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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 15-07-17
CONTENTS
[01] PM at emergency services operations centre for briefing on fires
[02] Eurogroup welcomes completion of national procedures to approve
Greek bailout
[01] PM at emergency services operations centre for briefing on fires
ANA-MPA -- Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Friday visited the Civil
Protection Agency operations centre to be briefed on efforts to fight
four major fires that broke out in Greece on Friday, three of them near
inhabited areas.
He called for calmness and effort by all sides to coordinate the
fire-fighting effort. Tsipras said that all forces are on standby to deal
with the four fires currently underway and asked the head of the Greek
armed forces to assist in efforts to put out the fire in the Kareas
area on the outskirts of Athens, supplying fire-fighting aircraft.
Two Canadair water-bombing planes were sent from Thessaloniki and
two fire-fighting helicopters from Elefsina. Tsipras announced that
an official request for assistance from European mechanisms has been
submitted, while assistance from other countries will also be requested
if necessary. Regarding the two Canadair pilots that had to make a
forced landing, Tsipras said that he was briefed on their condition
and that they were in good health. He appealed to all the mass media to
inform the public calmly and said he had instructed the relevant civil
protection officer to give detailed briefings on all fires, the prevailing
situation and fire-fighting means every two days. He asked that people
volunteer to the fire-fighting effort wherever this was allowed by
the fire brigade, which he stressed was in charge of the operations.
Tsipras said that all fire-fighting forces of the fire brigade, army and
air force were on standby to assist with the two major fires in Kareas and
Lakonia, as well as another four blazes that had broken out on Friday.
The prime minister announced that he would take part in a meeting on
Friday afternoon to discuss fire-prevention patrols, since the prevailing
weather conditions enhanced the risk of both accidental fires and arson.
Earlier, Tsipras visited the Hellenic National Defence General Staff
(HNDGS) National Operations Centre and Alternate Defence Minister Kostas
Isichos, Deputy Defence Minister Nikos Toskas and HNDGS chief General
Mikhail Kostarakos briefed him on the situation on all fire fronts.
[02] Eurogroup welcomes completion of national procedures to approve
Greek bailout
BRUSSELS (ANA-MPA/ M. Spinthourakis) A Eurogroup statement issued
on Friday welcomed steps taken by euro-area national parliaments
to clear the path for a new three-year bailout for Greece from the
European Stability Mechanism (ESM), "and especially the recent swift
legislative steps taken by the Greek parliament as a first step towards
rebuilding trust."
"Following a formal decision taken by the ESM Board of Governors,
the institutions were entrusted with the task of swiftly negotiating
a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) detailing the policy conditionality
attached to the financial assistance facility," it said. The announcement
said the Eurogroup also welcomed a decision of the European Council
to grant a 7.16-billion-euro bridging loan to Greece from the European
Financial Stability Mechanism (EFSM) and "the very constructive approach
taken by the non-euro area EU Member States" to financing Greece.
"In this context, the Eurogroup agrees in principle to transfer the 2014
SMP equivalent profits to be held at an ECB account to ensure legally
enforceable rights to protect non euro area Member States from a risk of
loss resulting from an EFSM programme to Greece. This will be confirmed by
a letter from the President of the Eurogroup to the ESM. The SMP profits
will be exclusively used either as compensation to non-euro area Member
States in case of losses or will be returned to the euro area Member
States, if not needed. Should Greece fail to repay the EFSM loan, the
available instruments to recover the debt and protect the Union budget
will be used, confirming that the risks of not concluding swiftly the
negotiations on the ESM programme remain fully with Greece," it said.
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