Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-19

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

CONTENTS

[01] Tsipras to meet Merkel, Hollande;Athens satisfied by EU Summit results

[02] Portuguese PM Costa expresses Tsipras his solidarity

[03] "Ariadni" ferry with 1,835 refugees aboard docks at Piraeus

[04] Number of new Greek entrepreneurers rose significantly in 2014 - IOBE report

[01] Tsipras to meet Merkel, Hollande;Athens satisfied by EU Summit results

The three officials are expected to discuss the agenda of the EU summit, the refugee issue and matters related to the Greek economy.

Meanwhile, Greek diplomatic sources expressed their content over the final conclusions of the EU summit as agreed early on Friday in Brussels.

Greece has managed to meet the four main goals it had set, they explained.

The same sources noted they are particularly pleased with the statement that ensures the integrity of the Schengen Treaty, giving an end to scenarios over Greece's expulsion.

They also stressed the need to avoid unilateral and uncoordinated actions, accelerate the relocation of refugees and implement the resettlement mechanism for refugees directly from Turkey.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras noted that from the 66,000 refugees to be relocated from Greece, less than 250 refugees have done so. He also stressed that there is no data on how many refugees have been relocated to the Western Balkans(Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia).

On its part, Germany proposed an emergency EU summit on March 6, with the participation of Turkey, and has pledged that the current status on the borders' control will not change in the meantime.

[02] Portuguese PM Costa expresses Tsipras his solidarity

Costa stated that Portugal is willing to accommodate asylum seekers who are entitled to international protection and who can, without losing any of their rights, be transferred bilaterally in Portugal.

The Portuguese Prime Minister said that his country can accommodate 2,000 people in the universities and 800 in technical colleges while considering the possibility of accommodating another 2,500-3,000.

Costa warned against "internal borders" of the EU and as stated: "We are committed to ensuring that Europe will continue to have only one external border and no internal border."

[03] "Ariadni" ferry with 1,835 refugees aboard docks at Piraeus

Another two ferries are expected to dock at the port of Piraeus later in the day. "Blue Star 1" will transfer 908 refugees from Mytilene and 446 refugees from Chios and "Blue Star 2" will transfer 70 refugees from Kos.

"Nisos Mykonos" with 593 refugees from Mytilene arrived late on Thursday.

[04] Number of new Greek entrepreneurers rose significantly in 2014 - IOBE report

The report noted, however, that this increased need for business activity was more the result of necessity and lacked innovation, while small and family businesses dominated, evidence that entrepreneurship in Greece remained shallow. IOBE said an improvement recorded in certain business activity indexes could be fragile, as conditions deteriorated in 2015 because of uncertainty, protracted negotiations, the imposition of capital controls and an economic contraction.

The survey showed that the percentage of population aged 18-64 currently at the early stages of business activity was 7.8 pct in 2014 from 5.2 pct in 2013, although it fell to 6.9 pct in 2015. Greek entrepreneurship is mobilized by opportunity (30.5 pct), still very low compared with a 54.9 pct average innovative country rate, while the percentage of Greeks entering the business world because of necessity was 43.6 pct, sharply up from an innovative country average rate of 23.9 pct. Thus, Greece ranks at the bottom of an innovation list in the EU.

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