Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-12-21

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

CONTENTS

[01] Parliament approves 2007 state budget; PM Karamanlis terms it vote of confidence for reforms

[01] Parliament approves 2007 state budget; PM Karamanlis terms it vote of confidence for reforms

Addressing Parliament on Thursday night before the vote took place, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis termed the voting of the budget as a "vote of confidence for the continuation of reforms in all sectors" of Greek society, adding that elections were a "serious matter".

Karamanlis said that "I understood that even with minced words, you are calling for elections," directing himself to main opposition Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) leader George Papandreou.

"I would be tempted to answer with a saying which says: Be careful when you advance demands, because sometimes they become acceptable," Karamanlis said.

Commenting on Papandreou's speech earlier on, the prime minister expressed his disappointment because, instead of proposals he heard "insults, outcries and voices of tension and division, which in essence prove poverty of substance and weaknesss of political discourse." The citizens' interest and the quality of public life "are not promoted, neither with aphorisms, neither with extremities, neither with insults, neither of course with building walls of division, which you are attempting to erect," Karamanlis said.

Replying to Papandreou, the prime minister said:"The elections and the institutions are a very serious matter. You can play. I do not play. We have work to do, we have work to advance. The elections will be held at their own time, when we complete this work. And then, really, we will tell the citizens: Judge us by our work and by this they will judge us. However, they will also judge you. And then you will receive the answer you fit."

Karamanlis, who termed 2007 "a year of continuity of reforms, but also a year of preparation for the major institutional reforms, which will follow the 2008 elections," called for Parliament's positive vote "in order for us to continue the cleansing of the economy and to rid the country from the problems and the pathologies, which held it stuck to yesterday, fearful in front of the new. I ask for a vote of continuity of reforms in all sectors, the economy, the structures of the state and the broader public sector, higher public education, health and the environment. I call for a vote of confidence to the road of the future and of responsibility."

The prime minister said that the 2007 budget depicted clearly the way the government was achieving its difficult targets for the reduction of the deficit, the slowing down of the public debt, a growth having at its centre man, and for an economy of opportunities. The budget, he said, "is an example of mild fiscal adjustment and a foundation of a new momentum for development. It is based on realistic forecasts on incomes as well as expenditures. It means credibility, consistency, effectiveness."

"The reform strategy which we are implementing, already yields the first results. The rate of growth has reached 4.4 per cent while the fiscal deficit has decreased by 4 per cent limiting itself to under 3 per cent. Investments are beginning to return to Greece, as the latest EU Commission report notes," the prime minister said.

He said his government opted for dialogue in implementing reformes. "There were cases where we exhausted all time margins. But this cannot go on indefinitely," Karamanlis underlined.

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