Athens News Agency: News in English, 10-10-22

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

CONTENTS

[01] Benefit for low-income pensioners after Christmas

[02] Austrian UN rapporteur on refugees in Greece

[03] Minister announces changes to draft 'fast track' bill

[04] Mediterranean Climate Change conference opens in Athens

[05] ASE opening: Rise

[01] Benefit for low-income pensioners after Christmas

The benefit is restricted to pensioners aged 60 years or over, except in the case of disability pensions where there is no age limit.

The total cost of the measure has been estimated at 100 million euros and the size of the benefit will be based on annual income.

Specifically, single people with an annual income of 7,000 euros or less and families with an annual income of up to 12,000 euros qualify for the 300-euro benefit. Pensioners in the 7,000-8,500 euro and a family income of up to 14,500 euro qualify for a 200-euro benefit and those in the 8,500-10,000 income category or with a family income of 16,500 euros are to receive 100 euros.

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[02] Austrian UN rapporteur on refugees in Greece

Nowak, who visited Greece on the order of the UN and examined the situation of refugees and relevant services there, said that despite all the efforts of the Greek government, the conditions for the refugees are disastrous since the Greek services are overloaded.

He said that while in 2008, 50 per cent of all arrests of illegal immigrants in Europe had been recorded in Greece, this percentage in the first eight months in 2010 reached 90 percent.

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[03] Minister announces changes to draft 'fast track' bill

Speaking to Parliament's Production and Trade Committee, Pamboukis said he intended to remove article 4 of the bill that allowed the Ministerial Committee for Strategic Investments to include investment proposals in the 'fast track' process even when these had not been submitted to the regular procedure for approval as strategic investments via the company 'Invest in Greece'.

In article 5, meanwhile, Invest in Greece is given the powers to check on how implementation of strategic investments is progressing after the ministerial committee makes a decision to that effect.

Another modification allows the immediate staffing needs of Invest in Greece to be covered through transfers of personnel already employed in other bodies within the broader public sector.

A modification to article 1, paragraph 3 allows permanent seasonal jobs that serve steadily repeated seasonal needs to be taken account in order to reach the desired number of jobs that an investment must create in order to qualify for the fast track process.

It also allows project contracts for a strategic investment to be awarded without an open tender following international agreements between states, provided this does not contravene Community legislation.

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[04] Mediterranean Climate Change conference opens in Athens

Opening the "Mediterranean Climate Change Initiative" (MCCI) conference, Papandreou stressed the significance of the high level of representation at the conference, noting in particular Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's attendance.

"The fact that Turkey is represented here at high level, by friend Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is proof that the two countries can put aside their differences in the face of the common threats," Papandreou said.

"Having learned the value of cooperation in difficult conditions, Greece and Turkey stand united on one of the most important issues, that of climate change," he added.

From within the "bad scenarios" for climate change appearing to be coming true in the southeastern Mediterranean with increasingly frequenter extreme weather phenomena and threats to the region's unique agricultural production, "which is a capital for its culture", an opportunity arises, Papandreou said, that of taking advantage of the cooperation among the regional countries "to develop a new growth model, making use of the region's resources, to create new green industries".

"Our cooperation becomes even more mandatory because globalisation, as it is developing, has created major inequalities, great instability, due to climate change, energy problems, dietary crises, a crisis in water management, but also due to economic clashes and recession," he said.

Later in the day, the leaders will sign a Declaration which, Papandreou stressed, "is not a declaration of intentions but a commitment that we will step up our cooperation on the Mediterranean, which is holding up to the changes but also utilises its rich resources".

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[05] ASE opening: Rise

Individual sector indices were mixed, with the biggest gains in Public Utilities, up 1.79 percent; and Insurance, up 2.89 percent.

The biggest losses were in Technology, down 1.12 percent and Health, down 1.01 percent

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for blue chip and heavily traded stocks was up 0.74 percent, the FTSE/ASE MID 40 index was down 0.24 percent, and the FTSE/ASE-80 small cap index was down 0.26 percent.

Of the stocks traded, 37 were up, 30 were down, and 13 were unchanged.

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