Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-07

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

CONTENTS

[01] 'All About Cats' festival at Maroussi Expo

[02] Controversy over planned hotspots continues on Sunday

[03] Greece can issue only 4 nationwide TV licences, study finds

[04] Dragasakis: 'We are not looking for an escape route'

[01] 'All About Cats' festival at Maroussi Expo

The festival, held on Saturday and Sunday, was also envisaged as an opportunity for each cat person to "celebrate and share the ultimate experience of living, taking care of and share your life with a cat," bringing them in touch with breeders, cat specialists and secrets to caring for your felines.

[02] Controversy over planned hotspots continues on Sunday

He asked that the prime minister order the withdrawal of MAT riot police troops from Kos in order to avoid a further escalation of tensions and violence and for the government to revoke a decision to set up a hotspot on Kos.

The mayor asked the government to discuss the municipality's proposal that Kos should only have a single area for registering illegal migrants and refugees, with those registered departing within 24 hours.

"There is a real danger that we will mourn victims and be led to uncontrollable situations. I ask the government to accept the only realistic and socially acceptable proposal submitted by the municipality," he said.

In Athens, meanwhile, the Hellenic Police headquarters announced the start of an internal inquiry into the actions of police on Kos, based on the video footage released on Saturday by websites and news programmes showing MAT riot police "behaving inappropriately" toward local residents.

Some 600 people gathered near a planned hotspot in Sindos, northern Greece, on Sunday morning and demonstrated for roughly 2.5 hours against plans to create a refugee relocation point at the former Anagnostopoulou army camp in the area, where work is now underway. Among those demonstrating were several local mayors.

Work at the base stopped until Monday afternoon, so that a meeting can take place between the mayors and a union of municipalities' delegation with Defence Minister Panos Kammenos and Alternate Defence Minister Dimitris Vitsas, who are now in charge of completing the reception facilities for refugees and migrants.

Unlike his counterparts in the north, Perama Mayor Yiannis Lagoudakis on Sunday issued a written statement said the municipality was "ready to assume its share of responsibility, guided by the need to protect the local community and our humanitarian duty" with regard to plans for a refugee centre at Schisto.

The board of the Schisto Industrial Park has expressed strong objections to the prospect, however, while a protest rally by Piraeus residents against the refugee centre will take place at 12:30 on Monday, after an earlier counter-rally at noon.

[03] Greece can issue only 4 nationwide TV licences, study finds

The institute, which works closely with the European Commission and the European regulatory authorities for electronic communications, notes that there are European conditions and international treaties with which Greece must comply regarding the number of licences for nationally broadcasting channels that are issued.

In a technical report, it points out that since each multiplex can carry at most two HD channels, the total number of private channels broadcasting nationally in Greece can be up to four.

[04] Dragasakis: 'We are not looking for an escape route'

Such a government could not call early elections, he pointed out and noted that it was now "seeking the social and political conditions that will allow us to do what we said."

He also noted that a very difficult year had ended with some positive signs, such as zero recession and a small rise in employment, "that we can build on" and that the proposed pension and tax reforms will be easier to face if the economy is on a path to growth.

"We do not want to spoil this, we don't want to be responsible for this scenario being overturned or altered, we will do whatever we can for this scenario to continue," he said.

In some ways, Dragasakis said, the situation in Greece resembled a country emerging from war and needing major reconstruction, which history had shown could not be undertaken by a single party but required a coalition of social and political forces.

In this context, he said that a change in election law will help everyone because they must reposition themselves based on the future.

"What we have now is SYRIZA with a fresh mandate, a programme that has generally been approved two times, we have an axis and basis on which to talk about broader convergences," he said.

Commenting on the review of Greece's programme, he stressed that this was important because the government's entire plan for the country depended on concluding this successfully and rapidly. Regarding the protests against pension reform and by farmers, Dragasakis said that the country could not move forward by sweeping problems under the rug. "For example, with this pension system we cannot promise our children pensions if we don't change it," he pointed out.

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