Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-09-22

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

CONTENTS

[01] Papandreou visits sugar industry in Larissa

[02] 6th Euro-Med Conference on Industry ends

[01] Papandreou visits sugar industry in Larissa

"In spite of the big talk regarding biofuels, in practice the licences for biofuels are going to fossil-fuel importers and not to these factories," Papandreou said during a visit to a sugar-manufacturing plant owned by the Greek Sugar Industry in Larissa.

"Regarding the compensation from the reduction of the quota we are hearing about, it seems the government is interested in having the compensation go to the Agricultura Bank so that it can be sold and not to producers," he added.

According to Papandreou, this showed that the government was "a prisoner to the few, the powerful and the middle-men" and that Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis "was quick with big words but invisible and silent before the problems."

Accusing the government of indifference toward Greek farmers, he said that Karamanlis had never gone to Brussels to negotiate better terms for Greek agricultural products and that Greece had "faced continuous defeats on agricultural issues, such as Mediterranean products, cotton and sugar," because of the government's policies and lack of a plan.

During the visit, Papandreou was briefed about the factory's problems by the plant's management and trade union representatives, who blamed the company's present crisis on the New Democracy government and said that it affected both farmers and workers at the plant.

[02] 6th Euro-Med Conference on Industry ends

The conclusions adopted concern the implementation of the Euro-Mediterranean Charter on businesses, promotion of investments, facilitation of the trade of industrial products, innovation and the future of textile and clothing industries.

Presiding Finnish Trade and Industry Minister Mauri Pekkarinen pointed out on Friday that the goal is to establish a Mediterranean trade zone by 2010 and characterized the conference conclusions as very important.

Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas commented that the conference conclusions constitute an important step in giving a new impetus to Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and stressed that important issues, such as the need to further support small and medium-sized businesses, were highlighted during the conference.

He praised the Finnish EU Presidency's contribution to the significant conclusions reached and the notable interventions made by European Commission vice-president Gunter Verheugen.

On his part, Verheugen underlined the conference�s significance within the framework of a broader Euro-Mediterranean cooperation, stressing that this cooperation should move ahead as soon as possible.

In addition, he expressed certainty that a Euro-Mediterranean free trade zone will be the largest market in the world and provide an opportunity to turn globalization into a comparative advantage for the region.

The two-day Euro-Mediterranean Ministerial Conference proceedings were attended by government ministers and representatives from the 37 countries in the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership, namely, 25 EU member states, Bulgaria and Romania which are in the process of EU accession, 9 Mediterranean states Egypt, Algeria, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the Palestinian Authority.

The conference took place in Rhodes instead of Finland following a proposal put forward by Sioufas in consultation with Pekkarinen, who heads the EU industry ministers� council.

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