Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-04-30

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek authorities, institutions resume negotiations on Sunday

[02] Lesvos 'Messengers of Peace' talk to ANA about volunteering, refugee crisis

[01] Greek authorities, institutions resume negotiations on Sunday

In statements after Sunday's morning meeting, which focused on the recommendations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) to deregulate Sunday opening for shops, among others, finance ministry sources stressed that the issue was still under negotiation and would be settled when there was full agreement on the second review.

The institutions are pressing for retailers to have greater freedom to open on Sunday, in spite of a Council of State ruling saying that shop opening beyond the current eight Sundays a year was unconstitutional. Sources said the institutions want the abolition of restrictions on Sunday opening relating to both location and size and to reduce the involvement of regional authorities in deciding shop opening times.

Current rules do not allow Sunday opening for retail chains, retail parks, discount parks or shops-in-shops, as well as introducing restrictions depending on the size of shops.

The discussion also focused on the sale of non-prescription drugs outside pharmacies, opening up professions and other items.

The morning meeting was followed by a break allowing the two teams in the negotiations to confer amongst themselves, followed by a new round of negotiations on pension issues and bad loans.

The talks on Saturday had focused on privatisations, with agreement still pending on one issues relating to privatisations and one issue relating to the new privatisations fund. The two sides agreed fully on issues regarding taxation, with a compromised reached on the writing off of older cases given that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) puts emphasis on inspections in new cases.

There was also a discussion on the 3rd OECD toolkit, where there was agreement, while one issue relating to fiscal policy is still pending.

[02] Lesvos 'Messengers of Peace' talk to ANA about volunteering, refugee crisis

When they first joined the Scouts, they said, they had wanted to make new friends, learn about nature and their island's environment and maybe go on a few trips. Then the refugee and migrant crisis of 2015 had changed everything.

The five high school students accepted the awards during the two-day seminar "Scouting the Path for Volunteering" held in Athens, under the aegis of President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos.

"It is hard to be a scout," said Stelios, "but you find the time to combine everything." Their experiences in the Scouts had helped with this, they told ANA, since scout training helped developed both survival skills and organisational skills. "One basically learns to be responsible," said Xenophon.

It was these qualities that made them seek to become involved and help local authorities on their island in dealing with refugee flows, they said.

"It was chaos," noted Mihalis, adding that the Lesvos Scouts had assisted with organised actions and whenever the need arose. "We carried out various organised actions, chiefly after refugees arrived on the island. We cleaned the beaches and coastline or brought food. We handed out anoraks for the children," he said.

"We also played with the children and kept them company," added Yiannis. "We went to where the unaccompanied children were and occupied them for some hours so they might have fun."

At other times, noted Xenophon, they had "been within the system, at Makrys Gialos near the harbour, and at that moment the coast guard would call and say that help was needed, or that a boat was approaching with refugees and we would go and help."

In recognition of their efforts the World Organisation of the Scout Movement decided to name the Greek Scouts "Messengers of Peace" - an award that aims to highlight the social contribution made to local communities. This might take the form of tree-planting or the resolution of conflict and violence in schools. In the case of the scouts on Lesvos, it was their work to assist in coping with the refugee crisis.

"The award does help boost our morale but we didn't do it for a pat on the back. We went and helped," said Stelios.

"The mark left by the whole experience is that we helped, that we contributed somewhere. I personally feel proud of what we have done, whether it is a little or a lot," added Xenophon.

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