Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-07-11

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

CONTENTS

[01] French, Italian FinMins sided with Tsakalotos in supporting Spain and Portugal-sources

[02] Guarantor powers an 'anachronism' that cannot continue, President Pavlopoulos says in Cyprus

[03] Greece submitted plan for further relaxation of capital controls, says central banker

[04] Hellenic Film Academy kicks off short film funding competition

[05] No trains in Greece on Tuesday, including metro services to Athens airport

[01] French, Italian FinMins sided with Tsakalotos in supporting Spain and Portugal-sources

Initially, only Tsakalotos supported the two countries but after his speech, Michel Sapin and Paolo Gentiloni eventually used the Greek minister's argument that after the Brexit, maintaining a hard line on fiscal issues sends a very wrong signal to the markets.

Ahead of the meeting, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras had told Tsakalotos to "strongly support" Spain, Portugal and Italy.

[02] Guarantor powers an 'anachronism' that cannot continue, President Pavlopoulos says in Cyprus

A solution to the Cyprus issue cannot contravene the European acquis, Pavlopoulos added, while the fact that a solution to the Cyprus issue was still pending "was shameful, not just for those that invaded the island but also for the international community and the European Union itself."

Among others, Pavlopoulos stressed that the existence of 'guarantor' forces on the island was an anachronism that could not continue, while it was incompatible with the modern definition of state sovereignty as defined under international and European law.

The Greek president also ruled out any form of confederation on Cyprus as contrary to European law, noting that Cyprus can only take the form of a federation with a "single international legal identity erga omnes".

The ceremony was also addressed by Morphou Mayor Haralambos Pittas and was attended by Cyprus House Speaker Demetris Syllouris, Cyprus Interior Minister Socrates Hasikos, Archbishop Chrysostomos of Cyprus (representing the metropolitan of Morphou), political party leaders and representatives and Cyprus Attorney General Costas Clerides.

[03] Greece submitted plan for further relaxation of capital controls, says central banker

The measures included in the proposal include:

-Lifting of the ban on withdrawing cash for new cash deposits

-Full lifting of ban on repaying loans

-Ability to withdraw up to 840 euros every two weeks for those who have not withdrawn any cash in the same period

-Increasing the amount of withdrawals from 10 pct to 30 pct for free capital from abroad

-Reducing time of remittance processing

-Increasing by 20,000 euros per customer, per day (for businesspeople)

-Increasing limits in credit card use abroad and for almost all online purchases

-Increasing the limits of payments for banks and institutions to 1,000 euros

Stournaras also said confidence in the Greek economy is gradually being restored and announced the return of four-billion-euro-worth of deposits to the banking system in a year "from the mattresses", as he said.

[04] Hellenic Film Academy kicks off short film funding competition

The two winners will receive 15,000 euros plus VAT each to produce their movie. According to the Academy, the film should be between 8 to 15 minutes and the deadline for submitting the proposals is September 9.

A five-member committee, comprising of award-winning cinematographers, a representative of subscription network OTE TV and a second one from the Onassis Foundation will make the initial selection choosing 12 scripts. These 12 winners will then participate in the second selection phase in December 2016, during the Film Factory month, when they will be interviewed face-to-face by the same panel. After this phase, six finalists will be announced.

For the next three months, the finalists will attend seminars from award-winning cinematographers of HFA on the main parts of the film process in order to organize pre-production of the movies.

The two movie scripts that will receive funding will be selected by the committee in cooperation with cinematographers-advisers, who will be informing the panel on the progress being made on each project and convey their view on the ability of each contestant to successfully complete the film.

The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony of the HFA at the Onassis Foundation on March 21, 2017. The two movies will have to be completed by December 2016 at the latest and will be showed during the Film Factory.

For more information on the competition and the conditions for entry visit the site of the Hellenic Film Academy (in Greek): http://blog.hellenicfilmacademy.gr/press-releases/ffsff_2016/

[05] No trains in Greece on Tuesday, including metro services to Athens airport

The rail workers' union POS said it called the strike as a reaction to the privatisation plan imposed on the national railway, following the bid submitted by the Italian railway Trenitalia for the rail operator TRAINOSE in Greece, and the failure to sign a new collective labour agreement.

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