Pierre Moscovici hearing

Sent back like a beginner. Moscovici had started his speech on Thursday 2 October radiating confidence. In the Socialist camp, everybody is convinced now that he was sent back because of the Socialists‘ delaying the Spanish EPP Cañete, but it did no good to have Moscovici be attacked from the start by a Frenchman, Alain Lamassoure (EPP): “Your candidacy creates among us a state of “malaise”. You failed in your own country as minister of economy. Your own president removed you from your job. What is your credibility?” Moscovici insisted that as finance minister he managed to reduce the deficit from more than 5% to 4.1%, but he also created irritation when he insisted that France had not been privileged when it asked for, and obtained, two supplementary years in order to bring its deficit inside the EU norms. He also antagonised the right with his insistence on the “social side of EU programs”. “Europe should be budgetary, monetary and social at the same time”, he said. He tried to win by showing his humane side: “I’m a pure European. I am Polish by my mother and Romanian by my father.” Also: “My father is a psychoanalyst and I can say that I am fairly balanced, with no paranoia or schizophrenia”… But he simply couldn’t convince that he would stay neutral when having to deal with France’s financial deficit, and couldn’t answer directly whether he would be ready to penalise his French Socialist allies for breaking deficit limits set for countries in the Eurozone. Nevertheless, he tried hard to convince that he would not be “an advocate or an ambassador”for the country of which he was finance minister from 2012 to spring 2014. He had to fend off attacks both from the right, and from left, as when the ECR Greek MEP Notis Marias asked him whether he was happy with “the disaster the Troika created in Greece”. “We had to maintain the unity of the Euro”, flatly said Moscovici. We should indeed have been more attentive to the fate of the populations, but I am glad that Greece remained in the Eurozone.” Dutch Sophie in’t Veld (ALDE) told him: “You haven’t convinced us. Your CV does not correspond to your promises. You downplay the problems, because your political convictions.” Moscovici just answered: “Juncker chose me for the job because he trusts me.”

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Who Is the Responsible For the Fatal Accident on the Egnatia Road?

The fatal pileup on northern Greece’s Egnatia motorway has taken the lives of five people. More than 30 remain in critical condition, including two children aged 18 and 16 months. Images from the wreck have shocked Greece and raised alarming questions. What caused the tragedy? How did a truck weighing nearly 30 tonnes manage to fall onto 30 parked cars? A 39-year-old Romanian truck driver has been accused of causing the accident. He will appear before a prosecutor in northern Greece on Monday. Yet many blame ongoing construction works and dangerous driving conditions for the deadly accident. The driver claimed that he lost the control of the heavy vehicle. He said that the brakes had inexplicably stopped working. Eyewitnesses also claim that, as the truck fell over the parked cars, it never appeared to reduce speed. According to the Greek police, it is also possible that the truck driver fell asleep while driving or was distracted and didn’t have time to react. According to eyewitnesses, there were no signs or emergency vehicles in the immediate vicinity to warn commuters that circulation had stopped. There were no traffic police on scene. Meanwhile, men holding flags prompting drivers to slow down were placed too near the road works to allow the truck driver to stop in time. The part of the motorway where the accident occurred is considered highly dangerous. It falls on a downward slope which is largely invisible owing to a line of trees on the right side of the road.    

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Turkey opposition to Cyprus gas exploration harms peace talks-minister

The internationally recognised Greek Cypriot government has licensed multinationals to explore for hydrocarbons in the area and Italy's ENI currently ...

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Estia: A Greek oasis in Marlton

With its strutted ceiling and seafood-centric menu, Estia Greek Taverna is afloat with elegance, a lively space that invites conversation and isn't a bit ...

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Morgantown celebrates WVU Homecoming in style

The Greek organizations introduced a multicultural strand of floats to liven the Greek theme “It's a small world.” The floats were built throughout the ...

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Pupils on 'waiting list' as Latin and Greek returns to Haringey secondary school

When Latin and Greek slipped quietly off the curriculum, many a pupil breathed a sigh of relief. After all, what is the point of a language that is, to all ...

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Greece: After six-year recession, government vows tax cuts, swing to growth in 2015 budget

ATHENS, Greece — Greece's economy is on track to emerge from a six-year recession this year and grow by 2.9 percent in 2015, though unemployment in the bailed-out country is likely to remain high, the finance ministry said Monday. The government ...

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