Greek President of the Republic Karolos Papoulias expressed his deepest appreciation on Monday for US President Barack Obama’s intervention, made recently in support of Greece.
Receiving an American Hellenic Institute (AHI) delegation and Greek-American students at the presidential mansion in Athens earlier on Monday, Papoulias thanked President Obama for his voiced interest, “In this difficult period for Greece and for speaking with European leaders, Chancellor (Angela) Merkel and President (Nicolas) Sarkozy in particular. This is very important. We will not forget it. I thank him personally and I hope that we’ll have the opportunity to meet and talk about our common interests and dreams. Together, with the United States we have always fought for the same principles, namely, freedom, independence and human rights.”
Addressing the young students visiting Greece and Cyprus through an AHI initiative, Papoulias expressed optimism that Greece will exit the crisis.
“We are a very resilient people. We have strong genes. We have made it in the past in much more difficult times than these and managed to pull through. And we’ll do the same now. I am optimistic because the Greek people have infinite abilities and potential. You know about this first hand by watching your parents,” he said.
(source: ana-mpa)

The Greek general government deficit totaled 9.967 billion euro over the four months from January to April 2011, up from 7.328 billion euro in January-March 2011, the Finance Ministry announced on Monday.
During that period, the outstanding debt by general government agencies came to one billion euro, of which one billion euro were social insurance fund debts, 1.721 billion euro were hospital debts, 892 million euro were ministry debts and the remaining 738 million euro were local government debt.
(source: ana-mpa)

New problems will soon be seen for Greek citizens due to repeated 48-hour strikes by workers from DEH, the Greek electricity company.  It is demanding that the government withdraw from the Mid-Term Economic Programme, calling for the sell-off of a further 17% of the company, still state-owned, to private bodies.
The Hellenic Transmission System Operator estimates that the demand would be around 6500MW, considering that there would be no problem on Tuesday, as the PPC and private capacity exceeds 10,000MW, while power imports increase the capacity further.
The Greek press reports that during a meeting with GENOP (the union of the company’s workers), the new Finance Minister and Vice President of the government, Evaghelos Venizelos, implied that there was some possibility of small changes to the privatization programme. However, GENOP leader, N. Fotopoulos claimed that the government hasn’t changed its stance and therefore there is no reason to suspend its actions.
According to GENOP sources, Venizelos had claimed that he hadn’t  ruled out the possibility of changes in the privatization of a 17% stake in PPC.

Milos, one of the most beautiful islands of Greece, with its astonishing catacombs, was declared by former Minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos and the head of the Church as a “holy island” in 2009. On the 18^th and 19^th of June this year, the island was supposed to have taken its name officially, but the recent accident involving the bishop and the current political situation has postponed the event for next fall. However, thousands of people travel to Milos each year, not just for a vacation, but also in order to pray inside the catacombs as they believe it is in fact, a holy island.

European Union leaders expressed confidence Monday at a meeting in Luxembourg that Greece will concede on the necessary economic reforms in order to receive the next tranche of aid due and avoid default.
A formal decision to disburse EUR12 billion to Greece should be taken by early July, after the Greek government commits to a new austerity package, said Eurogroup President Jean-Claude Juncker, who also serves as prime minister of Luxembourg, and European Union Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn. The Eurogroup will convene on July 3 for an extraordinary session to tackle the issue.
“These measures should ensure that Greece continues to correct its public finances and reform its economy to create the conditions for sustainable growth and job creation,” said Rehn.
Euro-zone finance ministers also agreed Monday that the “preferred creditor status” for the currency area΄s permanent rescue fund as of 2013, the European Stability Mechanism, be dropped for countries already participating in a bailout program.
There were fears this status would disincentivize private investors from buying the bonds because the euro-zone institution would be paid first in the case of default.
“It΄s good news for Greece. It΄s good news for Ireland. It΄s good news for Portugal,” said Juncker.
The ministers agreed on a treaty for the mechanism, paving the way for national governments to vote in the coming days.
Leaders repeated that access to the ESM will come with strict conditions and that private creditors will play a role.
Private sector involvement “will be the rule” for the ESM, said Klaus Regling, head of the European Financial Stability Facility, the ESM΄s precursor.
However, leaders added that private investor involvement in Greece΄s rescue will be voluntary to avoid default.
(source: Dow Jones)