Athens News Agency: News in English, 07-09-30

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

CONTENTS

[01] House votes for gov't's policy statement; PM says positions on national issues 'unshakeable'

[01] House votes for gov't's policy statement; PM says positions on national issues 'unshakeable'

Concluding a three-day parliamentary debate on his government's policy statement, Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said Sunday night that Greece's foreign policy was based on the "powerful ideas of peace, stability, international cooperation", that his government's positions on national issues "are known to all" and that these positions "are unshakeable, they are not to be abandoned and they are not to be violated."

The prime minister said solutions to the country's problems "need concrete proposals" underlining that his governement has no intention of "cooperating with attempts aiming at polarisation and tension."

Demanding the House's vote of confidence for the promotions of "changes and reforms the country needs," Karamanlis said these changes "are not simply an option, but a vital need expressed by the whole of society."

"All Greeks, regardless of what one votes for, we want a Greece which is daring, changing and progressing...We want a Greece with a strong economy, with a modern and effective state," he said.

Responding to the opposition's criticism, Karamanlis said that he "understands very well the expediencies of some exaggerations. I understand that some want to forget that they had government responsibilities, I undrsatnd their need to escape from their government's past and that of their party."

The prime minister reiterated his government's intention not to "cooperate with attempts aiming at polarisation and tension."

"Nobody can baptise as 'progress' the sterile negation to every change, to every reform. The 'no' to every change being promoted does not constitute a 'progressive' option, it is an expression of a very strong conservatism," Karamanlis concluded.

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