Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 17-06-09

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

CONTENTS

[01] Steinmeier expresses certainty for an agreement at the Eurogroup

[02] FinMin Tsakalotos: Our main goal is to exit supervision

[03] Delos Museum to close for roof repairs until end-June

[01] Steinmeier expresses certainty for an agreement at the Eurogroup

Steinmeier said he believed existing differences will be overcome and a common solution will be found.

On his side, Pavlopoulos said that Greece has fully complied with its obligations and asks for its partners to do the same, abiding to the principle of solidarity. "Our partners should consider what the Greek people deserve and, be certain Mr. President that our people will reciprocate," he said.

He also noted that the commitment to provide debt relief to Greece should not be hindered by the election campaign in Germany, adding the country should not focus on the political cost of the decision.

[02] FinMin Tsakalotos: Our main goal is to exit supervision

"The government does not want to silence anyone," Tsakalotos said, adding that he cannot understand "the great surprise of the opposition parties, which are aware that Greece has been under supervision for last seven years and that the correlations of forces are against the government."

He also underlined the government's efforts to ease that supervision.

"We are pressing in the negotiations so that the final agreement contains a clean solution that gives growth prospects to the country. The Greek government's basic strategy is for the country to gain access to markets via quantitative easing and to exit the programme," he said.

Tsakalotos suggested that the International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands for additional austerity measures were made chiefly to put pressure on Greece's partners to ease Greek debt. The government accepted a compromise on the lenders' proposal on a basis that gave hope that Greece's economy could build on an emerging growth momentum, he added.

The negotiation currently underway was "many-sided" and Greece was pressing for greater clarity on the debt relief measures that will be adopted at the end of the programme, Tsakalotos said, while criticising the coverage of the negotiations by the local media.

Labour Minister Efi Achtsioglou, on her part, noted that Greece had met the commitments it had made. Its partners in the EU now had a moral and political obligation to provide debt relief, she added.

"It is clear that Greece met its commitments and did more than it had to in order to not jeopardise the country's economy," she noted, defending the amendments legislating for the last prior actions envisaged under the Greek programme.

These included a one-year extension of a pensions freeze until 2022, instead of 2021 as originally decided, where she stressed that the Eurogroup had rejected the Greek side's last plan. With the measures contained in the amendments tabled on Friday, she added, the prior actions of the 2nd review were formally completed and no one would have any pretext or excuse for not discussing the medium-term measures for the debt, she said.

[03] Delos Museum to close for roof repairs until end-June

The decision to carry out the repairs was prompted by the fall of a sizeable chunk of plaster from the ceiling in the museum's galleries.

The rest of the Delos archaeological site will continue to operate as normal, opening daily from 8:00 until 20:00 in the evening.

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