Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-01-14

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

CONTENTS

[01] Parliament briefed on EU summit, Macedonia issue talks

[01] Parliament briefed on EU summit, Macedonia issue talks

In his question, Papoutsis had referred to press reports from FYROM that linked the so-called Macedonia issue with an invitation to FYROM Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva to attend an conference of Balkan countries in Athens.

"There is no secret diplomacy between Skopje and Greece concerning the name of the neighbouring country. What Skopje's newspapers write is their own affair. Ms Mitreva could not be excluded and not be invited to the Inter-Balkan Conference in which all Balkan countries will participate," Valynakis underlined.

The deputy minister did not rule out the possibility of bilateral talks between Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molyviatis and his Balkan counterparts on the sidelines of the meeting, however.

PASOK MEP Stavros Lambrinidis, on his part, said the government lacked a "Balkan" policy and urged particular caution in negotiations with FYROM to "avoid what happened with Turkey's EU accession, where we lost whatever we had won".

Briefing the committee on the results of the EU summit, Valynakis described the outcome as a "important success" for Greece, which had managed to secure a satisfactory funding package of â¬21 billion.

"Greece fought and won the crucial wager of the CAP, both in order to secure a satisfactory sum for the structural funds and for their proper utilisation," he said.

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