Daily Archives: February 11, 2015

Εντός του επόμενου μήνα θα κατατεθεί στη Βουλή το νομοσχέδιο για την επανίδρυση της ΕΡΤ, όπως δήλωσε ο αρμόδιος υπουργός Επικρατείας Νίκος Παππάς κατά τη συζήτηση στην Ολομέλεια της Βουλής επί των προγραμματικών δηλώσεων της κυβέρνησης.

Πηγή:in.gr

Greece’s new leftist Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis looks behind him while sitting after addressing the parliament in Athens on Sunday.

 Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has become an improbable heartthrob in Germany, where his demands to renegotiate the nation’s debt fell on deaf ears but his charm and masculine appearance have not gone unnoticed.

Germany’s ZDF public television even lampooned its own news anchor for enthusiastic comparing the minister with Hollywood tough guy Bruce Willis, while Stern magazine published a gushing article on Varoufakis’s “classical masculinity”.

“Varoufakis is without doubt a man full of charisma,” ZDF anchor Marietta Slomka said on air. “Visually, he’s someone you could imagine starring in a film like ‘Die Hard 6’ – he’s an interesting character.”

The host of the ZDF parody “Heute Show”, Oliver Welke, ridiculed his “lovestruck” colleague over the 53-year-old Varoufakis but admitted: “He is an incredibly attractive man.”

Varoufakis’s casual tie-less appearance – especially the fact that he does not tuck his dress shirts in and leaves their tops unbuttoned – was an unlikely focus of news reports in Germany, an unusual angle in a country whose leaders have been firmly insisting on Greece fulfilling austerity pledges.

“What makes Yanis Varoufakis a sex icon” was a headline in conservative newspaper Die Welt over a story that raved about “his balding head, cool style and muscular Yamaha motorcycle”.

“Even though Greece’s debts are causing a lot of stress, their new finance minister is anything but dull,” wrote Die Welt, a daily close to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.

“A star is born,” it added. “He hasn’t forced any of the creditors to their knees but the economics professor is shaking up the suits in Europe with a casual appearance and cool stare.”

Stern magazine wrote that Varoufakis’s appearance reminded Germans of Greek heroes immortalised in marble statues, even though media elsewhere in Europe have said he looked more like a night club bouncer.

“He rattles around Athens on a big, black motorcycle, never tucks his shirts in and radiates a sort of classical masculinity that you only usually see in Greek statues,” Stern wrote. “He’s not one of the world’s most respected economists, but a man whose good looks separate him from all the grey suits.”

“He’s someone you take notice of,” wrote Focus newsweekly.

Germany’s Stylebook fashion magazine also took notice. “His cool style is something you can’t miss,” Stylebook wrote under a story entitled “poor but sexy.”

source:ekathimerini.com

Τhe Greek health sector has deteriorated significantly since the start of the country’s crisis, according to the results of a new international study.

Greece was ranked in 28th place out of 37 countries on last year’s Euro Health Consumer Index, a comparison of healthcare systems carried out by Swedish company Health Consumer Powerhouse.

The study found Greece to have a particularly poor record as regards the ability of patients to access their medical history, under-the-table-payments for treatment, waiting lists for cancer treatment, hospital bugs and the preference of branded medicines over generic drugs. Greece slipped to 28th place in the index last year from 25th in 2013 and 22nd in 2012. The Netherlands tops the list followed by Switzerland and Norway with Bosnia, Romania and Montenegro last.

The survey also found that Greece had the third-highest per capita consumption of pharmaceuticals.

source:ekathimerini.com

Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis (l) greets Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras before a vote of confidence at the parliament in Athens on Tuesday.

 Greece is not seeking a clash with its European partners but cannot exclude one, its finance minister said on the eve of a crucial eurozone finance ministers’ meeting to discuss the country’s future.

In a defiant speech to parliament ahead of a vote of confidence in the new government later on Tuesday, Yanis Varoufakis heralded the start of Greece’s post-bailout period and laid the ground for a potential standoff between Athens and its creditors.

“If you’re not willing to even consider a clash, you’re not negotiating,” Varoufakis said to applause.

“We’re not seeking a clash. We will do everything to avoid it. But you’re not negotiating if you’ve ruled it out.”

Athens’s leftist government says it has no intention of requesting an extension to the 240 billion euro bailout by the European Union and IMF, which expires on Feb. 28. and wants to reverse what it has called “cruel” austerity.

Varoufakis has proposed a six-month transition during which Greece wants to be allowed to issue more short-term treasury bills, run a smaller primary budget surplus and receive European Central Bank profits on Greek bond holdings.

Varoufakis said he believed an agreement would be found with Greece’s partners but reiterated that the government would not accept any part of the bailout that increased the country’s debt. He said 30 percent of the aid programme was “toxic” and Greece intended to reject it.

“What percentage of the bailout do we accept?” he said.

“Zero percent. We won’t accept not even one condition which worsens the suffering of the crisis, which increases the percentage of debt.”

Euro zone creditors led by Germany, the bloc’s main paymaster, first want to see firm commitments to an economic reform programme incorporating policies agreed by the previous conservative-led government.

Earlier on Tuesday, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said he expected to hear something binding from Athens at the Eurogroup and that if Greece did not want a new aid programme “then that’s it.”

source: ekathimerini.com

The European Union is aiming to clinch an interim debt deal with Greece at a meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Monday, with “low expectations” for a breakthrough at meetings of ministers and EU leaders this week.

Eurozone finance ministers, collectively known as the Eurogroup, meet on Wednesday and next Monday and EU leaders at a summit, or European Council, this Thursday.

“These are the next steps but for the time being we have low expectations that any final agreement will be tomorrow or at the European Council,” a Commission spokeswoman told a news conference.

An EU official later said the target now was to clinch an interim deal by Monday’s scheduled meeting of the Eurogroup in Brussels.

“This would give time for any ratification required by national parliaments before the current EU bailout deal expires on February 28,” the official said, although cautioned against setting “any fake deadlines.”

Greece is seeking a new debt agreement with the eurozone that will allow it to shake off much of the austerity imposed since 2010 by international lenders. The existing package expires at the end of February.

“Of course very intense contacts are ongoing between the (Commission) President, (Greek) Prime Minister Tsipras and all other players involved in the eurozone…. But up to this point all these contacts have not been very fruitful,” the Commission spokeswoman said.

source: ekathimerini.com