Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-02-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Tsipras meets with European Commissioner for Migration Avramopoulos

[02] Heads of institutions to meet with Greek FinMin Tsakalotos on Friday in Brussels

[03] Greek banking system will not need fourth recapitalization, BoG says

[04] We will have white smoke at the Eurogroup meeting on Feb.20, estimates Dep. FM Quick

[05] Four metro stations closed on Feb 11-12 due to technical works

[01] PM Tsipras meets with European Commissioner for Migration Avramopoulos

Avramopoulos, who returned from the US, said that he had very important meetings noting that it was the first European contact with the new administration during which very interesting positive messages sent.

On his part, Tsipras said that on Thursday in Ukraine there was a positive reference to the efforts on the visa liberalisation which, as he said, will be very good if its achieved before summer taking into account that Greece is the most safe tourist destination in the region of southeastern Mediterrenean. Tsipras said that our target is to attract over 30 million tourists this year and every action will contribute positively to this.

�igration Policy Minister Yiannis Mouzalas was also present at the meeting.

[02] Heads of institutions to meet with Greek FinMin Tsakalotos on Friday in Brussels

The meeting is held at Dijsselbloem's initiative who stated on Friday to reporters in Hague that there must be a boost to the negotiation. "Sometimes we need to push things and this is what we will do today and we hope it will help" he said who also added that "the reforms in Greece are moving slowly but are on the right direction".

Eurogroup president also noted that the scenarios of revival of the crisis are exaggerating and that there is no reason for rush adding that the work continues.

He clarified that in today's meeting they will not discuss the issue of the Greek debt but Greece's fiscal issues, the primary surpluses and the reforms in the pension system.

Sources said to Athens Macedonian News Agency that in the meeting will participate the head of ESM Klaus Regling, Benoit Coeure from the European Central Bank while the European Commission will be represented by the General Manager for Economic Affairs Marco Buti and the head of the negotiation Declan Costello. IMF will be represented by Poul Thomsen.

[03] Greek banking system will not need fourth recapitalization, BoG says

Addressing an event on "Surviving from NPLs and auctions", organized by Mavrakis-Real Estate Chartered Surveyors, Mitrakos rebuffed rumors over the possibility of a new recapitalization of Greek banks, saying "the figures presented were not right as the Greek banking system has stabilized".

The central banker underlined that the Greek banking system was robust and stable, with high capital adequacy rates, "much higher than European average rates". The equity ratio of Greek banks was 18 pct, up from an average European ratio of 16 pct. "At the current period, Greek banks have no problem in terms of capital and stability," he said.

Mitrakos acknowledged, however, that the banking system has serious challenges to face, such as non-performing loans, but noted that actions and timetables have been set by the Bank of Greece and commercial banks, in cooperation with the Single Supervisory Mechanism of the European Union. "The first figures from the implementation of a timetable are encouraging. A target set to reduce NPLs by 40 billion euros by 2019 I believe it is optimistic but feasible," he said.

Speaking to ANA, Mitrakos said: "A process of target setting with regular quarterly reporting has begun. In the last three quarters of 2016, the value of NPLs not only stabilized at 107.7 billion euros, but fell by 1.0 billion euros, while their rate stabilized at 45.1 pct of total loans".

[04] We will have white smoke at the Eurogroup meeting on Feb.20, estimates Dep. FM Quick

"I believe that a compromise will be reached and Greece will not make a single step backwards on its already set matters of principle" he underlined.

Commenting German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble's statements he said "Europe and the thinking politicians and people in Germany can't leave Schaeuble dissolve Europe, because this is his purpose. The technical groups are working day and night and the Europeans are pressing. Even Dijsselbloem does whatever possible to avoid leaving Europe in Schaeuble's hands; because that's the whole case".

[05] Four metro stations closed on Feb 11-12 due to technical works

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