Athens News Agency: News in English, 03-10-16

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM outlines Greek positions at EU Intergovernmental Conference in

[02] Bank of Greece backs a more austere fiscal policy

[03] President Stephanopoulos winds up visit to Serbia and Montenegro

[04] Health minister refers to health services concerning 2004 Athens

[05] Olympic exhibition to open in Venice

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates: Friday

[07] Weather Forecast: Rain, storms on Friday

[08] Greek stocks ease on Thursday

[01] PM outlines Greek positions at EU Intergovernmental Conference in Brussels

BRUSSELS (ANA/M. Spinthourakis-V. Demiris) - Prime Minister Costas Simitis outlined Greece's positions at the Intergovernmental Conference of European Union member-states, entrusted with preparing Europe's constitution, while speaking at a press conference at the end of the first session of the EU summit here on Thursday.

Simitis said the first signs of convergence exist among the positions of EU member-states, adding that what is necessary is not the preparation of a legal text but speeding up the process towards European integration.

Focusing on Greek positions, the prime miniter reiterated that the European draft constitution prepared by the Convention on the Future of Europe constitutes a good basis for consultations.

Regarding the European Council president, he said Greece supports the appointment of a ''longterm'' president, believing that in this way continuity and consistency in EU activities will be safeguarded. However, Greece believes that the issue of relations between the European Council president and the European Comission president must be examined.

As far as the European Commission is concerned, Greece believes that all member-states must be represented on equal terms and with one Commissioner at the Commission, but its president must have an increased margin of powers in relation to the allocation of duties for Commissioners.

For the Council of Ministers, Greece supports the rotating assumption of Council presidencies by a group of three countries every year.

[02] Bank of Greece backs a more austere fiscal policy

The Greek economy has achieved high grades of macro-economic stability in the last few years, although inflation still surpassed the eurozone average rate, unemployment remained high and the country's current accounts deficit surpassed 6.0 percent of GDP for the fourth consecutive session, a Bank of Greece's interim report on monetary policy said on Thursday.

The report, submitted to parliament and to the government cabinet by Bank of Greece's governor Nikos Garganas, said that the country's fiscal deficit as a percentage of GDP remained one of the highest in the European Union despite a significant reduction this year.

The central bank noted that these problems reflected weakness in the Greek economy and stressed that it would need more efforts towards fiscal restructuring, infrastructural reforms and the contribution of social partners to solve them.

The Bank of Greece urged the government to adopt a more austere fiscal policy, noting that fiscal policy loosened this year compared with the government's targets, and stressed that continued efforts to achieve fiscal restructuring could help contain inflationary pressures in the economy.

[03] President Stephanopoulos winds up visit to Serbia and Montenegro

BELGRADE (ANA/N. Megadoukas) - Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos wound up a three-day official visit toSerbia and Montenegro on Thursday with a meeting earlier in the day with Montenegrin President Filip Vujanovic.

Stephanopoulos, who has already returned to Athens, in statements said all the contacts he had in Belgrade were of extreme interest and expressed the hope that they would bear fruit.

The president further said that in his talks with his Serb and Montenegrin interlocutors, there was a mutual and sincere briefing on what was going on in this country and on Greece's aims, adding that full agreement was ascertained that efforts must continue for the western Balkan countries to approach and finally join the European Union.

[04] Health minister refers to health services concerning 2004 Athens Olympic Games

Health Minister Costas Stefanis, adressing the conference of the ''Economist'' in Athens on Thursday, announced that the operational programmes of health services covering the 2004 Athens Olympic Games are being carried out at a very satisfactory pace.

Stefanis said the total budget for programmes amounts to 365 million euros, of which 80 percent has been absorbed to date, while the entire project is being supervised by the Monitoring Committee created with a ministerial decision.

Hospital treatment, first stage health care, the handling of emergencies, public health and hygiene and organising and coordinating services are, according to the minister, the operational programme's five main priorities.

On the question of hospital treatment, 25 hospitals all over the country, 17 of which are located in the wider Athens area, have been termed ''Olympic'' ones and will have space for emergencies and intensive care units.

[05] Olympic exhibition to open in Venice

An exhibition linked to next years 2004 Athens Games, entitled ?Olympic Games Five Rings of Athletic Competition, Solidarity, Culture, Hope and Peace, opens in Venice this weekend following its debut in Naples and a subsequent showing in Athens.

The exhibition, featuring the works of 25 noted artists (10 Greeks and 15 Italians), will be hosted at the lagoon citys Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista from Oct. 18 to Nov. 16.

The theme of the exhibition revolves around the ?Olympic ideals? that promote notion of sport, including its mental and aesthetic aspects.

The Greek consulate in Venice and the Veneto regional authority are organising the exhibition in cooperation with Greeces culture ministry general secretariat for the 2004 Olympic Games.

[06] Foreign Exchange Rates: Friday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.170

Pound sterling 0.700

Danish kroner 7.487

Swedish kroner 9.013

Japanese yen 128.4

Swiss franc 1.561

Norwegian kroner 8.316

Cyprus pound 0.589

Canadian dollar 1.550

Australian dollar 1.701

[07] Weather Forecast: Rain, storms on Friday

All parts of the country will see showers and storms, easing off from the west later in the day. Winds north-northeasterly, light to moderate. In the north, temperatures will range from 4C to 15C; in the centre 10C to 19C; and in the rest of the country from 13C to 24C. Temperatures in Athens between 14C and 23C; and in Thessaloniki from 10C to 15C.

[08] Greek stocks ease on Thursday

Greek stocks eased slightly on Thursday in the Athens Stock Exchange with the market suffering from lack of fresh news and incentives.

The general index ended 0.34 percent lower at 2,111.24 points, with trade focusing in blue chip stocks like Hellenic Telecoms, Panafon, National Bank, Alpha Bank, EFG Eurobank Ergasias and Emporiki Bank. Turnover was a dissapointing low 97.7 million euros.

The Telecommunications and Investment sectors were the only ones to score gains (0.25 percent and 0.17 percent, respectively), while the Textile, Publication and Food-Beverage sectors suffered the heaviest percentage losses of the day (1.68 percent, 1.22 percent and 1.21 percent, respectively).

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavy traded stocks eased 0.19 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index fell 0.53 percent and the FTSE/ASE SmallCap 80 index ended 0.46 percent down.

Broadly, decliners led advancers by 225 to 82 with another 51 issues unchanged.

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