Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-12-06

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greek, Serbian Capital Markets cooperation

[02] EU budget dominates OSCE ministerial summit

[01] Greek, Serbian Capital Markets cooperation

The purpose of the protocol is the consolidation and implementation of a process of assistance between the two supervisory bodies to facilitate the exercise of their duties regarding securities issues.

On the basis of the protocol, confidential information useful to the supervisory authorities may be exchanged between the two Committees, for the purpose of exercising supervision over and adaptation of the supervised entities to standing legislation.

Cooperation protocols between supervisory authorities of different countries facilitates the international cooperation among stockmarkets, companies and other capital market entities, and consequently is the first stage in the consolidation and further improvement of capital market relations between those countries.

A delegation of the Serbian Capital Market Committee visited the Greek Capital Market Committee for the signing ceremony, which was also attended by president of the Greece-Serbia Chamber Christos Theodoropoulos.

The protocol was signed by Athens Stock Exchange (ASE) Capital Market Committee president Alexios Pilavios and Serbian Capital Market Committee chairman Milko Stimac.

[02] EU budget dominates OSCE ministerial summit

An agreement on the EU budget for the 2007-2013 period is expected to be reached during the summit in Brussels next week.

"No opportunity should be missed, and we will not allow any to go unexploited in this difficult battle regarding EU funds," Deputy Foreign Minister Yiannis Valynakis, representing Greece at the OECD meeting, said.

OSCE ministers stressed the need for the organisation to become more effective in promoting security and democracy in Europe.

Speaking to reporters, Valynakis said that the OSCE is interested in "providing answers to issues related to security, democracy, human rights and in the monitoring of democratic elections."

He added that "on the sidelines of these meetings we also have the opportunity to discuss important issues, such as the budget which is an immediate concern for the EU."

Regarding the British EU Presidency's EU budget proposal, Valynakis said that the closer it is to the Luxembourg Presidency's proposal the more likely an agreement will be.

However, according to initial indications, the British presidency seems to have drifted quite far from the suggestions presented by Luxembourg in June, Valynakis said.

He nonetheless expressed optimism that the British presidency would propose a budget on which everyone will agree.

"We would like to think that Greece will gain - from this agreement - that which it deserves from the distribution of EU funds," Valynakis said.

On the sidelines of the OSCE meeting, the deputy minister met with US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, with whom he discussed Greek-US relations.

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