Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-04-12

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

CONTENTS

[01] 'Multicoloured and gilded' - the 'other side' of ancient sculpture at the NAM

[02] Greece seeks financial advisers for the sale of stakes in Athens and Thessaloniki water utilities

[03] CoS to rule on constitutionality of imposing large fines for undeclared labour

[04] Travel receipts down in 2016, despite more tourist arrivals, central bank report says

[01] 'Multicoloured and gilded' - the 'other side' of ancient sculpture at the NAM

The presentation is entitled "Multicoloured and Gilded: the world of statues differently" and will explain the techniques that conservation workshops and archaeologists use to discover traces of these vanished pigments, which are often invisible to the naked eye. The now white marble statues that fill museums throughout the world were often brightly coloured in their original form, while many were adorned in gold paint. Most traces of these pigments were bleached by their long stay in the ground but modern technology has discovered non-invasive ways to find out what these were, allowing archaeologists to largely recreate an image of the statues as they once were.

The presentation, lasting roughly 30 minutes to an hour, will take place at noon and be followed by a visit to the sculpture conservation workshops.

The 'Open Museum' programme aims to acquaint the general public with the multi-sided work involved in the research, preservation, conservation and display of antiquities. The presentations are free of charge but those wishing to attend are required to obtain a ticket to enter the museum and sign up to take part at the information desk in the half hour before the presentation begins.

The programme has been running since November 2016, with a single presentation each month until June this year.

[02] Greece seeks financial advisers for the sale of stakes in Athens and Thessaloniki water utilities

HRADF said the Hellenic Republic owns a 34.03 pct equity stake in Athens Water, HRADF a 27.3 pct stake, with 9.9 pct owned by John Paulson and the remaining in the Athens Stock Exchange. HRADF owns a 74 pct equity stake in Thessaloniki Water, Suez Environment Company owns 5.0 pct and the remaining stake is in the stock market.

[03] CoS to rule on constitutionality of imposing large fines for undeclared labour

The question was referred to the CoS by an administrative court. It concerns a company in Macedonia where auditors discovered it employed two people who had not been declared. The auditors imposed a fine totaling 21,601 euros - 10,550 per employee and 500 for not keeping a list of employees.

The company claimed existing legislation that foresees large fines is against the law and the ECHR because it doesn't include - and didn't follow - a provision in article 20 of the Constitution that requires authorities to notify the offender to provide an explanation before being fined.

It also claimed law 4255/2014 and the relevant ministerial decision specifying the fines are unconstitutional because they violate the principle of proportionality (article 25 of Constitution), as the fines imposed are disproportionate to the crime. Additionally, the size of the fine must be checked by courts.

ECHR is violated because imposing fines in reality constitutes a criminal sanction, without the guarantees of a court judgment, while the large fines threaten to cause financial damage to the company.

[04] Travel receipts down in 2016, despite more tourist arrivals, central bank report says

The decline was driven mainly by a 14.6 pct decrease in receipts from outside the EU28, which came to 3.652 billion euros or 27.7 pct of total travel receipts, as well as by a drop in receipts from residents of the EU28 (down 3.3 pct to 9.097 billion euros), the bank's report said.

Receipts from euro area residents fell by 7.1 pct compared with the previous year, while receipts from residents of non-euro area EU28 countries rose by 3.6 pct.

Among major countries of origin, receipts from Germany fell by 5.2 pct to 2.128 billion euros and those from France by 25.6 pct to 889 million euros. Receipts from the United Kingdom also decreased, by 3.7 pct to 1.944 billion euros. Turning to non-EU28 countries, receipts from Russia rose by 3.5 pct to 436 million euros, while those from the United States fell by 22.8 pct to 728 million euros.

The number of inbound visitors rose by 7.5 pct in the same year to 28.071 million, from 26.114 million in 2015. Visitors from within the EU28 rose 15 pct and accounted for 61.3 pct of the total number of visitors. Visitors from outside the EU28 dropped 12.1 pct to account for 27.0 pct of the total. The remaining 11.7 pct corresponds to data on cruise passenger flows other than those collected through the Border Survey.

In particular, visitors from Germany increased by 11.7 pct to 3.139 million, while those from France fell by 13.7 pct to 1.314 million. Visitors from the United Kingdom rose by 20.8 pct to 2.895 million. Finally, turning to non-EU28 countries, visitors from Russia rose by 16.1 pct to 596,000 and those from the United States by 3.8 pct to 779,000.

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