The Athens municipality gave the green light for the implementation of the Athens downtown urban restructuring plan that will create long pedestrian walking zones in the center of the Greek capital. According to the plan, a 6.8 km-long pedestrian walk is to be established and this also includes the historical …
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Greece overhauls properties “objective values” with hikes reaching up to 250%
Greece’s Finance Ministry announced the new property zone rates on Monday in an effort to adjust the so-called objective values with the commercial values and have millions of real estate owners be taxed for their properties accordingly. The new property zones, 13,808 in total, are overhauled across the entire country …
Read More »Reckless planning turns Athens into Legoland with withered flowers
Huge flower boxes made of metal sheet are boiling under the hot summer sun and plants are dying out already two days after they were installed to decorate one of the main avenues in Athens, Panepistimiou street. The installation of the flower boxes is the latest intervention in the context …
Read More »Athens Great Walk leads to Athens Great Jam with commuters as lab rats
The overambitious plan of Athens Municipality the Great Walk of Athens turned into the Great Traffic Jam on Monday morning, when local authorities decreased the six lanes of Panepistimiou Avenue into three for vehicles including public transport means like buses and trolley buses. Central roads in downtown Athens but also …
Read More »Athens Great Walk and “red carpet” for pedestrians
The Great Walk of Athens, the project that overhauls the city center “to encourage on-foot exploration by tourists” – as it is official said – has been pilot tested on Thursday. The testing affected the several streets including the avenues of Vassilissis Olgas and Irodou Attikou, where the first zones …
Read More »Outcry after Gov’t bans cars from downtown Athens, fines 150 euros
The government shocked Athenians on Friday morning with a joint ministerial decision banning cars traffic in a large part of downtown Athens, including main avenues. Restrictions will be valid from mid-June and for a period of 3+3 months. Violators are threatened with a fine of 150 euros. Officially, reason for …
Read More »Thissio: Municipality destroys Handicraft Artists in Athens’ most colorful area
The Municipality of Athens is destroying one of the most colorful areas in the historical center of the Greek capital. The 300 artists who sell their homemade handicraft in the area of Thissio should be removed and relocated outside three metro stations in Keramikos and Victoria squares quite far from …
Read More »IMF keeps fiddling the same tune: Greece needs more economic overhauls than currently planned
The International Monetary Fund had a sobering message for Greece this weekend: Even if the country secures debt relief from its European creditors—a question that is by no means assured with bailout talks still deadlocked—the nation still needs even more painful economic overhauls than currently planned. Seven years into an …
Read More »IIF’s Dallara in Athens for Talks with Greek PM, FinMin
Charles Dallara, managing director of Institute for International Finance (IIF) is rushing to Athens on Wednesday for talks with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos. The talks will focus on the participation of private investors holding Greek bonds and the proposed 50% ‘haircut’. In Frankfurt, Germany, talks …
Read More »2023 World Press Freedom Index: Greece ranks as worst EU country
For a second year in a row, Greece ranks as the worst EU country for media freedom. According to Reporters Without Borders 2023 Press Freedom Index released on Wednesday, Greece ranks 107th in the world, even below Qatar and Thailand. Norway ranks 1st, Ireland ranks 2nd and Denmark 3rd. At …
Read More »Chances for a Greek-Turkish dialogue? This is never going to happen
Turkey has proposed a dialogue with Greece to solve bilateral issues. At the same time, it threatens with a hot pursuit should Athens try to prevent Turkey’s planned drilling for hydrocarbon south of the island of Crete No one will dare stopping our drilling. These are our sovereign rights that …
Read More »UNHCR expresses concern at Greece’s asylum plans
The United Nations refugees agency UNHCR expressed concern about Greek proposals to overhaul laws affecting asylum seekers, saying they could weaken the protection of refugees. Greece is proposing to streamline a lengthy asylum process and deport rejected asylum seekers. A draft law is pending in the Greek parliament. The law …
Read More »24-hour General Strike paralyzes Greece, disrupts transport
Public services, schools, banks, courts closed, hospitals and health service with emergency staff, ferries docked and main disruptions in public transport means are the main features of the 24-hour general strike decided by workers unions in public and private sector. Two months after it came to power, neo-liberal New Democracy …
Read More »Labor Ministry to reduce fines for undeclared work, raise minimum wage
Fines for undeclared work will be reduced in order to create incentives for full time jobs, Labour Minister Efi Achtsioglou revealed right after Christmas. In an interview with the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA), Labour Minister Efi Achtsioglou revealed plans to overhaul the architecture of the fine system for undeclared labour …
Read More »Patmos revolts against Religion courses in schools as “against Orthodoxy and Constitution”
Parents associations at all levels of education and local clergy on the island of Patmos gathered together and decided to revolt against the Education Ministry in Athens. “We declare that we refuse to have our children taught the lesson of Religion according to the new directives of the Education Ministry,” …
Read More »Piraeus Bank says will respond to central bank audit over regulatory violations
Piraeus Bank said on Monday it will respond to a draft report of a Bank of Greece audit that found regulatory violations during 2014-16 and that a final report by the central bank would follow thereafter. Piraeus shares came under selling pressure last week, prompting the bank to say it …
Read More »No EU leader congratulates Erdogan awaiting OSCE report on Referendum irregularities
Leaders of member states of the European Union have been cautious about the results of the referendum in Turkey. No EU leader sent the traditional congratulations message to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his victory so far. They are reportedly awaiting for the independent report of Organization for Security and …
Read More »Eurogroup deal: Measures €3.6bn in pension cuts, tax-free threshold (2% GDP) in 2019-2020
Creditors representatives will return to Greece as early as possible to finalize the second review of the Greek bailout program. At a press conference after the Eurogroup meeting, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, said that Greece and creditors have reached a ‘great agreement’ in Malta. “We agreed that measures 1% of the GDP …
Read More »The NYT throws European far-right populists & left-wing movements in one bag
A punch under the belt: Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras hand in hand with nationalists like Marie Le Pen, Nigel Farrage, the German AfD. In an article about European Populist parties, the New York Times pushes here and pulls there trying to make the two ends to the political spectrum …
Read More »Brussels considers to fine with €250K per refugee EU States refusing to implement the “Relocation scheme”
Finally! The European Commission is considering to impose “sanctions”, that is radical measures in form of financial fines to EU member states that refuse to accept refugees on the context of relocation scheme and the EU Turkey deal. As majority of EU member states refuse to comply with the agreement …
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