Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-02-14

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

CONTENTS

[01] 'Not one euro' of additional austerity in deal under negotiation with creditors, gov't spox Tzanakopoulos insists

[02] ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has meeting with Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin

[03] Farmers' conclude protest rally and march in Athens

[04] Top echelons of Greek education administration male-dominated, myschool platform reveals

[01] 'Not one euro' of additional austerity in deal under negotiation with creditors, gov't spox Tzanakopoulos insists

"I can assure the Greek people that this government is working hard and trying to achieve an agreement that does not include additional austerity," he insisted at one point.

Questioned about the tight deadlines before the next Eurogroup on Monday, Tzanakopoulos said that a positive development on February 20 was very likely "provided the expectations are confirmed over the next few days and all sides involved in the Greek programme adopt a constructive stance."

He said the government's optimism on this score was buoyed by new elements that "redefine the reality and create the possibility of a compromise solution within the timeframe," adding that this was the government's goal.

The spokesman also pointed to a visit by European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici in Athens on Wednesday. He noted that the government expects a constructive stance during the negotiations on completing the second review.

All the sides involved now consider that the Greek issue is a "political matter," Tzanakopoulos noted. As a result, he added, there was no point in continuing the talks on a technical level without a decision on the guiding axes on which they will be based.

"The political negotiation of the last two months, at least, has brought results, it has shifted correlations and created a terrain on which an agreement can be built that is capable of satisfying all the sides involved. This is the scenario on which the government is working," he said.

Without going into details regarding the negotiation, Tzanakopoulos said the government will be using the European Commission's figures in the talks, not those of the IMF. He also denied that the institutions had proposed measures equivalent to 2 pct of Greek GDP.

If the targets for primary surpluses are set and the corresponding dates decided, then calculating the medium-term measures was simply a matter of "an equation with one unknown variable," he added.

Lastly, Tzanakopoulos made it clear that the government was fully united in backing a single line, with no differentiation and that SYRIZA's Parliamentary group was solid and unified to the utmost degree.

[02] ND leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis has meeting with Wolfgang Schaeuble in Berlin

The meeting was held at the German finance ministry and no statements were made afterwards.

Mitsotakis is later scheduled to have a working lunch with German business people.

[03] Farmers' conclude protest rally and march in Athens

These include, among others, a tax-free income allowance of 12,000 euros a year with an additional 3,000 euros per child, abolition of recent increases in social insurance contributions, a lower minimum age of retirement, tax-free fule and an 'unseizable' ceiling of 15,000 euros in deposits.

Earlier, police had closed roads in central Athens around Syntagma for the rally, which had started in Vathis Square outside the rural development ministry, with the participation of farmers from some 40 protest road blocks around the country.

Among those not taking part are the farmers from Central Macedonia, who are scheduled to meet government vice-president Yiannis Dragasakis and the other ministers involved on Wednesday afternoon.

[04] Top echelons of Greek education administration male-dominated, myschool platform reveals

Women only hold their own for the lowest administrative rank, at the level of school head teachers - where they outnumbered men by 60 pct to 40 pct - while the number of women falls off as one rises up the hierarchy.

The next step up is that of education directors, where women make up only 15 pct of the total, while among the 13 regional education directors there are only two women.

At the highest level, the leadership of the education ministry itself, the number of women that have served as education ministers is just three since the fall of the junta in 1974, including Marietta Yiannakou in 2004-2007, Anna Diamantopoulou in 2009-2012 and Efrosyni Kiaou in the caretaker governments of Panagiotis Pikrammenos in 2012 and Vassiliki Thanou in 2015.

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