Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] Tsakalotos: Short-term measures on Greek debt will improve climate for investors - No tax increase for seamen

[02] IMF not asking for additional austerity in Greece, spokesman Gerry Rice says

[03] Turkish servicemen thank Greeks for 'sympathy and solidarity' during their extradition case

[04] Dublin transfers of migrants to Greece can only resume subject to certain conditions, Avramopoulos says

[01] Tsakalotos: Short-term measures on Greek debt will improve climate for investors - No tax increase for seamen

Commenting on the negotiations between the government and the institutions, he said it "is almost concluded" and that differences on the fiscal gap are very small both for 2017 and 2018.

Concerning the primary surpluses and the measures the International Monetary Fund (IMF) insists Greece should vote on now, Tsakalotos reiterated the government's position that this proposal is rejected and asked opposition parties to do the same, so as to strengthen the government's negotiating position.

"I explained at the Eurogroup that there is no way we will vote on such measures and I would like your support, so that I can say that this is the position of the parliament, because it would be very helpful for all the negotiating team," the minister told lawmakers.

He also urged lawmakers to avoid adding a "sense of drama" to the negotiations because "this how it always is when reviews are closing. Players never reveal their final position and if we remain calm the same will happen in the coming days for this negotiation".

He aso said that both the 2017 and 2018 state budgets will close without any additional tax hike for Greek seamen, adding that the issue of raising the contributions of seamen was never proposed by the Greek government but was included in the list of issues raised by the institutions. Such a measures will not be accepted, he added.

Greek seamen's union have been on strike throughout the past week, in protest against proposals to increase their current taxation rate.

[02] IMF not asking for additional austerity in Greece, spokesman Gerry Rice says

"A primary budget surplus of 3.5 pct of GDP will bring additional austerity measures for the Greek people, which is something we don't want," he said.

Replying to questions, he repeated that the IMF would prefer to see lower primary surplus targets for Greece, around 1.5 pct of GDP, as well as debt relief. "There should not be any doubt about the IMF's position," he said. Such a target would be realistic and involve less austerity for the Greek people, Rice said.

The IMF was not asking for additional austerity, Rice added, but if the Europeans and Greece decide on a higher and more ambitious primary surplus target, the IMF's backing would require that this is supported with additional structural reforms. "As the IMF, we must ensure that there are measures for 3.5 pct [of GDP primary surplus]," he said, noting that the current programme agreed between Greece and the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) envisaged measures that, based on IMF calculations, would result in a primary surplus of 1.5 pct.

Rice said that talks on the IMF's participation in the Greek programme were taking place on a daily basis via teleconferences and that the Fund needed reliable forecasts. Regarding the disagreements with the European institutions in the Greek programme, he said these were "natural". Other financial assistance programmes involving the IMF and other agencies eventually resulted in an agreement, he pointed out.

He repeated the IMF's full commitment to the talks and to achieving an agreement as soon as possible, while noting that there were no disagreements within the IMF's ranks. "We speak with one voice," he said, adding that the IMF had set no deadline for achieving an agreement but was striving for credible policies and debt relief.

[03] Turkish servicemen thank Greeks for 'sympathy and solidarity' during their extradition case

Turkish authorities had requested that all three be extradited to face charges of trying to overthrow the democratic constitution and amid claims they belong to a terrorist organization headed by Turkish imam Fethullah Gulen. Justices in the three trials which focused on the case rejected Turkey's request for five servicemen and accepted it for three. The case will head to the Supreme Court.

"We are very happy with today's decision which proves that Greece is a country that respects human rights and European values. Let's not forget that we are in the land that gave birth to the concept of asylum, as the prosecutor rightly stated today," they said in a joint statement.

"We are certain that Justice will prevail in the end. Our families and us thank all Greek citizens for their sympathy and solidarity," they added.

[04] Dublin transfers of migrants to Greece can only resume subject to certain conditions, Avramopoulos says

"Vulnerable applicants and unaccompanied minors will not be returned to Greece," Avramopoulos said, noting that Greek authorities must provide individual assurances in each case. In practice, he added, "only a very small number of people will fall in this category in the near future."

"Every time a Member State wants to execute a Dublin transfer, they should only do so after they have received assurances from the Greek authorities that that particular applicant will be received in the conditions mandated by European law. This also means that in each individual transfer case, Greece will be able to specify whether the conditions are still such that Greece is in a position to receive additional applicants," he said.

Avramopoulos noted that the Commission's recommendation will be reviewed if current conditions change again, for example if arrivals go up again, and will only work if Greek authorities continue efforts to improve the situation between now and March and the other member-states "do their part in picking up the pace of relocation and deploying national experts."

The Commissioner made it clear that the burden should not fall exclusively on Greece: "Neither Greece nor Italy nor any other country in the future should be left alone to bear an unsustainable burden," he said. That would be irresponsible, Avramopoulos pointed out, given the high migration and asylum pressures on Greece.

He predicted that there will only be a very small number of such Dublin transfers, since there was now much tighter control of Greece's land border with Albania and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) so there were no "secondary transfers". Greece had also asked for the deployment of a European border guard, which was now underway, so that migrants will be prevented from travelling irregularly long before March 15, he said.

Greece had made significant progress under very difficult conditions to put in place a fully functioning asylum system over the last months, Avramopoulos said, announcing that the European Commission on Thursday closed the infringement procedures against Greece and Italy in relation to Eurodac after both countries achieved a near 100 pct fingerprinting rate for all irregular arrivals.

The Commissioner also reported a record number of relocations in November, which increased to 1,406 and brought the overall total to 8,162, of which 6,212 were relocated from Greece and 1,950 from Italy.

"For Greece we have reached a stable relocation trend at 1,000 per month, and for Italy, last month, the relocations basically doubled," Avramopoulos said.

In light of these improvements, the European Commission now considers that all eligible applicants in Greece and Italy can be relocated to other member-states by September 2017 but this requires that member-states carry out at least 2,000 relocations from Greece and 1,000 from Italy each month from here on. As of April 2017, the relocation rate must increase to 3,000 a month from Greece and 1,500 from Italy.

With regard to resettlement, the Commission said that EU member-states have so far given safe and legal passage to 13,887 persons, as opposed to the agreed number of 22,504 persons under the July 2015 programme. Since the last report, a record number of 2,035 individuals from Turkey, Jordan and Lebanon were resettled each month. An additional 544 Syrian refugees have been resettled from Turkey, bringing the total resettlements from Turkey under the EU-Turkey Statement to 2,761, the Commission reported.

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