In Brief
Spain air traffic controllers set to meet on strike MADRID (AFP) – The union representing Spain’s air traffic controllers will meet Thursday to decide whether to go ahead with a strike over working conditions, a union member said. This means any walkout, which could disrupt flights at the peak of the tourist season, would not take place until at least August 22, as the union must give a formal 10-day warning of strike action. Spanish air traffic controllers voted by an overwhelming majority on Tuesday to strike over government changes to their working hours that reduce overtime pay. On Friday they broke off negotiations with the state-run airport management authority, AENA. «On Thursday we will have a meeting of our executive committee which will take some decisions,» a source at the Union of Air Traffic Controllers (USCA) said yesterday. «We still hope that it will not be necessary to call a strike and we can reach an agreement with» AENA, he continued. Transport Minister Jose Blanco warned yesterday of «serious damage to the economy and tourism» of Spain if the strike goes ahead. Serbia takes part in Bulgarian nuclear plant SOFIA (Reuters)- Serbia has promised to participate in Bulgaria’s Belene nuclear power plant project, put on hold due to a lack of funding and strategic partners, Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borisov said on Saturday. «Serbia will participate in Belene project,» Borisov told Focus news agency in the Black Sea city of Varna, where he met Serbian President Boris Tadic late on Friday. «What we need to do now is find European investors, and when the whole financing is structured, they [Serbia] will participate depending on how much funds they have.» Previously Borisov had said Serbia could take a small stake, about 3 to 4 percent. The center-right government has recently indicated it wanted to push ahead with the 2,000 megawatt plant project, which it put on review along other Russian-backed energy projects to check whether they meet the national interest and EU agenda. Sofia also agreed to speed up work on the Russian-led South Stream natural gas pipeline, seen as a rival to the EU’s Nabucco project after Moscow agreed to lower gas prices for Bulgaria. Control of economy Hungary wants to take control of its economic decisions and boost growth without relying on loans from foreign institutions as it did in 2008 to avoid bankruptcy, the prime minister’s office said. «We would like to regain our economic sovereignty, make our own decisions,» Mihaly Varga, head of Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s office, said in a television interview. «We would like the people to be able to understand that economic growth is due to the decisions of its government and not because of all sorts of foreign credit,» Varga told the private channel Hir TV. Varga stressed, however, that Hungary had benefited from international help. Nearly two years ago, it received a loan of 20 billion euros ($27 billion) from the European Union, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). «We are grateful for that because without it the country would have been bankrupt,» he said. Hungary has used about two thirds of the loan but announced in February it would turn down the rest, preferring to seek finance through the markets. In exchange for the loan, Budapest had to reduce its budget deficit to 3.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2010 and to 2.8 percent in 2011. Varga said his country is working to hit the deficit target this year and was open to talks with the IMF. Its target for 2011 would be announced after negotiations with the EU, probably at a summit in October, he added. (AFP) Plane acquisitions EgyptAir Holding Co, the state-owned carrier, plans to use bank loans to finance new aircraft purchases, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Hussein Massoud said. The Middle East’s and Africa’s oldest airline has no immediate plan to sell bonds or revive a 2006 plan to offer 20 percent of its shares to the public, Massoud told reporters yesterday. «We are studying all options,» Massoud said. (Bloomberg)
