Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-10-06

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

CONTENTS

[01] EU Commissioner Hogan pledges support for Greek agriculture

[02] Thessaloniki to lay five 'stolpersteine' at its port to commemorate Nazi victims

[01] EU Commissioner Hogan pledges support for Greek agriculture

"Your products, from olive oil to feta, fruits and vegetables, are known throughout the world. As European Commissioner I want to support this and invest in this," he said, noting that Greek farmers stood to receive 15 billion euros in direct subsidies from 2014 until 2020. This would be the focus of his meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, Hogan added.

The Commissioner also pledged continued protection for product names indicating geographic origin, stressing that the European Commission will not consent to an agreement that does not protect these. The EU currently protected 269 Greek names of geographic origin and will continue to protect these in all negotiations, he said.

Referring to the Commission's plans for 2017, as presented by European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, Hogan said there would be a bid to expand EU investment. The Juncker plan aimed to show European citizens that "European cooperation is the best bet for our future prosperity and security," he noted.

"For the next five or six years, we intend to double the investments since, as I said, more than 200,000 small businesses have received loans and hundreds of thousands of people have found new jobs," Hogan said, pointing to a 15-million-euro loan that the European Investment Bank had given to Creta Farms as an example.

The Commissioner was upbeat about the prospects of Greek agriculture, noting that the agricultural sector had done comparatively well in spite of the difficult economic situation in recent years.

"I see that new 'players' are emerging in Greece, who produce quality products which are friendlier to the environment, more innovative and export oriented. The challenge is to support the country's ambition and innovation with strong, targeted policies supporting investments," he said.

[02] Thessaloniki to lay five 'stolpersteine' at its port to commemorate Nazi victims

The small, cobblestone-size, concrete cubes bearing a brass plate inscribed with the name and life dates of victims of Nazi extermination were created by German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992 and were laid at the last place of residency or work of the victim before they were deported. Demnig came up with the project in an effort to protect the memory - and names - of the victims from oblivion. More than 50,000 such stones of remembrance have been laid in streets and pavements of 18 European countries.

The first stolpersteine were laid in Thessaloniki in 2015, on the initiative of a Greek businessman from Thessaloniki that now lives in Germany, Apostolos Dekrelis, who wanted to commemorate the student-victims of the Nazis who were studying at the now-closed 1st Boys' School.

The new event is organized by the Citizens' Initiative for the Stones of Remembrance in Thessaloniki, in cooperation with Thessaloniki's Port Authority and the support of the educational organization Humanity in Action. The laying of the stones has been funded by the German Foundation "Remembrance, Responsibility and Future" and the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

Thessaloniki was home to around 60,000 Jews before the war but after the mass deportations imposed by occupying Nazi troops in 1943, more than 95 percent of them were murdered in concentration camps.

The event is scheduled at 12:30, at Pier A', next to the Cinema Museum.

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