Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-06-06

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

CONTENTS

[01] Public prosecutor concludes meeting with West Attica mayors over dump closure

[02] Finance ministry reports rise in government revenues in May

[03] Greece tops list of countries whose citizens oppose globalisation, ICAP-Gallup survey shows

[04] Star athlete Thanou and coach released after answering doping-related charges

[01] Public prosecutor concludes meeting with West Attica mayors over dump closure

Sources said the meeting had concluded with an agreement to ask the West Attica Prefecture Council, which is due to convene later on Monday in Elefsina, to re-open the landfill site to receive ordinary refuse piling up on the streets of Athens but not the controversial sewage sludge from Psytallia.

It was attended by the mayors of Ano Liossia and Aspropyrgos, the West Attica Prefect and representatives of the Attica municipality and community union, as well as other local bodies.

The meeting was called by Papangelopoulos, who warned that he would carry out the law and press charges, placing those responsible in custody, unless an immediate solution to the dump's closure were found.

The landfill at Ano Liossia -- the only legal landfill in Attica -- has been closed since last Tuesday, by order of Ano Liossia mayor Nikos Papadimas, backed by the mayors of the other western Attica cities, in protest over a decision announced recently by environment, town planning and public works minister George Souflias -- following a positive ruling on the issue by the Council of State -- for the transfer of sludge from the sewage-water plant on the island of Psytallia to the Ano Liossia landfill for treatment.

In comments after a meeting with Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on Monday, meanwhile, Tourism Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos was critical of the problem with the garbage that has been piling up on the streets of Athens.

Avramopoulos said that the present picture of Athens caused damage to the capital's image, in addition to the risk for public health, adding that all sides involved should rise to the circumstances and provide solutions.

He said this was an "unacceptable picture", and severely criticised the fact that Greece was last (in Europe) in waste management systems.

Avramopoulos underlined that the environment, town planning and public works ministry was doing its job "well and responsibly", but added that the ministry's proposals should be heeded by the other sides involved.

In a meeting with local mayors last week, Souflias acknowledged the problem that the Ano Liossia landfill poses for the western Attica, but asked the local authorities to be "realistic and responsible", explaining that the sludge can only be stored and treated in a specially-designated space.

Souflias said the New Democracy government had been handed a "hot potato" and was trying to find a solution, referring to the fact that the problem of the Psyttalia plant dated back to when the main opposition PASOK party was in power, since a drying unit to treat the sludge at the Psyttalia installations that was to have been built was never completed because EU funds and time ran out before its completion.

Deputy Environment Minister Themistocles Xanthopoulos claimed on Monday in Parliament that the decision to deposit sewage sludge from the treatment plant at Psytallia at the landfill site in Ano Liossia was a suitable solution for the problem, rejecting opposition criticism that the ministry was dumping the problem on west Attica residents.

"The environment ministry is not holding a hot potato as [Environment Minister George] Souflias claims but a hand-grenade without a pin. It received a time-bomb, but instead of removing it as far away as possible, it is stuffing into the trousers of West Attica. And this cannot be accepted by its residents," Coalition of the Left MP Athanassios Leventis said.

Xanthopoulos countered the criticism as unfair and stressed that the deal signed with a German company for turning the sludge into soil was the indicated method and would give a final solution to the problem.

"We hope that in two years, all the sludge will become odourless grains that will not pollute the Attic basin," the minister said.

[02] Finance ministry reports rise in government revenues in May

Deputy Finance Minister Adam Regouzas expressed confidence that budget targets for a rise in revenues for 2005 will be met and stressed that no additional taxes will be imposed.

According to the deputy minister, revenues must increase by 10.1 per cent on an annual basis - rather than the 7.4 per cent target stated in the budget - in order to meeting the target rise in revenues for the 2005 budget. He said this was because revenues had fallen short by 1.3 billion euros during 2004.

[03] Greece tops list of countries whose citizens oppose globalisation, ICAP-Gallup survey shows

More specifically, according to the survey results, a 56 percent majority of world citizens are opposed to globalisation, believing that it creates more problems than it solves. Greece topped the list, with 72 percent of the respondents in agreement with that opinion.

In a total 64 countries, 56 percent of the respondents either replied either "agree" or "totally agree" that globalisation creates more problems than it solves, while 30 percent either "disagree" or "totally disagree" with that view. The area with the highest proportion of citizens with a negative view of globalisation was Asia, with 64 percent, while Africa was the only region in which the proportion of citizens with a positive view of globalisation (50 percent) exceeded that of those with a negative view (41 percent).

With respect to individual countries, the five countries with the highest proportion of citizens with a negative view of globalisation were Greece (72 percent), Japan (71 percent), Croatia (70 percent), Austria (69 percent) and France (67 percent). Worthy of note is the fact that three of those countries are Western European countries and EU member states (Greece, Austria and France).

Also, the proportion of Greek respondents who replied "totally agree" with the view that globalisation creates more problems than it solves was a high 47 percent, followed by Croatia with 34 percent, while the country with the smallest proportion was Japan, with just 9 percent.

Conversely, the five countries with the highest proportions of citizens in favour of globalisation -- who disagreed with the view that it creates more problems than it solves -- were Albania (62 percent), Nigeria (56 percent), Taiwan (53 percent), Kenya (52 percent) and Egypt (52 percent). Worthy of note is that no EU member state, nor the US, were among the top five countries whose citizens were in favour of globalisation.

[04] Star athlete Thanou and coach released after answering doping-related charges

Thanou, an Olympic silver-medallist in Sydney, is accused of obstructing a doping test and the moral instigation of others to commit breach of duty and provide false attestations. The same charges are faced by her training partner and 200m gold medallist Costas Kenteris and relate to their failure to appear for scheduled doping tests in Tel Aviv, Chicago and Athens, as well the events linked to an alleged road accident in Glyfada that sent the two athletes to hospital on the eve of the Athens Olympics.

Tzekos faces the same charges as the two athletes, while also outstanding against him are charges of violating the law on controlled substances.

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