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The European Commission launches an in-depth inspection of the issue related to the merger of Olympic Air and Aegean. "The Commission must ensure that consumers and companies will continue to have access to competitive services in the field of air transport, especially in this difficult economic period," said the European Union Commissioner responsible for the competitiveness Joaquin Almunia. The main problem, according to the European experts is that after the merger of the two companies the new enterprise will have a complete monopoly over the domestic airlines in Greece and also over a great share of the international flights from the country.

The European Commission expressed its doubts related to the extend to which the expected merger is in accordance with the European regulations for business mergers. In its announcement before the media the Commission stated that the close examination of the transaction would not prejudge the outcome before the seventh December this year. The EC will then come up with its final decision to what extent the merger would impede the effective competition in European airspace.

At the same time at the end of this week also ended the staged visits of the triple in the Greek ministries, hospitals and other public organizations carried out in order to verify the course of the fiscal consolidation in the country according to the memorandum for financial assistance. By the end of next week, the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank will prepare and present a general report on the status of the Greek economy. On the basis of this report the triple will grant the second tranche of financial assistance.

The representatives of the Mission met also with the Chairman of the Bank of Greece Georgios Provopolos in the presence of the Minister of Finance George Papakonstantinou. According to trusted sources from the Ministry at the meeting was discussed the state of the banking system in the country and the reforms in this sector that lie ahead by the end of the year.

The next visit of the inspection mission will be at the end of October. Then will be considered the budget draft for the year 2011, which must include the appropriate measures to increase the revenues in the National Treasury and further decrease of the public spending.