Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-10-17

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Karamanlis briefed by defence minister

[02] PASOK leadership rivals to tour Peloponnese

[03] Gov't unveils draft law to combat poverty

[04] Greece rules out aid extension to FYROM

[01] PM Karamanlis briefed by defence minister

On Tuesday, Karamanlis chaired a meeting of the Inner Cabinet focusing on foreign policy issues, especially the reform treaty for creating a European Union Constitution.

After the meeting, Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis said she had briefed the Cabinet in detail on the progress made on the Reform Treaty, saying the issue was "heading for a happy ending".

She predicted that many months of work leading to the Reform Treaty would be approved by EU leaders at the upcoming informal summit in Lisbon, saying that it would allow Europe to turn a new page with the treaty in force.

"We hope that this will happen before the end of the year, so that 2008 will be the year for the ratification of the new European Reform Treaty and the start of this new page, which will essentially be completed with the European elections of 2009," the minister said.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of PM Costas Karamanlis.

[02] PASOK leadership rivals to tour Peloponnese

Skandalidis will visit Tripoli, Arcadia prefecture, and Sparta, Laconia, on Thursday to address gatherings of PASOK supporters. On Friday, he will tour Argolida prefecture and meet with local party officials in the town of Nafplio. Later in the afternoon, he will address PASOK supporters and officials in Corinth.

Venizelos will be in the prefectures of Arcadia and Messinia on Friday, and is scheduled to meet with local PASOK officials in Tripoli before giving a press conference.

He will also meet with the mayor of Tripoli, visit the Peloponnese University and a power plant in Megalopoli. Later in the evening, he will address PASOK members in Kalamata.

[03] Gov't unveils draft law to combat poverty

Speaking to reporters, the minister noted that Greece and Ireland recorded the highest poverty rate after social transfers in the European Union, while he also noted that the Greek problem reflected low efficiency of social transfers.

Under the draft legislation, the government will set up a fund with an initial capital of 100 million euros, with another 500 million euros in 2008 and more money the coming years up to two billion euros by the end of 2011.

Alogoskoufis noted that the health and employment ministries will draft programmes and actions to support this goal with money coming from the state budget.

The Greek minister noted that boosts to pensions will be in the form of direct income support, while support for younger people will include training programs. Alogoskoufis did not exclude the possibility of a heating oil subsidy for certain groups of low-income people in the country.

Commenting on recent speculation over VAT rate hike in the country, Alogoskoufis said the government�s tax policy was clear and that it had a four-year horizon.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Greek Finance Minister George Alogoskoufis.

[04] Greece rules out aid extension to FYROM

During a meeting of Parliament's standing committee on foreign affairs and defence, which debated a relevant draft bill, Deputy Foreign Minister Theodoros Kassimis said "FYROM had not been included in the group of countries eligible for an extension (of the plan) to 2011, due to an absence of a written response from that country (FYROM). This does not mean that development aid to FYROM is frozen. Projects begun and underway are continuing and funding (for those projects) will exhausted�" Kassimis said.

The Greek minister said the Skopje government had responded as "Republic of Macedonia" to diplomatic correspondence sent by the Greek foreign ministry to all beneficiary countries. Athens queried partnership countries on whether they agree with an extension of the programme to 2011, but without changes to the sums earmarked for individual countries and projects.

"Because Greece does not recognise any country with that name (i.e. 'Republic of Macedonia'), it considers that letter as not having been received, and has therefore excluded Skopje from the programme," Kassimis said.

Consequently, a relevant draft bill -- extending the programme for a further five years -- will be presented to Parliament for ratification without containing a provision for FYROM.

Greece's initial Balkan Reconstruction Plan covered the years 2002-2006.

The programme contains a credit line of 550 million euros for various reconstruction projects in Balkan countries, with recipients including Albania, Bulgaria, Serbia, the Kosovo province, Montenegro, Romania and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Approved credits for FYROM during the period 2002-2006 totalled approximately 75 million euros.

Caption: ANA-MPA file photo of Greek Deputy Foreign Minister Theodoros Kassimis.

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