Athens News Agency: News in English, 10-05-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Papandreou calls for common effort

[02] Samaras addreses SEV general assembly

[01] PM Papandreou calls for common effort

Papandreou referred to the government's efforts to achieve the EU's support mechanism which, as he said, was achieved by the entire Greek society "since there were also sacrifices by the citizens for it" and stressed "we are now speaking on a different basis from when we started."

The prime minister pointed out that Greece has great possibilities and must enter the course of growth, stressing that great weight will be placed on private investments and called on businessmen to operate within the framework that the government is creating, so that there can be growth as well as the creation of new jobs.

"We must all work hard and creatively. The government will go ahead with reforms so as to change what has been bad for decades, we shall do all that we can, I personally will work hard, I also request from you to side with this effort, so that we can change what we call the Greek problem to a Greek miracle," he concluded.

[02] Samaras addreses SEV general assembly

Speaking before the Federation of Hellenic Enterprises' (SEV) general assembly meeting in Athens, Samaras stressed that "we are living through the most serious crisis in decades, one which threatens global stability and tests economies, society, political and European institutions."

He underlined that "a system which for decades engaged in the redistribution of borrowed money went bankrupt." He added that Greece's "a political system of uncontrollable populism and unprecedented statism" are doomed to go bankrupt, and stressed that its "collapse coincides with the failure of the European institutions, which lacked crisis management mechanisms to support suffering economies."

"Now, Europe appears to be establishing such mechanisms as a result of the Greek crisis," while stressing that the involvement of the IMF is "unthinkable."

"The Greek economy was proven to be the weaker link in a very loose chain ... our economy was plagued with imbalances within the framework of a broader European system that is also faced with imbalances."

"In 2009, Greece adopted certain measures aimed at cutting deficit but they were not implemented because of the government change," he said, adding that "in the last quarter everything in Greece has been torn apart and weâve made ourselves the weaker link."

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