Greece

The Greek government presented to the representatives of the institutions its plan to impose a new tax for bank transactions of 1 per mille in order to avoid new stricter measures and cover the fiscal gap and the gap in social security.

Around 140 at-risk churches, schools, synagogues and monasteries across Turkey are being cataloged by an international teamA new project to protect Anatolia's non-Muslim architectural heritage is bringing together volunteers from Turkey, Greece and Armenia.        

The European Union asks Greece and Cyprus to offer concessions to Turkey hoping to seal a deal on sending back migrants, according to EU new proposal.

Bulgaria has called again on the EU to recognize the need for protection of the country's land and maritime borders with Turkey from a possible shifting of migration inflow following the closure of the Western Balkans route.

Minister of Culture Aristides Baltas expressed a different perceptive of what is happening in Idomeni.

Speaking on Thursday at a press conference, Mr. Baltas referred to refugee issue and argued that Greece should not be ashamed of what is going on in Idomeni.

A Syrian refugee, who tried to cross Greek-FYROM border along with other refugees and immigrants, accuses FYROM soldiers of cruel and inhuman treatment.

As the man claims, after crossing the river close to Idomeni, he reached FYROM and saw the soldiers.

An eight-year-old refugee boy at the Piraeus port passenger terminal has been confirmed to have hepatitis A and was admitted to Agia Sophia children’s hospital in Athens.

The situation regarding the refugee issue continues to being chaotic with Greek government insisting that it will seek for an official diplomatic solution in cooperation with FYROM regarding the refugees who entered the neighboring country illegally.

The EU Council announced on Tuesday that it has adopted a regulation for creating an EU emergency support mechanism that will help Greece and other member states which are under pressure from large numbers of refugees arriving in their territory.

According to Eurostat data, there were just over 5 million new births registered in the EU in 2014, with France recording the highest fertility rate. The data indicated the average age a woman has her first child is 29 years old. Greece had 92,000 new births in 2014, with Greek women bearing their first child at 30 years old.