Athens News Agency: News in English, 09-02-20

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

CONTENTS

[01] Transportation Ministry reacts to TIR drivers' strike

[02] ASE opening: Slump

[01] Transportation Ministry reacts to TIR drivers' strike

The customs posts at Evzoni, Doirani and Niki, in northern Greece, as well as the border crossings of Promahonas and Exohi, were blocked by lorries and other large vehicles on Thursday due to the mobilisations by truckers who remained in place on Friday, while similar blockades spread were set up later Thursday at the ports of Patras and Igoumenitsa.

The protesting truckers blocked access to other vehicles transporting goods allowing, however, passage to private cars and tourist coaches.

Their demands include implementation of 24-hour checks on trucks with foreign license plates to tackle the problem of "pirating", i.e. foreign truckers illegally working in Greece. They also called for measures aimed at dealing with the problem of illegal migrants in seaports attempting to stow away on Italy-bound trucks.

In an announcement on Friday, the ministry reacted to the mobilizations, which it said rendered Greece accountable to the international community and particularly its European partners.

It said that the ministry has made ensurance of the Greek transporters' transport activities a top priority, adding that minister Evripidis Stylianidis has already undertaken a commitment for the immediate advancement of a legislative regulation providing for the establishment of a Pan-Hellenic Monitoring Body, for a stricter and more efficient monitoring and checking of international cargos, especially for non-EU transports within Greek territory.

The minister has also asked all Prefectures in the country to tighten the checks by the mixed prefectural monitoring units, and indeed in the presence of road transporters' representatives to be designated by their union organizations, while he has further asked the ministers of the interior and justice to seek methods of tackling the phenomenon of illegal immigrants boarding and hiding in trucks, the announcement explained.

Given the above, and also the fact that all 15 demands of the branch were currently being advanced, the Ministry said it failed to understand the reasons why a section of the OFAE members decided the strike.

[02] ASE opening: Slump

Individual sector indices were moving mostly downward, with the biggest losses in Financial Services, down 4.17 percent; Health, down 3.46 percent; Banks, down 3.49 percent; and Construction, down 3.27 percent.

The biggest gains were in Mass Media, up 1.20 percent; and Chemicals, up 0.04 percent.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks was down 2.92 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index was down 1.75 percent, and the FTSE/ASE-80 small cap index was down 1.22 percent.

Of the stocks moved, 6 were up, 76 were down, and 13 were unchanged.

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