Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-12-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] EU-IMF disagreement 'an attempt to crush Greece between the elephants'

[02] EU's Dombrovskis: Completing second review in early 2017 is possible 'if all sides are constructive'

[03] Greece remains a pillar of stability in a troubled region, Mitsotakis says

[04] Majority of Greeks say EU is 'moving in the wrong direction,' poll shows

[05] 'The Man from Nine Dimensions' for one night only at Athens Planetarium

[01] EU-IMF disagreement 'an attempt to crush Greece between the elephants'

"The fact that the IMF can't seem to agree with the EU appears to be an attempt on the part of the Schaeuble-Thomsen axis for an outcome that is against us. Instead of either one winning or backing down, they will reach an agreement between them with the aim of 'crushing Greece between the elephants,' as Euclid Tsakalotos said," Voutsis commented in an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA) published on Sunday.

Greece wanted to wrap up the second review as quickly as possible, he added, before the start of a series of national elections that are due to take place in Eurozone countries, including France and Germany.

According to Voutsis, nobody now considered that Greece's debt was sustainable, or that sustained primary surpluses of 3.5 pct over several years were realistic. They all understood, by contrast, the realism of the Greek finance minister's proposal that a part of the surplus go toward boosting competitiveness, growth and for the relief of socially disadvantaged groups. All sides also understood that the country will not be able to reliably tap the markets after 2017 unless it enters the ECB's quantitative easing programme, he added.

"The point is not for the country to access the markets once, like Samaras did, but then was unable to continue and had to pull back," Voutsis said.

Asked about the one-off welfare benefit handed out to low-income pensioners, Voutsis said this distributed a surplus of 617 million euros generated by higher-than-expected VAT revenue and that the government had sped to vote it in before the end of the current year because, otherwise, half would have to go toward paying down the debt.

The Parliament president also blamed Greece's creditors for "stalling" legislation on extending the use of plastic money and for declaring hidden income that would have further increased tax revenues. The draft bill now tabled in Parliament had been ready for more than a year, he said, but was blocked by the creditors' refusal to accept an 'unseizable account' for SMEs and also their demand for an unrealistically high taxation rate of 80 pct for any revealed income, which Voutsis said essentially amounted to a "donation" and removed any incentives to declare concealed money.

Talking about the Cyprus issue, Voutsis said the international aspect of the problem "remains a serious issue" on which Greece must also have some say. As Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said in Parliament a few days ago, he added, the dogma 'Cyprus decides and Greece supports' has its limits.

"Support is given but we need to discuss some things here; we were a guarantor power, Cyprus is an equal member-state of the EU and therefore there must be a field of understanding on the matter of guarantees and security issues, not pre-agreement with Turkey, with the full agreement of the Cyprus Republic, of course," he said.

The Greek side had a steadfast position that there could not be a solution with occupation forces and guarantor powers, he noted, while adding that a solution was clearly better than no solution, which only increased problems and made situations "permanent."

The interview with Voutsis was conducted in Moscow, where he was attending the official end of Greece-Russia Year 2016 that comes to a close after the final two exhibitions from Greece held in the Russian capital end in January. One is the exhibition "Gods and Heros in ancient Greece" at Moscow's State Historical Museum and a second an exhibition of work by the modern Greek artist Bokoros.

Commenting on relations with Russia, Voutsis said he had relayed Greece's support for Russia on issues such as sanctions and its participation in the Coucil of Europe, while noting the great success and the "excellent work" done for Greece-Russia Year 2016.

[02] EU's Dombrovskis: Completing second review in early 2017 is possible 'if all sides are constructive'

Dombrovskis said the welfare and tax measures announced by Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras were "unnecessary and unhelpful" in that they did not follow the prescribed procedure for handling over-performance of budget targets under the MoU, "though we can understand the underlying concerns and aims which the Greek government wants to address with this."

He appeared confident, however, that the current situation was far from a "dead end" and that it was possible to bridge the current differences between the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the other institutions regarding the Greek programme: "If all sides are constructive in their efforts we could still have the second review by early 2017," he said.

Asked when Greece could regain access to the markets, Dombrovskis noted that programme countries normally starting tapping markets before the programme ends.

"We couldn't say what the exact timing would be right now, as this is something for the Greek authorities to decide. Normally this should begin in the programme timeframe. As you may remember, Greece was tapping the markets in 2014 with the assumption that the program would end in late 2014 or the beginning of 2015. Political developments unfortunately led elsewhere. The completion of the second review will be an important step to show that the programme is on track," he said.

[03] Greece remains a pillar of stability in a troubled region, Mitsotakis says

"Good relations, of friendship and neighbourliness, but which are based on unswerving respect for international treaties, for international law and good neighbour relations," he added.

Mitsotakis, who on Sunday concludes a two-day tour of Thrace, also noted that Greece remains a pillar of stability in a troubled region.

ND's leader paid a visit to the Kipi military post, where he spoke with troops stationed there and wished them a happy Christmas, and then the Kipi customs post, where officers raised the issue of modernisation.

[04] Majority of Greeks say EU is 'moving in the wrong direction,' poll shows

A whopping 84 pct of Greeks consider that the EU is "moving in the wrong direction" but opinions are evenly split on whether the country's EU membership is positive (44 pct) or negative (45 pct). At the same time, six in 10 favour membership of the Eurozone.

Most Greeks cannot recall any reference to the European Parliament in the media they generally follow during the past month, while seven in 10 consider that they are not adequately informed about the activities of the EuroParliament. By contrast, four in 10 say they are not adequately informed about the activities of the Greek Parliament.

Greek citizens want the EU to have greater powers on a series of issues, with percentages ranging from 47 pct (for control of state budgets) up to 86 pct (on the refugee crisis). Asked about the measures for Greece's public debt decided at the last Eurogroup, one in three considers them 'positive but not adequate' and four in 10 considers them bad. Roughly half of Greeks want the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in the Greek programme, either as a creditor or as a technical advisor.

Only one in four Greeks considers that the country's MEPs adequately represent the country in the EuroParliament, while two in four disagree. At the same time, most individual MEPs have a net positive balance of positive versus negative opinions.

[05] 'The Man from Nine Dimensions' for one night only at Athens Planetarium

The documentary is an impressive digital production developed by Miraikan, Japan's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, and has already won the prestigious "Best Educational Production" Award at the 2016 International Planetarium Society (IPS) Fulldome Festival held in Brno, Czech Republic, as well as the "Best Practice" award from Japan's Advanced Imaging Society.

The documentary draws audiences to explore some of the most complex and deepest questions that lie at the heart of physics, concerning the nature of the universe and reality, and its search to explain matter and fundamental forces in a single and comprehensive "Theory of Everything". "The Man from the Nine Dimensions" combines live actions scenes and impressive graphics with the latest techniques for visually rendering scientific data in order to induct viewers into the world of theoretical physics, vibrating 'strings' and hidden dimensions in a lively and engaging way.

The visual imagery demonstrating the theories uses the most cutting-edge cosmological simulation of galaxy formation, the Illustris Project, developed by a team of scientists at Harvard, MIT and Cambridge.

There will be two projections on Tuesday, at 18:30 and 20:00, while entry is free of charge. Entry tickets are required, however, and are available at the Planetarium ticket offices from 18:00 on Tuesday until available seats run out. Recommended for children aged 10 years of above, as well as adults.

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