Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-12-08

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

CONTENTS

[01] PASOK leader meets with social partners

[01] PASOK leader meets with social partners

Following meetings with the main trade union organisations the day before, Papandreou met groups representing farmers, employers, industry and commerce on Thursday.

Starting at the farmers' umbrella union PASEGES, Papandreou was briefed by PASEGES President Tzanetos Karamihas on the budget's shortcomings for the farming community, such as the reduction of OGA farming pensions, rising oil prices, as well as a special consumption tax and VAT payments that burdened farmers both as producers and consumers.

At the General Confederation of Light Industry and Commerce of Greece (GSEBEE), the main opposition leader was briefed on concerns about new direct and indirect taxes, reduced funds for the GSEBEE social insurance fund and rising taxes for some 630,000 small businesses, as well as steadily shrinking family incomes.

After a later meeting with the National Trade Confederation (ESEE), Papandreou slammed the government's economic performance and said that the budget did not reflect the true needs of the country and again criticised the government's decision to conduct a general 'audit' of state finances at the start of its term.

"We don't see reforms, the bill for public utilities (DEKO) is not a serious reform in our eyes and it moves along lines that do not have a developmental character, nor will it contribute to a plan for the modernisation and competitiveness of state services and market reform," he added.

Replying to a statement by the president of the Union of Greek Industry (SEB) Odysseas Kyriakopoulos, meanwhile, PASOK's leader stressed that collective labour agreements were a very important issue.

He underlined that peace in labour relations was an important element of stability and growth, which the country and the social partners had succeeded in creating over the past years.

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