Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-04-10

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

CONTENTS

[01] J.P. Morgan report sees 'light at the end of the tunnel' for Greece

[02] Summit of southern European countries gets underway in Madrid

[03] Touloupaki is Greece's new prosecutor for corruption, replacing Raikou

[01] J.P. Morgan report sees 'light at the end of the tunnel' for Greece

The U.S. banking and financial services giant said the decisions appears to have clarified most of the obstacles that were delaying talks for concluding the review and point to a higher possibility of a good outcome for Greece.

J.P. Morgan's central scenario, to which it gives an 85 pct probability, predicts that the next step will be the return of the institutions' missions to Greece to finalise the technical details that will support a staff-level agreement (SLA).

If its predictions are correct, the report said, there will be great progress over the next few weeks, while the sequence of events will be the signature of the SLA, passing of the measures agreed by the Greek Parliament and the completion of the review ensuring future disbursements and further details on debt relief measures.

As a part of this positive scenario, J.P. Morgan said, it was also expected that Greece will become eligible for inclusion in the ECB's quantitative easing programme in the summer.

"We give an 85 pct probability to this development. This is the most positive result for the Greek bond market and we expect that 10-year Greek bonds will have price/yield rations of about 85 euros/5.5-6 pct with this scenario," the report said.

[02] Summit of southern European countries gets underway in Madrid

The talks, hosted by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy are being held to review negotiations on Britain's exit from the European Union and discuss immigration and terrorism. A joint statement is expected after the working lunch.

Greece's position is that this forum, which started as an initiative of the Greek prime minister, is now being established as a permanent feature, as this is the third summit and a fourth is already scheduled to be held in Nicosia.

According to government sources who spoke to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency, Tsipras will call on southern European countries to pressure the rest of the EU to assume a more active role in resolving the problems in Syria. The Greek government believes that the existence of a framework of peace and stability is a prerequisite for European integration and stability.

[03] Touloupaki is Greece's new prosecutor for corruption, replacing Raikou

An 11-member council of justices in Greece's Supreme Court, chaired by Supreme Court President Vasiliki Thanou, elected Touloupaki by a majority of 10 votes to one. According to sources, objections were raised by Supreme Court Deputy Prosecutor Athanasios Katsirodis, who proposed more senior public prosecutors for the position.

Touloupaki joined the judicial body on October 1, 1999 and was the public prosecutor that, along with two colleagues, took statements and evidence from HSBC whistleblower Hervé Falciani in connection with the notorious "Lagarde list" naming Greeks with HSBC accounts in Switzerland. She has also been involved in subsequent investigations of Greeks with large sums deposited abroad and recently took part in a meeting at The Hague where Greek prosecuting authorities requested evidence from authorities in Panama regarding Greek nationals and Greek interests appearing in the "Panama Papers".

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