From: miltos@nfl2.irc.nrc.ca
Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Wed, 27 Oct 1993 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa).

	A.N.A. Luxembourg, 27/10/1993 (Reuter): European Community
foreign ministers preparing a showpiece summit to launch the
post-Maastricht era tried to keep a unified image yesterday by
leaving difficult trade and internal questions off the agenda.
But a furious outburst by European Commission President Jacques
Delors about EC inaction over unemployment and new war horrors
in Bosnia guaranteed that these two milestones will hang round
the neck of the special summit in Brussels on Friday. Belgian
Foreign Minister Willy Claes told a news conference that the
summit would deal mainly with how to implement the treaty on
European political and economic union which comes into effect on
November 1. But he said there would be no outbreak of euphoria
among the heads of state and government, adding: "The problems
facing Europe are so serious it is hardly the moment for
partying". 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Greece has recalled its ambassador to
Tirana and its consul general in Gyrokastr for consultations
following a series of border incidents last week, government
spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday. "our action
corresponds to the intensity of recent incidents", Mr. Venizelos
said. Athens lodged a protest with Tirana Monday after reports
that a 68-year-old ethnic Greek woman was beaten to death by
Albanian police on Thursday and a Greek national guardsman was
killed by nine illegal Albanian immigrants trying to cross the
border on Friday. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Andreas
Papandreou told parliament that Greece desired friendly
relations with Albania, but their improvement hinged on Tirana's
respect of international law and human and minority rights.
Meanwhile, Albania's public order minister yesterday rejected
charges that his country was escalating its provocations against
the Greek minority in Albania, according to an AFP dispatch. At
the same time, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias yesterday
received Sotiris Kyriazatis, president of the ethnic Greek
minority in Albania organisation "Omonia", and deputies of the
"Union for Human Rights" party Thomas Mitsios and Constantine
Makariatis for a briefing on problems faced by the minority in
Albania. Mr. Papoulias said the Greek government desired the
improvement and development of bilateral Greek-Albanian
relations, which will come through a respect for the minority's
rights. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): In a meeting Monday night, the Athens
Municipal Council issued a resolution denouncing the
unprecedented and inhuman acts of violence against ethnic Greeks
in Albania by the Albanian authorities which constitute a
flagrant violation of internationally safeguarded human rights.
The Municipal Council called on the Greek government to take
necessary action and also called on international organisations
to intervene to prevent a repeat of similar incidents in the
future. 


	Tirana, 27/10/1993 (ANA - K. Liatis): The Albanian Defence
Ministry is continuing to refuse to give the Orthodox
Autocephalous Church four monasteries turned into army camps
during the Hoxha ascendancy. The Albanian parliament has passed
a law anticipating the return of these monasteries' property to
the Orthodox Church but the issue has so far remained
unresolved. A report in yesterday's edition of Kohajona, the
second largest-circulation newspaper, says "the position of
Albania's Defence Ministry which claims that supposedly the
Orthodox Church still does not need the monasteries since it
does not have monks is odd". The report says maybe the issue
should be resolved in the courts because "the monasteries belong
to the Church and it is impossible for soldiers to play the role
of monks". Meanwhile in Strasbourg, leader of PASOK's European
Parliament deputies Christos Papoutsis called on the European
Parliament's president Egon Klepsch to intervene with the
Albanian government for the protection of the Greek minority
there. Mr. Papoutsis denounced recent incidents directed against
the Greek minority and referred to the obstacles placed by the
Albanian government in the minority's educational matters as
well as to rumours of an imminent influx of settlers to the
regions populated by the Greek minority. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Government spokesman Evangelos
Venizelos yesterday refused to comment on statements attributed
to French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe after his meeting with
Skopjan President Kiro Gligorov in Paris Monday. "I do not wish
to make any special comment. I simply wish to say the following:
First, France is a Community country and therefore it is bound
by the principle of Community solidarity; second, being a
Community country and a member of NATO and the CSCE, Greece is a
basic factor in safeguarding peace and stability in the wider
region of the Southern Balkans; and third, the Greek
government's steadfast position, which is not subject to
negotiations, is that Greece will not recognise a state on its
northern borders whose name will include the word 'Macedonia' or
its derivatives. And evidently the French government is aware of
this", he said. According to a Reuter dispatch, a French foreign
ministry spokesman said yesterday Foreign Minister Alain Juppe
had hailed the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia as a "pole
of stability in the Balkans". The spokesman, Richard Duque, said
Mr. Juppe made the statement after talks on Monday with Skopjan
President Kiro Gligorov, who was visiting Paris in a
semi-private capacity. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou
yesterday met with Guyana President Jedi Zangan at his home in
Ekali. 


	New York, 27/10/1993 (ANA - M. Georgiadou): Renowned Greek
actress Irene Pappas Saturday received the Golden Arrow Award
for lifetime achievement at the Hampton's International Film
Festival. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Industry, Energy and Technology
Minister Constantine Simitis yesterday said the previous
government's decisions to cede electricity production units to
private operators would be suspended and that files of ailing
enterprises that were sold off would be re-examined. "The PASOK
government's basic aim is the building of a modern, strong and
internationally competitive economy. The ultimate aim of this
policy is the attainment of high rates of development to secure
a permanent improvement in the level of prosperity of the Greek
people, reduce the country's income and regional inequalities
and ... improve working conditions", Mr. Simitis said. Mr.
Simitis said the government's policy will aim at minimising the
social cost which usually accompanies industrial development and
environmental improvement. Priorities in the industrial sector,
he said, are improving industry infrastructure, upgrading
production quality, creating networks, supporting small and
medium-size firms, gaining access to international markets and
securing state commissions. Mr. Simitis said the main aim in the
energy sector was the effective use of energy, promoting the
exploitation of renewable sources of energy and minimising the
cost of production. Moreover, the use of petroleum products
should be reduced in covering energy requirements and replaced
with other sources of energy. The natural gas project will be
speeded up, he said, adding that the use of natural gas would be
a bonus for both consumer and the environment. Mr. Simitis said
that in the electricity production sector, more lignite plants
would be established but production of electric power by nuclear
plants was ruled out. The operation of the Public Power
Corporation (DEH) should be improved, he said, adding that the
criteria for this are greater attention to the cost-yield
relation, transparency, promoting social control and responding
to the public's wishes. Efforts will also be made to increase
the efficiency of other state corporations, he said. Mr. Simitis
said the main targets in the research sector are intensifying
efforts in production-related research and introducing new
technologies. Lastly, he said, expenditure for research should
be increased both by public and private businesses. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Interest rates will not be increased,
National Economy Minister George Yennimatas said yesterday,
adding that they would remain stable for the time being with a
reduction foreseen in the course of next year. he said that he
would meet with interested parties before announcing his new
taxation bill, with the aim of establishing one taxation bill
and not a different one each year. Speaking yesterday in
parliament before the confidence vote, Mr. Yennimatas referred
to the need for a stable taxation framework which will be
adopted as a result of a dialogue, based on the law established
by the 1989 national unity government. Mr. Yennimatas also met
with Bank of Greece Governor Efthymios Christodoulou yesterday. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Government spokesman Evangelos
Venizelos yesterday announced the establishment of a collective
government agency to monitor major projects. Mr. Venizelos said
the agency would be chaired by Interior Minister Akis
Tsohatzopoulos and compose National Economy and Finance Minister
George Yennimatas. Environment, Town Planning and Public Works
Minister Costas Laliotis, Transport and Communications Minister
Ioannis Haralambous and Alternate Environment, Town Planning and
Public Works Minister Ioannis Souladakis. The agency's mission
will be to examine and evaluate various alternative projects
concerning the promotion of major projects and make necessary
proposals to the prime minister and the government. Mr.
Venizelos said the government was committed to creating
committees to examine the signing of each contract outside a
partisan framework and with transparency. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Former prime minister Constantine
Mitsotakis yesterday resigned as leader of the main opposition
conservative New Democracy (ND) party following its defeat in
October 10 elections. A new leader will be elected on November
3. Announcing his resignation at a press conference at party
headquarters, Mr. Mitsotakis called for procedures to be
initiated for the election of a new leader in accordance with
the party's statutes. Among the four candidates for the ND
leadership, former minister in the Mitsotakis government
Miltiades Evert, 54, is rumoured to be the favourite for the
post. While Andreas Papandreou has been leader of the
Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) since the party's
foundation, Mr. Mitsotakis is the fourth New Democracy leader to
resign since 1980. The founder of New Democracy, Constantine
Karamanlis, became President of the Republic on May 6, 1980, one
year before Mr. Papandreou came to power after defeating
conservative prime minister George Rallis. Mr. Rallis was
succeeded by Evangelos Averof, who resigned after losing the
1984 Euroelections. Evangelos Averof was in turn succeeded by
Mr. Mitsotakis on September 1 the same year. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): Greece's national holiday of 'Oxi
Day' is a salutary lesson to the world of how to defend the
values of freedom and human dignity, National Defence Minister
Gerasimos Arsenis said yesterday in a message to mark the
occasion. October 28, 1940 was the day Greece refused to bow to
Italian aggression and was forced into the Second World War.
"Oxi Day 1940 is not only a glorious landmark for Greece but for
all free peoples and a challenge to fascist barbarity", Mr.
Arsenis' message said. 


	Athens, 27/10/1993 (ANA): The lesson of Oxi Day, former prime
minister and New Democracy leader Constantine Mitsotakis said
yesterday, is a message of unity which was definitive in those
most difficult hours. In order however to achieve this national
unity now, he said, demagoguery and nationalism should be
eradicated from political life and everyone should accept the
rules of moral and political behaviour which constitute the
basis for the proper functioning of democracy. END