7C to 16C. Possibility of intermittent showers in Athens and temperatures between 5C and 15C. Same in Thessaloniki with temperatures from 3C to 12C.

[04] Unemployment still a problem in EU, PM tells ETUC conference

Despite having dropped, unemployment remained a major problem for the regions of Europe, Greek Prime Minister and current European Council president Costas Simitis told a European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) conference on Friday.

The conference is being held at the Asteras hotel in Vouliagmeni, a resort just outside Athens.

Achieving the targets set in Lisbon would mean creating an additional 15 million jobs, Simitis added.

Turning to the situation in Greece, the Greek premier said that joblessness had been reduced to under 10 per cent and that employment remained one of the government's top priorities.

He stressed the need for new ways to combat unemployment and noted that the high rate of employment among immigrants (with 500-600,000 currently working in Greece alone) helped boost the domestic economy but made existing joblessness more acute.

In terms of labour relations, Simitis said that the Greek presidency of the European Union wanted to promote measures that would help the labour market operate more efficiently and make it adapt more promptly to changes in the economy and society.

He stressed, however, that the aim of the changes was not to disrupt labour relations.

''The end in view is how, through new measures, to ensure the necessary adaptability in order to boost the competitiveness of businesses and employment,'' he stressed.

As an example, he noted a proposed EU directive for temporary employment that Greece was working on, which aimed to make it easier for businesses to utilise human resources and also provide protection for workers in this category.

The conference was also addressed by Greek European Commissioner for employment Anna Diamantopoulou, who stressed that the coming EU social summit on March 20 will be a huge and historic opportunity for the social partners to influence employment policy.

[05] ATHOC chief strongly protests to IOC vice-president's statement on Athens Games

Athens 2004 Olympics organising committee (ATHOC) president Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki on Friday strongly protested against recent statements by International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice-president R. Kevan Gosper appearing in the Australian press that the Athens Games would be an ''unpleasant interlude'' between two incredible Olympiads staged in Sydney and Beijing.

In a telephone call to IOC president Jacques Rogge, Angelopoulos-Daskalaki strongly objected to the statement by Gosper, who is an IOC member from Australia and president of the IOC press committee.

Sources said that the ATHOC chief told Rogge that Gosper was entitled to have his worries, but could not disdain the organisation and insult Greece's prestige, especially since Rogge himself and the other IOC members have repeatedly expressed their conviction that Athens would host unique Games.

IOC sources said that Angelopoulos-Daskalaki's reaction resulted in a backdown by Gosper, who contacted top IOC members in a bid to justify himself, claiming that his statements had been misinterpreted.

Gosper reportedly told the IOC officials that he believed in a successful organisation of the Athens Games and that he would repeat this in publc in the next few days, thus putting an end to the matter.

[06] Papantoniou meets allied forces deputy commander

The deployment of the European Unions Rapid Reaction Force in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), making up Europes first such peace mission, was the focus of a meeting on Friday in Athens between Greeces Defence Minister Yiannos Papantoniou and visiting Deputy Commander of European Allied Forces German Admiral Rainer Feist.

The Rapid Reaction Force is expected to be deployed in FYROM in April, Papantoniou said during an event organized by the Greek-German Chamber on Thursday.

He further clarified that the European Common Foreign and Defence Policy (CFDP) would at a later stage include a clause for mutual contribution, under the model of Natos article 5, which would initially enable the joint handling of terrorism.

The 60,000-strong EU Rapid Reaction Force was agreed in 2000 and is expected to be fully operational within 2003. The force is part of the EUs Common Foreign and Defence Policy (CFDP) and Common European Security and Defence Policy (CESDP). It will undertake peacekeeping duties in operations where NATO may not be required.

[07] National Bank to open 15 new branches in Romania

National Bank of Greece on Friday announced its decision to further expand its activities in Romania.

Greece's largest bank has established its presence in the Romanian market in 1997 and operates a branch unit in the country. Under the expansion plan, National Bank would open 15 new branches in Romania's largest cities (Bucharest, Konstanza, Timisoara, Galatsi, Brasov, Ploesti, Pitestic, Vraila and others).

A bank announcement said that through its expanded network National Bank would offer its Romanian customers a full range of banking services and products, giving more emphasis to retail banking services, corporate financing and treasury services.

National Bank has established a strong presence in all Balkan states, acquiring a comparative advantage with its subsidiaries in Bulgaria (UBB) and FYROM (Stopanska Banka), both major players in their domestic markets.

[08] Greece welcomes Arafat decision to ask top PLO official to be prime minister

EU president Greece on Friday welcomed the decision of Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat to appoint senior Palestine Liberation Organisation official Mahmoud Abbas as the Palestinian Authority's prime minister, a Greek foreign ministry press release said.

Greek presidency spokesman Panos Beglitis on Friday told reporters ''the nomination, which we hope will be approved by the Palestinian Legislative Council, promotes necessary reforms on the Palestinian side, it accommodates an exit form the crisis and paves the way toward a peaceful settlement on the basis of United Nations Security Council resolutions and the existence of two states'', the press release said.

[09] Exhibition on new Acropolis museum inaugurated in New York

NEW YORK (ANA - P. Panagiotou) - An exhibition on the new Acropolis museum was inaugurated at the exhibition centre of the Alexandros Onassis Foundation here on Thursday night.

The inauguration was conducted by Archbishop of America Dimitrios. Apart from architectural designs, models and photographic material, four model archaeological findings are also on display.

The exhibition will remain open until April 9 and is being presented under the auspices of the culture ministry.

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