Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-06-07

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

CONTENTS

[01] Discussion on debt relief to start after summer, says Moscovici

[02] FM Kotzias meets with Albanian PM Rama

[03] 57,458 identified migrants and refugees in Greece on Tuesday

[04] Light quake jolts Cephalonia

[01] Discussion on debt relief to start after summer, says Moscovici

He also asked them if the ESM is considering purchasing the IMF loans.

Dombrovskis said that he hoped the programme review would be concluded in the next days so that the next loan tranche will be disbursed in the following weeks. He explained that 7.5 billion euros out of the total of 10.3 billion euros will be disbursed immediately and the rest of the amount will be disbursed in sub-tranches.

Regarding the purchase of IMF loans and their replacement with loans of lower interest rates, he said that this was discussed at the Eurogroup and is one of the medium-term measures for the existing, official IMF loans.

On the primary surplus target, he said that the creditors do not intend to keep it at 3.8 percent after 2018. "The percentage will be gradually reduced so that the public debt will meet our targets."

On his part, Moscovici said that the Greek parliament has passed difficult measures in a short period of time. At least 95 percent of the reforms have already been approved by the Greek parliament. The EU Commissioner expressed his certainty that Greece will do its best to complete the rest of the reforms and close all the open issues.

He added: "We hope that the decision on the disbursement of the loan tranche will be taken next week. A great part of the 10.3 billion euro tranche will be granted in June and will help Greece return to growth. The discussion on debt relief will begin after the end of the summer (...) A year ago we were discussing about the possibility of a Grexit. This is not an issue any more."

[02] FM Kotzias meets with Albanian PM Rama

Kotzias said to ANA that the discussion went on smoothly and focused on the two countries' future and the situation in the wider region including the conditions in Fyrom as well as a series of bilateral issues. Rama also referred to his experience from his meetings with other Greek politicians in the past.

Kotzias briefed Rama on how the European Union is developing and on the difficulties it is facing at this period.

[03] 57,458 identified migrants and refugees in Greece on Tuesday

According to the Refugee Crisis Management Coordination Body's figures, 26,477 of the refugees are in northern Greece, 14,545 are hosted in the region of Attica, 8,230 on the Greek islands and 2,514 are hosted in different areas in central and southern Greece. 5,692 refugees and migrants are hosted in several facilities rented by the UNHCR.

[04] Light quake jolts Cephalonia

According to the Geodynamics Institute of Athens National Observatory, the quake's epicentre was located 23 klm west of Argostoli.

Another earthquake measuring 3.8 on the Richter scale had been recorded at 07.50 am, 15 klm west of Argostoli.

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