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Press: EU enlargement and COOP scandals

21/10/2002 09:17
The newspaper “Simerini” under the titles “Investigations in COOP” and “Numerous irregularities” highlights that the scandal concerning Paphos’ Savings Department is the starting point for further investigations that aim to uncover several irregularities at of the COOPs. The newspaper reports that the government has decided to intensify investigations over mortgage loans and other activities.

According to the article, the major motive for the conduct of the aforementioned investigation is the report of the Cooperative Savings Departments Internal Audit Service submitted to the Cabinet three weeks ago. The report revealed that the internal audit in COOP was “minor, almost non-existent”, while high-ranking executives of the Departments served their own personal interests ignoring Legislation.

The newspaper “Alithia’ under the title “Enlargement: new turning-point on Friday” refers to the aftermath of the Irish referendum (Ireland ratified the Nice Treaty) and the Summit of the 15 EU leaders on Friday and Saturday in Brussels to ‘permit’ the 10 candidate countries to conclude accession talks until the EU Summit in Copenhagen in December 2002.

The “Economy” inset of newspaper “Phileleftheros” under the title “Unemployment fell to 2.9% in September” mentions that the number of the registered unemployed was reduced by 543 individuals at the end of September (compared to August 2002) reaching 9.326 individuals or 2.9% of labour. This decline is due to the re-employment of teaching and deputy staff in educational institutions.

However, unemployment has increased by 824 individuals or 9.7% compared to September 2001.

Elsewhere, the newspaper quotes that the consumer price index - that measures the rate of inflation – increased by 2.81% during the first nine months of 2002 compared to the same period of 2001 and reports that this rate is higher than the average of the euro zone countries that reached 2.2%.