Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-03-31

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

CONTENTS

[01] The aim is to reach a staff level agreement by April 7 Eurogroup, EU sources tell ANA

[02] Gov't sources: BoG chief Stournaras promotes views that lead to social security system deregulation

[03] Gastronomy tourism in Greece has been growing rapidly

[04] ETUC and ITUC trade union groups denounce IMF attacks on Greek workers' rights

[05] Three Greek regions among the 20 poorest in the EU, Eurostat reports

[01] The aim is to reach a staff level agreement by April 7 Eurogroup, EU sources tell ANA

The same sources said that the negotiations have focused on pension and labour issues while the aim is to reach a staff level agreement by the Eurogroup on April 7.

[02] Gov't sources: BoG chief Stournaras promotes views that lead to social security system deregulation

The Bank of Greece governor "promotes views that are more extreme than the views of the defenders of the strictest American liberalism," government sources said and added: "These views lead to the total deregulation (of the social security system)."

Stournaras stated in Parliament that despite the reforms required by the previous memoranda, the social security system remains costly and generous and estimated that there may be need for further pension cuts. He also said that "a sufficient and at the same time sustainable social security system is not economically feasible under present conditions in Greece."

[03] Gastronomy tourism in Greece has been growing rapidly

"Greece always promoted gastronomy tourism even it its was not made on purpose. Greece has always been a famous destination for its good cuisine, but now it needs to be dealt with more professionalism. This is what the Greek tourism professionals need to understand; that gastronomy is a special part of tourism that needs to be governed by specific rules," she underlined.

[04] ETUC and ITUC trade union groups denounce IMF attacks on Greek workers' rights

The ETUC and ITUC called on the IMF "to stop insisting that Greece undertake even more pension cuts and labour market deregulation before the Fund will agree to a new loan programme, or to signing off on disbursements by European institutions."

"An IMF spokesman stated last Thursday that the IMF is seeking 'in particular, pension and labour reforms' as conditions for extending financial assistance to Greece. Greek workers have already suffered a severe reduction in their living standards. The austerity and deregulation measures demanded by the creditor institutions since 2010 have included reductions in minimum wages, pensions and the scope of collective bargaining," the announcement said.

ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow pointed out that "Greek workers have borne almost all the costs of the crisis that began in 2008: wages have fallen, pensions have been slashed and a quarter of the workforce remains unemployed." He also cited a major ILO study showing that collective bargaining coverage in Greece fell from 70 per cent before the crisis to 10 per cent in 2015.

"Continuing to diminish workers' collective rights will do nothing to put Greece on the path to economic recovery, but it will reinforce the alarming trend of growing inequality in the country," he said.

Luca Visentini, General Secretary of the ETUC, said that the latest attempt by the IMF to further diminish workers' rights in Greece constitutes an attack on the European social model: "Workers and employers, 95% of which are microenterprises, need collective bargaining at sectoral level and do not need collective dismissals. The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker has already sent a letter to Prime Minister Tsipras, clearly stating that collective bargaining and the right to strike are national matters, to be settled by social partners with government support, and that the Commission will not intervene on these matters in Greece. We want the IMF to show the same respect for Greek workers and companies, instead of imposing so-called 'reforms' which would further damage Greece's economy and social cohesion."

The OECD has published data showing that, after the deregulation that took place under a previous government, employment protection rules in Greece are already weaker than in the four Nordic countries, Germany, the Netherlands and several other EU countries.

The General Secretaries of the ITUC and ETUC expressed their solidarity with the Greek trade union confederation GSEE and urged the Greek government and its European counterparts to defend Greek workers' rights against the IMF's latest demands.

[05] Three Greek regions among the 20 poorest in the EU, Eurostat reports

Bulgaria's Severozapaden (Northwestern) region was the poorest in Europe, with a per capita GDP that was just 29 pct of the EU average, while another four Bulgarian regions, five Polish regions, four Romanian regions, two Hungarian regions and one overseas French region were in the bottom 20.

For Greece, the average per capita GDP for the country was at 68 pct of the EU average and only Attica (93 pct) and the Southern Aegean (76 pct) had a per capita GDP exceeding 75 pct of the EU average in 2015. Next highest at 63 pct of the EU average were Western Macedonia and the Ionian Islands, followed by Central Greece and Crete with 58 pct, the Peloponnese with 56 pct, Central Macedonia and the Northern Aegean with 52 pct, Thessaly with 51 pct, Western Greece with 50 pct and Eastern Macedonia-Thrace and Epirus with 48 pct.

The EU regions with the highest per capita GDP were inner London-West (580 pct), Luxembourg (264 pct), Hamburg (206 pct) and Brussels (205 pct).

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