Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-12-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM briefed on justice system modernisation, 4th CSF

[01] PM briefed on justice system modernisation, 4th CSF

Justice Minister Anastasios Papaligouras briefed Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on the four legal codes under reform and said that the Bankruptcy Code will be tabled in parliament in February, while the Civil Procedure Code is progressing and will be open to a public debate also in February.

The justice minister added that the Penal Code will be ready hopefully during the summer, followed by the Civil Procedure Code and stressed that, with their completion, the country�s justice system will be updated.

Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos and the premier discussed the 4th Community Support Framework and the appropriate preparation for its best usage. Pavlopoulos commented that 80 percent of the 4th Community Support Framework funds will be allocated for the country�s regions and added that the basic axes are e-governance, immigration and decentralization.

Meanwhile, during the ongoing debate on the 2007 budget in Parliament, Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis reported on Monday that the unemployment rate was 8.3% in the third quarter of 2006.

"It is many years since we have seen this figure," the minister told parliament on the second day of debate on the goverment's budget for 2007.

The jobless data was officially release by the Greek National Statistics Service on Tuesday.

Alogoskoufis, architect of the budget, noted that unemployment had fallen three percentage points to 8.3% from 11.3% in March 2004 when the main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) lost national elections.

"No-one can be satisfied with this level of joblessness, as people are behind the figures. Government policy aims to provide more Greeks with jobs every day, aided by tax reform, the investment law, a law on joint private and public sector ventures, and privatisation," he said.

Later in the debate, Agricultural Development and Foods Minister Evangelos Basiakos accused PASOK of being "untrustworthy," and denied that farmers' incomes have decreased, citing NSS data showing a 2.5% increase in farmer incomes during the first two years that the ruling New Democracy party was in power.

The minister noted that "the increase would have been greater if it was not for the increase in the price of fuel."

The minister expressed his satisfaction "over the increase of agricultural exports by 24 per cent in 2005 (compared to 2004) and by 29 per cent in the first eight months of 2006." He noted that under PASOK, "agricultural exports showed a stable downward trend."

Basiakos also observed that the increase in public investments in the agricultural sector "increased from 430 million euros in the 2002-3 period to 823 million euros in the 2004-5 period, while only in 2006, it is assessed that 479 million euros will be absorbed."

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