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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-10-07Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>CONTENTS
[01] Tsakalotos discusses progress in reforms with US' Jack LewFinance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos met with U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Friday, with whom he discussed the progress made by Greece in its reform program, as part of the annual IMF and World Bank meetings in Washington DC.According to information, Lew said that Europe must implement its commitment to make Greece's debt sustainable through significant debt relief, which must be supported by reliable growth and fiscal adjustments that are vital for the long-term economic stability in Greece. Tsakalotos also met European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Pierre Moscovici and German counterpart Wolfgang Schaeuble. He is scheduled to meet Italian counterpart Pier Carlo Padoan at 23:00 (Greek time) and have dinner with Adewale Adeyemo, deputy National Security Adviser (NSA) for International Economics. On Saturday, he will meet with the head of the International monetary Fund (IMF) Christine Lagarde, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem and French counterpart Michel Sapin. Tsakalotos is accompanied by Alternate Finance Minister Giorgos Chouliarakis. [02] Greece's primary surplus should drop to 1.5 pct of GDP, IMF's Thomsen saysGreece's current reforms under the third bailout programme cannot deliver primary surplus targets exceeding 1.5 pct of GDP, the director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) European Department, Poul Thomsen, said in a news briefing in Washington on Friday."We can support a programme that is based on a primary surplus of 1.5 percent. If Greece and its European partners want to agree on a programme with a more ambitious fiscal target, we need to see how it adds up," he said, repeating the standing IMF position on the issue. Greece has yet to implement important reforms in the public sector, Thomsen pointed out, while he also noted the high deficits generated by the Greek pension system and problems with exceptionally large tax exemptions of households, reaching as high as 60 pct. "It urgently needs a better social system to target the vulnerable, it needs an unemployment compensation system in order to be able to modernise," he said. Thomsen repeated that Greece's debt is not sustainable, which prevents the IMF from participating financially in the Greek programme. [03] Greek courts need 50 months on average to issue final ruling on a caseGreek courts take an average of 1,580 days or 50 months to reach a final ruling in a case, placing it in the 155th position in the world among the countries that delay trials, said Supreme Court Judge Christoforos Kosmides, presenting data from the World Bank, during a conference in Thessaloniki on Friday.The conference, organized by the Association for Judicial Studies, is titled "The (Dys)functioning and (In)effectiveness of the Civil and Criminal Justice System" and will held until October 9. During his speech about the organization of Greece's judicial services, Kosmides said that apart from the slowness of the justice system, the European Commission has also released data showing its ineffectiveness and Greece has collected the largest number of convictions on this issue from the relevant EU regulators. "It's unacceptable to invite someone at 09:00 [to attend a trial] and tell him at 15:00 that the trial of his case has been postponed," he said and proposed establishing an "effectiveness indicator" for every judge on an annual basis. Kosmides also noted that all this happens despite the fact that "all judicial employees receive, on a monthly basis, a significant bonus for the speedy handling of cases." Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |
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