Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-02-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece seeks improved business presence in south Mediterranean

[02] Police report 551 arrested during 'crime sweep' operation in four major cities

[03] Greek FinMin says pay rises to exceed inflation

[04] FM ministry spokesman comments on Annan's statement on Cyprus

[01] Greece seeks improved business presence in south Mediterranean

Addressing a regular general meeting of the Euro-Med TDS, organised by the National Confederation of Greek Commerce (ESEE) in Athens, Papathanasiou said the Greek business presence in the southern states of the Mediterranean is not satisfactory. "It is still limited," he added.

The Greek minister attributed this negative development to a lack of infrastructure, bureaucracy, vague legislation, state monopolies, lack of information and protective measures in the region.

"Greece is steadily promoting, through economic diplomacy - and not only mechanisms to boost growth prospects of the Euro-Med Partnership," he noted.

The minister presented the government's main goals towards this direction: strengthening the regulatory framework of the partnership, enhancing a political dialogue on security, association agreements with the EU, promoting economic reforms aimed to boost competitiveness, supporting employment and boosting living standards in the region.

Also, moves to support infrastructure in transport, telecommunications and energy, linking infrastructure with Trans-European Networks, promoting investments and financial cooperation.

Foreign Deputy Minister Ioannis Valinakis, in his address, said the EU was cooperating with 10 Mediterranean countries to create a free trade zone by 2010 and within in this framework it has created a "mechanism for investments and association relation between Europe and Mediterranean, a financial agency within the European Investment Bank which offered loans worth 2.2 billion euros last year with a total portfolio of more than 12 billion euros, or two-thirds of total financial support offered by the EU to the region".

[02] Police report 551 arrested during 'crime sweep' operation in four major cities

The coordinated operation was carried out in Athens, Thessaloniki, Larissa and Iraklio as part of the new anti-crime policy recently announced by the public order ministry, they said.

Taking part in the operation code-named 'Polis' were 2,100 police officers, of which 1,700 were in Attica.

Thousands of people were stopped for inspection, which led to the arrest of 449 persons in Attica, 76 in Thessaloniki, 10 in Larissa and 16 in Iraklio.

Of those arrested in Attica, 50 are being held in connection with drug offences, 125 are fugitives from the law, 35 for vice-related offences, two for illegal gambling, eight for theft, seven on weapons charges, three for flouting laws for the protection of minors, six for forgery and 213 for various other offences.

Among those detained was a 50-year-old Albanian national wanted by Albanian authorities for murder and injuring a police officer and a Greek national that had been reported missing in Stuttgart and had been found in Athens using a fake ID.

According to Greek Police (ELAS) Chief George Aggelakos, the nationwide crime sweep was carried out based on a plan drawn up by mapping high-crime areas and would be followed by similar operations in other cities around Greece.

[03] Greek FinMin says pay rises to exceed inflation

Speaking to reporters, after a two-hour meeting with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, Alogoskoufis stressed that wage pay rises would exceed the inflation rate (it ended at 2.9 percent last year), while he noted that pension pay rises would be slightly higher. The Greek minister underlined that supplementary pension pay increases would be double the inflation figure.

Alogoskoufis stressed that the government was committed to its strategy of a mild fiscal adjustment and emphasized to economic growth and exports, saying that the government would unfoil its initiatives soon.

Replying to questions over the sale of Olympic Airlines, Alogoskoufis said that a deadline to submit bids in the tender has expired and said that there were several Greek and foreign investors, as well as other airlines, and added that procedures would move on as scheduled.

The Greek minister said he was in full cooperation with Labour Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos in a dialogue over the banking sector's pension system and noted that the government was not submitting any proposals in the dialogue between employers and employees in the sector. Alogoskoufis said that the dialogue would continue next week.

[04] FM ministry spokesman comments on Annan's statement on Cyprus

Koumoutsakos' statement came in the wake of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan's statement Thursday in London, in which he urged Cyprus President Tassos Papadopoulos ''to really put his views on paper the changes he would want to have,'' on the Annan settlement plan, indicating ''it would be helpful for anyone who is going to begin discussions or resumption of talks.''

The full statement by Koumoutsakos is as follows:

''Yesterday's (Thursday) statements by UN Secretary General Mr. Kofi Annan fall under the framework of positions that himself has expressed at various instances after the holding of the two referenda in Cyprus. Our position is known. We steadfastly seek the reunification of the island. We believe in a viable and functional solution to the Cyprus problem on the basis of the Annan plan, in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions and European principles and values. In this framework, every action that can contribute substantially to the achievemnt of a solution, which of course needs to be acceptable by all Cypriots, is deemed positive.''

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