Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-07-07

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Tsipras leaves for Warsaw to attend NATO summit

[02] Regling: ESM to present proposals for short-term debt relief for Greece in coming weeks

[03] Gov't releases details of 13,730 individuals, businesses with overdue debts to the state

[01] PM Tsipras leaves for Warsaw to attend NATO summit

The prime minister's schedule starts with the reception of NATO heads of state and government at 13:40 local time. He will then attend the NATO leaders' meeting between 15:30 and 18:30 and a working dinner at Poland's presidential mansion from 20:30 to 23:00.

On Saturday morning Tsipras will attend a special session devoted to Afghanistan from 9:00-11:00, a lunch for heads of state and government, defence ministers and foreign ministers at 11:00 and then take part in a second North Atlantic Council meeting between noon and 14:00.

The Greek prime minister will also be at a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Commission (NUC) at the level of Heads of State and/or Government from 15:00-16:30 before departing for Athens with the Greek delegation at 18:30

[02] Regling: ESM to present proposals for short-term debt relief for Greece in coming weeks

Regling described the three short-term measures: "One is to smoothen the repayment profile," he said adding that "because there was a repayment, the average maturity is only 28 years and we're allowed to go up to 32 years".

"So we can work with that and relatively quickly adjust some of the repayments in order to avoid big jumps in repayments in certain years, and smoothen the profile," he said.

The second proposal is to look at ways to reduce interest rate risk for Greece. "People expect that interest rates will go up in the future, and we're talking here about a 30-year period, and so we're working on ways to protect Greece."

The third measure is to eliminate an expected jump in interest rates in the year 2017 on a small part of the Greek debt. "And that will save a few hundred million euros," Regling explained.

Asked when he will present his proposals for these three measures, he replied: "We have the mandate. Over the next few weeks, certainly before the end of the year."

[03] Gov't releases details of 13,730 individuals, businesses with overdue debts to the state

The lists were published on the http://publicrevenue.gr portal on separate web pages for Legal Entities and for Individuals. Those on the list are those whose debts are in arrears for longer than 12 months and who have failed to respond to e-mails inviting them to contact the tax office and arrange a settlement.

Not included are companies and individuals who have made and kept up with payments on a settlement for their debts and cases where a court has ruled that payments must be suspended, as well as individuals in the case where there is an ongoing court case concerning their debts.

The biggest company debt on the list was that run up by the Akropolis brokerage at roughly 8.5 billion euros, mostly linked to its involvement in the structured bonds scandal, and the now defunct national carrier Olympic Airways (1.35 billion euros). The biggest debt by an individual is 1.26 billion euros.

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