Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-04-15

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

CONTENTS

[01] I don't think we should go to elections, State Min. Flambouraris says

[02] Moderate quake jolts Cyprus

[03] OECD report shows over-taxation of families with children in Greece

[01] I don't think we should go to elections, State Min. Flambouraris says

"I don't think we should go to elections," he said and noted: "In case of an impasse, we could also consider the possibility of a referendum. It does not hurt to ask the Greek people over historic decisions."

Referring to the negotiations, he spoke of a "tough battle, which will be won," and reiterated that the government will not back down on "issues which led the country to its present tragic situation."

"The issue is not whether this will be delayed by a week or 10 days but to have an agreement," he said and expressed his optimism over the reaching of an agreement with the lenders.

He stressed that "there are points of compromise" in the proposals submitted to the partners and commenting on the reports that lenders disagree with Athens' proposals, he said this is news "circulated by several media, which is also reproduced by Greek media."

He insisted "there is no way the lenders would not back down" and explained that "Europe's sovereign powers have not decided to break the Union apart. On what grounds will it be Greece to leave and not Italy or France. This will be costly."

However, he ruled out the possibility of the government causing an accident saying that "the popular mandate for a solution within the euro" was very clear.

On the migration issue, he noted that "the refugee issue is a comprehensive issue of Europe that we need to resolve together."

"The Greece of the crisis cannot take all the war refugees," he stressed and added: "No one is telling us what should be done with those people."

Referring to a possible temporary solution, he said the proper conditions should be created so that these people can stay here for a while.

Alternate Migration Policy Minister Tasia Christodoulopoulou, he said, is making a big effort. "There is an effort to find places, such as old military camps, or abandoned buildings, where they can stay temporarily. We have appealed to (EU Commissioner Dimitris) Avramopoulos for a solution. If we don't have the solution, then we must take temporary measures so that people don't die in the middle of the street and then, in cooperation with Europe, we should resolve the issue," he said referring to the government's actions to address the issue.

[02] Moderate quake jolts Cyprus

A series of aftershocks of lower magnitude followed.

No damages have been reported so far.

[03] OECD report shows over-taxation of families with children in Greece

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, in a report on its 34 member-states, highlighted the levels of over-taxation in Greece and noted that families with children were taxed more compared with taxpayers without a family. According to these figures, and after taking in mind family benefits, families with children in Greece were taxed by three percentage points more than taxpayers without a family, while in the OECD taxation of families with children was by nine percentage points lower.

Belgium (40.6 pct) and France (40.5 pct) followed Greece in taxation of families with children, while the lowest taxation levels were recorded in New Zealand (3.8 pct), Chile (7.0 pct), Switzerland (9.8 pct) and Ireland (9.9 pct). Greece ranked 14th among OECD countries in taxation of taxpayers without a family.

The report showed that the percentage of taxes and social insurance contributions on wages accounted for 40.4 pct (39.1 pct in 2000), from 36 pct on average in the OECD.

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