Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-03-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Merkel-Our political goal is to keep Greece in the eurozone

[02] ANEL submit proposal for setting up investigating committee on memoranda

[03] Parliament to decide on Committee for German reparations on Tuesday

[04] Seven out of 10 Greeks in favour of a decent compromise with a commonly accepted solution with the Europeans-opinion poll

[01] Merkel-Our political goal is to keep Greece in the eurozone

Asked at a news conference in Tokyo about whether she would rule out a so-called "Grexit", as European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker appeared to do in an interview over the weekend, Merkel said: "I have said time and time again, and I can say it again here, our political goal is to keep Greece in the eurozone. We have been working on this for many years."

"But it's also true that there are two sides to this coin - on the one hand solidarity from European partners, and on the other the readiness to implement reforms and other commitments at home. On this, we clearly have a very difficult path ahead of us," she added.

[02] ANEL submit proposal for setting up investigating committee on memoranda

The aim of the Independent Greeks is to find common ground for submitting a joint proposal for setting up an investigation committee.

[03] Parliament to decide on Committee for German reparations on Tuesday

With her proposal, Konstantopoulou is asking for the re-establishment of the Committee which will be responsible for gathering and documenting of the indisputable historical data in an organized way that will effectively strengthen the Greek arguments for claiming what is owed to the country and get other European powers and international organizations involved in this effort.

Konstantopoulou proposed the participation of the Parliament's President and Vice-Presidents or those filling-in for them in the Committee and in such a way that all parliamentary groups would be proportionally represented in it. She also proposed that the members of the Committee do not get any compensation for their participation in it and that July 15, 2015 be set as a deadline for the submission of its report, while there would be the option for the renewal of its mandate and term.

According to Konstantopoulou, this is a national issue and everyone acknowledges the need for the parliament to get involved in it.

[04] Seven out of 10 Greeks in favour of a decent compromise with a commonly accepted solution with the Europeans-opinion poll

Asked what should happen in case the gap between the Greek government and the European partners is not bridged, 69.6 percent of the participants said they were in favour of a decent compromise with a commonly accepted solution, while 27.4 percent were in favour of a definite rupture, even if that means going back to drachma. Three percent of the participants did not answer.

On the government's proposals to address the humanitarian crisis, 88.3 percent assess them in a positive and rather positive way. There is also a positive view on the protection of primary residence against foreclosures (93.5 percent of the participants) as well as for the settlement of overdue debts (88.8 percent).

On setting up an investigation committee as to how the country got to the memorandum, 84.2 percent of respondents said they agreed with that and 12.9 percent disagreed.

One out of two (50.4 percent) estimated that "there is a possibility of Greece going bankrupt in the next period of time" with 45.5 percent having the opposite view.

The gallop was conducted between March 3 and 5.

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