Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-03-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM appeals for unity, calls on neighbouring countries to respect Int'l law

[02] Papandreou addresses PASOK's Youth Conference

[01] PM appeals for unity, calls on neighbouring countries to respect Int'l law

"Greece, as a factor of peace, stability and cooperation in our broader region, calls on all its neighbours to adopt and prove in practice their respect to the institutional, economic and political acquis communautaire of the European Union, the principles and values of Europe and International Law," Karamanlis said.

The prime minister, having stressed with emphasis his certainty that the only objective which unites Greek society is "Greece of peace, growth and progress," said that "what we are all obliged to do, government, political forces, local government agencies and active citizens, forces of production, businesses and social partners, is to unite our forces to consolidate our gains. To change things around us. To make challenges opportunities. To put into practice the vision of the fighters of freedom and of national dignity. A strong Greece with proud Greeks."

He said that "undisputably, in the past years, the state, to the degree of its potential, implemented special policies for growth, the full unification, it recognised however that the rate must be speeded up so that the greatest result to be achieved for the growth of the border and island Greece. For us, the great number of our islands and particularly the islands of the Archipelagos, is not a problem, but a valuable national capital, it is our great comparative advantage."

Karamanlis referred to the main policies which the government implemented in the first three years of its tenure for the Dodecanese.

- The shaping of a special duties and taxation system.

-the reduced indicators of the Value Added Tax (VAT).

-The special development law, whose validity concerned the islands of the eastern Aegean and the Dodecanese.

[02] Papandreou addresses PASOK's Youth Conference

Papandreou said "the new generation is ahead again and is putting an end to the right-wing parenthesis, the black three-year period of right-wing governance."

The PASOK leader called on young people to "make the downfall of the government their own cause", while speaking of "wretched governance" and, referring to the issue of social insurance funds, accusing the government "of being responsible for the looting of the funds and the seizure of the toils of your parents."

Papandreou also extended his condolences to the family of a young man killed in clashes that took place in an Athens suburb in the afternoon before a women's volleyball match was due to begin between arch rivals Olympiakos Piraeus and Panathinaikos Athens, stressing that "a society of blind violence does not suit us."

He further said in his address that in front of "a world of war, insecurity, fear, racism, social exclusion, the state of 'our friends', guided knowledge and vicious individualism, we claim the right to free the great forces that our country and our people have and create a just society and a strong Greece with them."

Papandreou also committed himself to equal access for young immigrants everywhere and stressed that "every child that is born anywhere in Greece, from whatever parents will be by right and automatically a Greek citizen, without any exception."

The 6,000 delegates participating in the Conference resulted from election processes in which, according to an announcement by the Conference's Organising Committee, 90,663 young men and women and members and friends of PASOK participated.

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