Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-01-22

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

CONTENTS

[01] SYRIZA tables parliamentary question on Europarliament and municipal elections date

[02] Amendment against 25-euro hospital fee tabled in Parliament

[03] Greece's public debt rose 341 million euros in Q3 2013

[01] SYRIZA tables parliamentary question on Europarliament and municipal elections date

10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New"; Tsipras pointed out that if Europarliament elections coincide with the second round of Greece's municipal polls, that would violate legislation on the unification of municipalities, known as ‘Kallikratis Law' and would burden the state with more than 50 million euros.

10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New"; He also urged the government to explain how and when exactly it planned to call elections.

10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New"; He also asked the government to clarify if it has requested the opinion of the State's Legal Council and claimed that the concurrence of Europarliament elections with the second round of municipal elections was a strategic maneuver and overshadowed the political stake of the two elections.

10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New"; "These scenarios that keep going around have caused significant institutional insecurity in local governments administration," Tsipras and his deputies claimed.

10.0pt;font-family:"Verdana","sans-serif";mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New"; "This kind of illegal and antidemocratic handling, with an aim to manipulate the genuine expression of the popular will, cannot and should not be tolerated."

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[02] Amendment against 25-euro hospital fee tabled in Parliament

He announced a meeting within the week with members of the ruling coalition's junior partner PASOK in order to find such measures and exempt certain classes of unemployed from the measure.

"I consider the 25-euro measure a reform, I consider it correct and defend it, but I also respect the differences with PASOK and will talk with them," Georgiadis said. He explained that the troika did not object to the abolition of the 25-euro fee as long as there was an increase in patient contribution to the cost of medical tests and other procedures.

In an announcement issued after the minister's interview, the Athens Medical Association counterproposed cuts to hospital spending in order to 'rationalise' the health system and warned that many patients needing treatment in hospital would be deterred because they were unable to pay the admission charges.

The medical association also suggested an income-correlated fee scale and other measures to lower hospital costs - including the creation and monitoring of hygiene protocols to cut down on hospital infections that often doubled or tripled the length of hospital stays and other organisational changes. Until these proposals took effect, meanwhile, doctors stressed that the unemployed, disabled, imprisoned and those with chronic ailments should be exempted from the 25-euro admission rate.

The measure has caused friction within the ruling coalition and drawn criticism from opposition parties, with theIndependent Greeks party on Saturday tabled an amendment in Parliament for the abolition of the recently imposed 25-euro hospital admission fee charged by state hospitals since January 1. The amendment, if passed, would also scrap the one-euro fee for each social insurance prescription filled by pharmacists.

[03] Greece's public debt rose 341 million euros in Q3 2013

Debt, as a percentage of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), rose to 171.8 percent from 168.8 percent at the end of the second quarter.

In the euro area, public debt fell in the third quarter in absolute terms for the first time since the fourth quarter of 2007.

Eurozone debt amounted to 8.8 trillion euros compared to 8.9 trillion euros at the end of the second quarter.

Euro area debt to GDP ratio fell to 92.7 percent from 93.4 percent.

Compared to the third quarter of 2012, Greece's debt rose by 17.2 billion euros in absolute terms and 19.9 percentage points as a percentage of GDP.

Euro area debt to GDP ratio rose 2.7 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2012.

Greece's debt was made up of loans (128.3 percent of GDP), securities other than shares (42.9 percent of GDP) and currency and deposits (0.6 percent of GDP).

Securities other than shares accounted for 79.3 percent of euro area debt, loans for 17.9 percent and currency and deposits for 2.7 percent.

Intergovernmental lending, as a result the financial assistance granted to some member states, amounted to 2.4 percent of GDP for the euro area at the end of the third quarter.

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