News archive of March 2017

Panathinaikos has all but confirmed home advantage in the Euroleague play-offs thanks to its huge win over CSKA Moscow on Friday and the simultaneous loss of Fenerbahce at Real Madrid. Meanwhile Olympiakos confirmed it will finish third after going down at Anadolu Efes on Thursday.

The hundreds of thousands of properties being leased out to tourists as accommodation without a permit from the Greek National Tourism Organization continue to operate in a state of tax immunity, just as legal hotels are set to be hit with a new tax burden in the form of the levy per night's stay as of January 2018.

The adjustment to pensions being considered by the government will inflict cuts ranging from 5 to 620 euros per month for at least 1.4 million pensioners if the reduction of the so-called "personal difference" - the gap between the pension as calculated according to the old method and that using the new calculation system - is imposed on all retirees.

Energy Minister Giorgos Stathakis arrived on Friday in Kozani, northwestern Greece.

Spain is likely to wield a veto over any Brexit deal for Gibraltar after the EU-27 backed Madrid in its draft negotiating guidelines for forthcoming divorce talks between the UK and the bloc.
Gibraltar is a disputed territory, which Britain has held for centuries. For the UK, any Brexit deal would automatically apply to Gibraltar, since it claims it as British territory.

The measures and countermeasures the government is preparing with the approval of the country's creditors will lead to further tax hikes as of 2019.

There was a slight reaction to the news of a snag in the course of the bailout review talks at Athinon Avenue on Friday, but that only put a small dent in the gains chalked up at the end of a week of significant growth.

Hashim Thaçi on Thursday gave up on his plans for a rapid transformation of the nation's defence force into an army, ceding to strong opposition from Western allies.

Only days before Serbia's presidential election, seven major newspapers have hit the stands with the same front pages: the ruling candidate's campaign poster.

The propaganda coup on Thursday by populist Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic's campaign team further stoked fears about the overall fairness of the Sunday vote.

The caretaker government held an extraordinary meeting on Friday to revoke an ordinance by the previous government on integration of refugees, BTA said.

Announcing their decision, Labour and Social Policy Minister Galab Donev and Interior Minister Plamen Uzunov said that the ordinance was revoked "in order to find incentives for better integration of refugees in this country".