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Greek move towards Russia on energy unsettling US officials

ageroh — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 20:42:04 +0000

The recently elected leftist Syriza-led coalition government’s maneuvering aiming to shift Greece’s energy policy interests away from the US-European sphere of influence and closer to Russia, as part of what the Greek administration is referring to as a “multi-sided policy with openings towards all directions,” has now also begun irriating US officials, besides EU officials.

Influential American government officials and energy-sector lobby group representatives have already reacted to a speech last night, filled with radical leftist thoughts and intentions, delivered by the Production Reconstruction, Environment and Energy Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis at the Athens Energy Forum, an event organized by the International New York Times.

Responding to Lafazanis’s speech, Robin Dunnigan, the US State Department Bureau of Energy Resources Deputy Assistant Secretary, noted: “You must not detach, or place emphasis on projects still years away from being actualized, or not yet feasible, such as Turkish Stream [Russian-backed alternative to the country’s withdrawn South Stream project], a plan that will not bring new natural gas to Europe, but old gas from a different route.”

During his preceding speech, the Greek energy minister noted the government’s “multidimensional energy policy will not allow the country to become an energy-sector banana republic and protectorate for anybody.” He also spoke of “large capitalist countries controlling energy options as a means of overruling smaller nations.”

“As for the minister’s speech, there are parts that we agree on and other parts where we disagree. We agree, for example, that energy policy crucially affects progress and prosperity and that we must ensure that cheap energy will remain accessible for all. The developments concerning Europe’s energy security not only affect our friends and allies but our energy security as well,” Dunnigan remarked. “Russia must remain a supplier, but not the only one. Many things still need to be done in southern Europe. I’ll begin with the Southern Gas Corridor and the importance for natural gas to be supplied from the Caspian region – non-Russian gas to Europe through Turkey and via the TAP pipeline crossing Greece. However, there are two problems. The first concerns financing and the second has to do with not detaching from our objective with projects such as Turkish Stream,” the US official continued.

source: energypress.gr

Golden Visa Greece

ageroh — Wed, 10 Jun 2015 22:22:44 +0000

Passport to the EU property market in Greece

504 residence permits have been already issued to third country nationals who bought property in Greece and the demand is continuously growing basically due to the low prices.

Residential property in the heart of Athens seems to dominate the preferences of third country citizens who wish to obtain a residence permit through the purchase of a property in Greece. Attica and especially the coastal areas emerge as top destination. The recent evidence suggests that 504 residence permits were issued, given that each property can give more than one permit, considering that the permit can be extended to family members.

The properties sold for residence permit are located in are in Attica, in total 250 were obtained (110 in Pallini, 85 in downtown Athens and 65 in Piraeus), 110 in Crete (Chania 50, 15 in Heraklion, Rethymnon 12 and 25 in Agios Nikolaos), 50 in Polygyros Chalkidiki, 20 in Cyclades, 14 in Rhodes, 40 Ionian (mainly in Corfu) and 20 in the Peloponnese.

The lowest amount

The program of Greece considered competitive as the starting amount is the lowest in Europe and the transfer tax is reduced to 3.09% if the seller is a private person and the new owner of the property is not obligated to stay in the country for some time.

The criteria of buyers is near the airport, so I prefer Athens, alternatively follow Mykonos, Santorini, Paros, Crete and Corfu. In thinking also that they will use the property as Athens facilitates relative to schools and work.

67 mil. € in 14 months

According to comparative research data, presented in mid-October, the Enterprise Greece, the first 14 months of the program «residence permit for third-country nationals through property purchase in Greece» and in September received 67 million €, with an average of 317,000 per residence and principal civil origin countries Russia (185) China (119) and Egypt (33). Specifically, among the 436 residence permits had been issued until then (the procedure was other 83), 210 were for new owners and 182 members of their families, the proportion of contracts – permits are 1 in 1.86.

In Spain the amount required for the purchase of property is 500,000 euros and up, from September 2013 and within a year issued 285 licenses. In Cyprus the amount starting at 300,000 Euros. In Portugal it is estimated that has flowed around 1 billion € mainly by Chinese, Russians and Angolans, with the former representing over 80% of 1,526 residence permits.

Source: tovima.gr