International organizations

The European Union on Thursday announced plans to ease a ban on nonessential travel to the continent, with foreign students, non-EU nationals who normally live in Europe and certain highly skilled workers likely to be exempt from the coronavirus restrictions from July 1.

Greece's jobless rate dropped to 14.4 percent in March from a downwardly revised 15.9 percent reading in the previous month, data from the country's statistics service ELSTAT showed on Thursday.

It was the lowest jobless rate since November 2010.

Greece has rejected allegations of conducting pushback operations against migrant vessels seeking to reach its territory from Turkey via the Aegean Sea.
"The Greek coast guard always operates in accordance with the principles of international law," Shipping Minister Ioannis Plakiotakis said during a press conference on Wednesday.

The signing on Tuesday of a maritime border demarcation agreement between the Greek and Italian foreign ministers, Nikos Dendias and Luigi Di Maio, was seen as a clear message to Ankara regarding Greece's diplomatic clout and its determination to move ahead with its plans on the basis of international law. 

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias has said he will travel to Cairo on June 18 to resume talks with Egyptian officials on demarcating maritime boundaries between the two countries.

Two in every three households in Greece are in a worse financial state compared to six months ago due to the coronavirus pandemic's impact on the economy, according to a survey by Intrum.

Greece's 67% rate - matching Romania's - was the highest of the 24 countries that researchers at the Sweden-based credit management services company surveyed, far above the European average of 48%.

The unprecedented lockdown of many economic sectors due to the coronavirus saw almost one in two private sector workers out of work, either permanently or for a limited period, according to report by the National Institute of Labor and Human Resources (EIEAD).

The representation of the European Commission in Bulgaria has called on the regional and local authorities to play a leading role in the recovery from the Covid-19 crisis. When developing EU programs, it is important that, taking into account local priorities, investments are made in critical areas such as healthcare, climate change and digitization.

Turkey's state-run aid agency on June 7 delivered medical supplies to Bangladesh in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

"TİKA [Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency] provided one thousand N95 masks, one thousand PPE suits, two ventilators and five thousand medical masks to support Bangladesh in fighting COVID-19," the Turkish Embassy in Dhaka said in a statement.

Even amid a pandemic, tourism demand for Greece is so high that it risks becoming a form of diplomatic pressure. This reality, however, does not allow us to drop our guard.

This summer the number of visitors coming to Greece will inevitably decline. However, this lull also presents us with an opportunity to rethink Greece as a tourism product.