Subject: Athens News Agency Bulletin
Topic: ana
---------------------------
(Apo to Ellnviko Grafeio Tupou kai Plnroforiwv, Ottawa, Canada
E-Mail Address: grnewsca@sympatico.ca)


Athens indicates willingness to lift veto on customs union on
receipt of 'specific guarantees' from Turkey, EU
--------------------------------------------------------------
Athens, 4/2/1995 (ANA)

	Greek government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said here
yesterday that Athens was willing to change its stance opposing
the EU-Turkey customs union "only if there are specific
guarantees from both Turkey and the EU."

	He said guarantees should be given on a settlement to the
Cyprus problem, respect for and protection of human rights in
Turkey and a commitment that Cyprus would be included in the
next phase of EU enlargement. Such a commitment, he added,
necessitated a timetable for the commencement of accession
negotiations.

	In Paris meanwhile, Commission President Jacques Santer said
France wanted the European Union to promise to open accession
negotiations with Cyprus within six months of concluding a
conference on EU reform -- dubbed the intergovernmental
conference -- in 1996.

	Under the French proposal, which is intended to persuade Greece
to lift its veto on an EU customs union with Turkey because of
the unresolved dispute over Cyprus, the EU would also engage in
a regular political dialogue to help prepare Cyprus for
membership on conditions similar to those offered to eastern and
central European states which are also candidates.

	In Athens, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias had one hour of
talks yesterday with Italian Ambassador to Athens Giovanni
Dominedo. The talks according to informed sources, focused on
Greece's objections to the five-nation meeting on Turkey's
future relations with the European Union.

	The meeting in London, Thursday, brought together the foreign
ministers of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Turkey. Among
the issues discussed was Turkey's bid to sign a customs union
agreement with the EU which Greece has vetoed.

	The customs union between Turkey and the EU was put on hold
last year when Greece vetoed the agreement, arguing that it
could not go ahead unless a date was set for the commencement of
talks on Cyprus' entry to the 15-member bloc and Turkey improved
its abysmal human rights record.

	An EU-Turkey pact would give Ankara closer relations with
Brussels than any non-members except Norway and Iceland. In
return for dropping its tariffs on EU goods, it would win access
for its products to the vast EU market.

	Speaking Wednesday, on the London meeting, Mr. Papoulias
expressed concern over "whether such initiatives and groupings
contribute to the correct attainment of a common EU foreign
policy," while government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said
that "such types of group initiatives should not replace, nor
give the impression that they re place, Community initiatives."

	Mr. Papoulias met with German Ambassador to Athens Leopold Bill
von Bredow to discuss the same issue on Wednesday. Mr. Venizelos
declined later to comment on the London meeting, saying that
Athens was awaiting an official briefing from the ambassadors of
the participating countries. Mr. Venizelos stressed, however,
that Greece would change its stance opposing the EU-Turkey
customs union "only if there are specific guarantees from both
Turkey and the EU."

	The EU General Affairs Council convenes in Brussels on Monday
to discuss the customs union agreement with Turkey, as well as
relations with Turkey and Cyprus. On the sidelines of the
three-day meeting, Alternate Foreign Minister George Alexander
Mangakis, due to leave for Brussels on Sunday, will meet with
German Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel.

	Press sources said the French Presidency will direct efforts to
conclude the agreement with Turkey, or at least manage to remove
existing reservations. The same sources said the Presidency had
been asked to examine, at the same time, the Cyprus accession
and the island Republic's relations with the European Union.

	An Agence France Presse (AFP) dispatch from Brussels yesterday
quoted diplomatic sources as saying that the members of the EU
were ready to approve the customs union "within weeks", after
clearing the way for Greece to lift its veto to the accord.

	According to the sources, European Commissioner for external
relations Hans van den Broek, will call in Brussels on Monday on
EU foreign ministers to set a date for opening discussions on
Cypriot membership. "If a date is indeed fixed, Greece should be
in a position to lift is veto," AFP quoted a Greek EU official
as saying.

	Mr. van den Broek aims to start pre-membership negotiations
with Cyprus -- as well as Malta -- six months after the end of
the 1996 intergovernmental conference. The Greek government
spokesman said such a timetable would be acceptable to Athens.
Should the 15 agree a date Monday, the customs union accord
should be signed at a March 6 meeting of the EU-Turkey
Association Council.

	Ankara is hoping the compromise will also free up a financial
protocol worth 600 million ECU's ($7.2 million), blocked by
Greece since 1991. But analysts, the AFP said, say further ties
will depend on Ankara providing EU member states with guarantees
on human rights, notably regarding Turkey's Kurdish community.

	At the London meeting, Turkish Foreign Minister Murat
Karayalcin attempted to soften the thorny rights issue. "Turkey
has already signed agreements on human rights within the
European Council," Mr. Karayalcin told a press conference. "We
are open to any type of investigations on human rights
violations."

	In Brussels yesterday, a high-ranking British diplomat stressed
that any agreement on Cyprus' entry into the EU would have to
"clearly tell the Turks that they will have no veto... and tell
the Cypriots that they must resolve questions over the status of
their island."

	As part of efforts to be briefed on the content of the
five-party meeting, Cyprus Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides
arrived in Bonn yesterday to meet with German caretaker Foreign
Under-Secretary Hans Fridriech von Pletz.

	Following the meeting, Mr. Michaelides told reporters the
meeting had been "very useful and (took place) in a friendly
atmosphere." "(The other party) has shown great interest in our
arguments," he said, "also taking into account the EU's great
interest in the EU-Turkey customs agreement..."

	During the meeting, Mr. Michaelides gave Mr. von Pletz a
"strategic pre-accession scheme" aiming at speeding up
procedures, through a host of political and economic measures,
between the time of accession commencement to the time of their
conclusion. The same strategic plan has been handed to the
French Presidency.

	Mr. Michaelides said the timetable should be clear and bear no
association with the Cyprus' problem political solution, "if
commencement negotiations between Cyprus and the EU are ever to
become a catalyst in the solution of the Cyprus problem." Mr.
von Pletz had a meeting Wednesday with Athens Ambassador to Bonn
Yianni Bourlogianni-Tsagaridis while Cyprus Ambassador to
Germany Andrew Nicolaidis met Wednesday with former foreign
minister Hans Dietrich Genscher.

	In Bonn, the Greens party stated their intention to oppose a
customs agreement between the European Union and Turkey,
independent of a possible "gentlemen's agreement" providing a
timetable for the commencement of talks for a Cyprus accession.
"If human rights issues are not first straightened out with
Ankara, we will not agree to the customs union between Turkey
and the EU when the issue is raised before the European
Parliament," party leader Claudia Rott said.

	In Athens, main opposition New Democracy party spokesman
Vassilis Manginas yesterday criticised the government for being
"unable to deal with national issues effectively," stressing
that Greece "is absent from crucial international meetings for
our national issues, such as yesterday's (Wednesday's)
five-party London meeting on EU relations with Turkey." Mr.
Manginas described Greece's absence from the meeting as
"international marginalisation" of the country.

	Political Spring party spokesman Akis Gerontopoulos said Greece
had become "a second-rate state" within the European Union,
referring to Greece's absence from the five-party meeting. Mr.
Gerontopoulos called on the government to consider its
responsibilities, stressing that "Greece's exclusion from the
meeting, following its exclusion from the troika, signals its
degrading."