From: tzarros@ccs.carleton.ca (Theodore Zarros) Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Thu, 22 Dec 1994 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Athens News Agency Bulletin, December 22, 1994 ---------------------------------------------- (Apo to Ellnviko Grafeio Tupou kai Plnroforiwv, Ottaba, Kavadas E-Mail Address: grnewsca@sympatico.ca) * Parliament approves budget tight on spending, tax evasion and inflation, 1995 not easy, but a crucial year, premier says * Opposition * ADEDY continues protests against incomes policy * ELA claims responsibility for bomb in Piraeus * Premier to visit Damascus in January * Kranidiotis holds briefing for Greek ambassadors to EU * Gov't: no date yet for Peponis successor * Ecumenical Patriarchate investigation reports 'incorrect', Greece told * Turkey remains optimistic that customs union deal will go through, next time * Venizelos on presidency rumours * Private capital inflows double over last year's figures, central bank says * Onassis Foundation announces international theatrical competition Parliament approves budget tight on spending, tax evasion and inflation, 1995 not easy, but a crucial year, premier says ------------------------------------------------------------ Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Parliament yesterday approved the Panhellenic Socialist Movement government's economic plans for 1995, passing a budget that curbs public spending, tax evasion and inflation. The budget was passed with 170 votes in favour and 127 against. Three lawmakers were absent from the vote. "1995 will not be an easy year but it will be the year that definitively determines the success of the government's economic policy," Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou told the assembly minutes before it voted on the budget. "It is the most significant year in the past twenty in the efforts to develop (the country)," he said, adding that the budget was moving strictly within the confines of the Convergence Programme. "We want to create a society of cohesion and hope," he said. "We must go through two, three, four, five years struggling to achieve those high levels which will allow us to speak of prosperity." He said the government's economic policy assisted in the "struggle to construct a serious position in the Balkans, to support (Greece's) position in Europe, to improve the standard of living in the country." The government will not diverge from its policy because, he said, "this policy has been understood and has gained the trust of the Greek people". Mr. Papandreou said the targets of the government's development policy focused on the strengthening of competitiveness and major investments. He specifically mentioned the modernisation of the Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation and telecoms, the rescue of state-owned Olympic Airways from debt and major infrastructure projects as priorities for the government. Opposition ---------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Main opposition New Democracy party leader Miltiades Evert said his party would vote against the budget because it doubted the government's competence, sincerity and intentions. "The government's stance distances the prospect of the Greek economy's convergence to that of the European Union, leading it to the margin and isolation," he told the assembly. In concert with Communist Party deputies during the budget debate earlier in the week, he warned that "the government's policy would pave the way to social explosions". He accused the government of conjuring up a bogus optimistic picture of this year's budget by presenting a primary surplus through a reduction in public expenditure and accounting transfer of interest on loans. He said that the budget targets, on both revenue and expenditure, will not be attained because they are unfeasible. "You are either lying in the budget, or intending to proceed to phenomenal price increases, or you don't know what you are doing," he told the government. Rejecting all responsibility for the large shortfall in revenues in 1993, during most of which his party was in power, he said New Democracy accepted responsibility solely for the fact that "the primary surplus increased only by 446 billion drachmas in the 1990-93 period. The whole of the remaining debt comprised of interest on loans and arrangements you had entered into". He asked for a national consensus in the sectors of defence, foreign policy and education, but stated that his party committed itself to rehabilitating the "victims of party favouritism and the government's fanaticism". Antonis Samaras, leader of the Political Spring party, told the government that it should abolish all tax privileges and exemptions, including those applying to members of parliament, with the revenues going to low-wage earners and pensioners in the form of a 10 per cent increase. He said Political Spring would vote against the budget and proposed a change in exchange policy with a more aggressive sliding of the drachma, harmonisation of the monetary and incomes policy to decrease inflation, and a reform of the tax system. He said his party would also vote against the budget's provisions for defence spending, which, he said, did not take into account the unacceptably low level of officers' pay. He told the parliament that it ought to look at the human costs involved in the government's budget for 1995, noting that 40 per cent of Greece's unemployed were under 25, compared to 20 per cent in the rest of the European Union countries. Worker's real income had fallen by 20 per cent in the past 10 years, he said. Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Secretary-General Aleka Papariga said the state budget meant a "bleeding" of working class incomes, restriction of social benefits and the submission of the country's development potential to foreign multinational capital. Ms Papariga said the budget would generate new profits for the few, new poverty and squalor, autocratic measures and the curbing of democratic rights. "The present budget is not simply one of austerity and poverty, it is a budget of a colonialist nature. Deficits and debts become the pretext for unpopular policy, new measures against working people and new profits," she said. Ms Papariga said Greece was currently a country under occupation. Debts, loans and deficits started from here, she added. "Today we do not have an occupation army, we have Greece's complete economic occupation," she added. The KKE, she said, could not and did not have the right to vote for the budget, a policy producing unemployment, social inequality, a policy of submission to neo-colonialist agreements. ADEDY continues protests against incomes policy ----------------------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): The Civil Servants' Supreme Administrative Council's (ADEDY) Executive Committee and members of civil servant federations yesterday protested the government's incomes policy, delivering a memorandum listing their claims to the Parliament President and political parties represented in Parliament. ADEDY believes that "even at the last moment the government should consider its responsibilities and take the civil servants' positions and claims into consideration." Terming the government's incomes policy "unacceptable and painful for working people", the memorandum says that the two 3 per cent wage increases in 1995, less an increase in social insurance contributions, are tantamount to an average annual increase o f 2.8 per cent at a time when inflation will reach about 8 per cent. Reiterating civil servants' demands (a 17 per cent wage increase, a new wage scale, free collective labour agreements and an increase in social benefits), ADEDY said it would struggle "for a different policy guaranteeing the tackling of the country's economic problems in conjunction with development, the redistribution of incomes and social justice." ELA claims responsibility for bomb in Piraeus --------------------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): The self-styled People's Revolutionary Struggle organisation (ELA) yesterday claimed responsibility for an explosion at a Piraeus tax office at 9.30 last night. The explosion caused only material damage, as police had cordoned off the area following a warning by an anonymous telephone caller to the newspaper Eleftherotypia. Premier to visit Damascus in January ------------------------------------ Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou will visit Damascus in early January, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos announced yesterday. The spokesman said that the exact date of the premier's visit would be announced simultaneously in Greece and Syria. Mr. Papandreou will have talks with the Syrian leadership on matters of common interest, the role Greece can play in the region, economic and development prospects and the Middle East peace process, Mr. Venizelos said. Kranidiotis holds briefing for Greek ambassadors to EU ------------------------------------------------------ Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Foreign Under-Secretary Yiannos Kranidiotis yesterday chaired a meeting of Greek ambassadors accredited to European Union member-states at the Foreign Ministry, focusing on the country's general foreign policy in the framework of the EU. Addresses were made by National Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis, Finance Minister Alexandros Papadopoulos, Education Minister George Papandreou and Public Order Minister Stelios Papathemelis. Gov't: no date yet for Peponis successor ---------------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): The government has not yet decided when it will announce the new Minister to the Prime Minister's Office, left vacant by the resignation of Anastasios Peponis, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday. Mr. Peponis will remain at the ministry until a successor is found. Mr. Venizelos suggested that this would not take place this week. He reiterated there would be no government reshuffle, but only the filling-in of two vacant ministerial posts which, however, need not take place simultaneously. Referring to outgoing Foreign Under-Secretary Yiannos Kranidiotis, who is to sit in the European Parliament, Mr. Venizelos said the Under-Secretary would maintain his post at the Foreign Ministry until he officially became Eurodeputy. Ecumenical Patriarchate investigation reports 'incorrect', Greece told ---------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Turkish government officials have assured Greece's embassy that statements by Interior Minister Nehit Mentese suggesting that the activities of the Ecumenical Patriarch were to be investigated were not correctly reported, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday. Following the assurances which were given to the press office of the Greek embassy in Ankara, Mr. Venizelos said, "there is no issue". The spokesman added, however, that the Turkish authorities had indeed begun an investigation of an administrative nature concerning Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos, spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. "The Patriarchate is an ecclesiastical institution of an ecumenical nature. It is recognised by all international organisations and all countries. It does not have, nor does it seek or want governmental status," Mr. Venizelos said. Commenting on statements Tuesday by Turkish Foreign Minister Murat Karayalcin, the spokesman reiterated that the Cyprus problem was not a Greek-Turkish dispute but an international problem of the brutal invasion and continuing occupation of an independent state. Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias may meet with Mr. Karayalcin on the sidelines of some international meeting, the spokesman said. Replying to questions, Mr. Venizelos said that Greece's stance with respect to human rights vis-u-vis the issue of the EU-Turkey customs union was identical to that of all the countries of Europe. Turkey remains optimistic that customs union deal will go through, next time --------------------------------------------------------- Ankara, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Turkey, whose effort to sign a customs union pact with the European Union was blocked by Greece, said yesterday it hoped to conclude the deal at the next EU-Turkey Association Council meeting, scheduled for March 7. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman described the meeting in Brussels Monday as "a positive step," adding that despite the European Parliament's decision, the dialogue between Turkey and the Union may continue. An Association Council meeting in Brussels on Monday failed to produce an agreement on the customs union after Greece vetoed the move. Mr. Ataman said "Greece will not be able to solve its bilateral problems with Turkey be reflecting them onto the EU." "We... expect the EU to make serious efforts to lift the current obstacle before the council in March next year." In another development yesterday, Turkey expressed its opposition to Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic's proposal for a loose confederation to include Greece, Serbia and Skopje. Mr. Milosevic made the proposal during a working visit to Athens on Monday during talks with Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. Mr. Papandreou said the proposal was "pioneering and interesting" but would have to be further examined. Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Ferhat Ataman said that "plans which attempt to mar the independence and sovereignty of any country in the Balkans should be avoided." Venizelos on presidency rumours ------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): There is no disagreement between the Presidency of the Republic and the government on matters of policy, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos reiterated yesterday. "No issue has arisen, and I venture to hope that there are no sources close to the Presidency of the Republic either," Mr. Venizelos told questioners. Private capital inflows double over last year's figures, central bank says ----------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): Net inflows of private capital from abroad doubled in the period January to September this year, compared with the corresponding period in 1993, according to figures released yesterday by the Bank of Greece. Net inflows of public sector capital also rose sharply compared with 1993, raising the country's foreign exchange reserves by 3.96 billion dollars. According to the central bank figures for the period January-September this year, imports totalled 13.764 billion dollars, compared with 12.896 billion dollars in the same period of 1993, marking an increase of 6.7 per cent. Exports amounted to 3.733 billion dollars, against 3.822 billion dollars in 1993, an increase of 2.3 per cent. The trade deficit stood at 10.031 billion dollars, an increase of 10.6 per cent over the figure of 9.073 billion dollars last year. Tourist exchange rose from 2.751 billion dollars to 3.051 billion dollars, an increase of 10.9 per cent. Inflows of shipping exchange amounted to 1.385 billion dollars, up 1.4 per cent on last year's figure of 1.404 billion dollars. Emigrants' remittances reached 1.809 billion dollars, compared with 1.824 billion dollars in 1993, marking a drop of 0.8 per cent. Inflows from the European Union totalled 3.920 billion dollars, down 4.1 per cent on last year's figure of 4.087 billion dollars. Business capital entering Greece amounted to 1.729 billion dollars, compared with 1.563 billion dollars, marking an increase of 10.6 per cent. The import by overseas Greeks of capital for the purchase of property fell 8.5 per cent, from 717.7 million dollars in 1993 to 656.8 million dollars this year. Public sector debt repayments amounted to 4.503 billion dollars, against 3.473 billion dollars in 1993, while the country's foreign exchange reserves totalled 12.651 billion dollars, compared with 7.801 billion dollars in the period January-September 1993. Onassis Foundation announces international theatrical competition ----------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 22/12/1994 (ANA): The Alexander S. Onassis Public Benefit Foundation yesterday announced an international competition, carrying a first prize of 250,000 dollars, for the composition of a new and original theatrical play dealing with the problems facing man on the threshold of the 21st century. It also announced the inauguration of a special programme of grants and scholarships for foreign scholars, researchers and students of humanistic and political sciences, hellenists, teachers, artists and translators of Greek literature. Announcing the programmes, Foundation President Stelios Papadimitriou said that the second and third place winners of the competition would receive 200,000 and 150,000 dollars respectively.