Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 16-02-24

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] 'Vienna meeting' ends with declaration for 'close alliance' to restrict refugee flows along 'Balkan Route'

[02] Gazprom, Edison, DEPA sign memorandum for ITGI project‏

[01] 'Vienna meeting' ends with declaration for 'close alliance' to restrict refugee flows along 'Balkan Route'

The Greek government has sharply criticised the holding of such a conference without its participation and the prospect of unilateral decisions being taken, especially given that Greece is the first "target" of migrant smugglers operating from the western Turkish coast.

Speaking during a joint press conference after the conference on migration, Mikl-Leitner referred to "stopping" migration flows. She said the countries at the meeting had agreed to coordinate their actions on refugee policy and adopt a common stance from here on, including fully supporting the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and joining to exert pressure for a European solution at the EU interior ministers' council on Thursday.

The meeting, which has drawn criticism from the European Commission and Germany, as well as Athens, was called by Mikl-Leitner and Austria's Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz.

The meeting ended with a 19-point declaration stating that "the migration flow along the Western Balkans route needs to be substantially reduced," and an agreement that all nations at the conference will refuse entry to all "without travel documents, with forged or falsified documents or migrants making wrongful statements about their nationality or identity.

[02] Gazprom, Edison, DEPA sign memorandum for ITGI project‏

The memorandum was signed by Gazprom's chief executive Alexei Miller, Edison chief executive Marc Benayoun and DEPA chief executive Theodore Kitsakos.

The agreement reflects the interest of all three parties to transport natural gas from Russia – through the Black Sea and third countries - to Greece and to Italy.

DEPA and Edison have formed a joint company, Poseidon, with the aim to build an underwater pipeline linking Greece and Italy. With the agreement signed on Wednesdsay, the two companies declared they intended to take advantage and to exploit the project already been made by DEPA and Edison in the framework of the ITGI Poseidon project.

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