Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou was expected to bring up the issue of recent Turkish threats against Greece at the informal EU leaders' dinner last night, at the end of the first day of the bloc's summit. The dinner lasted into the early hours of the morning.
In Athens earlier, government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos confirmed the prime minister "will brief the European leaders on the threats made against Greece by the Turkish National Assembly and the Turkish permanent representative to the UN in a letter to the UN Secretary-General".
Mr. Venizelos said the briefing would take place during the summit's sessions, which began yesterday in Cannes, or during the leaders' informal dinner, where they traditionally discuss foreign affairs.
French President Jacques Chirac, president of the European Council and presiding over his first summit, was due to bring up the issue of the bloc's relations with Turkey and the dispute over the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
In Cannes, Press Under-Secretary Telemahos Hytiris said Mr. Chirac had not informed Mr. Papandreou of his intention to bring up the issue of Turkey's relations with the EU and the FYROM issue. He added, however, that the Greek side was not surprised at the development, given the French president's commitment to Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller and FYROM President Kiro Gligorov during their separate talks in Paris recently.
The Turkish National Assembly recently empowered the Ankara government to "take all necessary measures, including military steps" in the event Greece extended its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles from the present six under the provisions of the international Law of the Sea convention ratified by the Greek Parliament a short while ago.
The threats come as the European Union prepares to finalise details over a projected customs union with Turkey, which has come in for fire from various sides - including the European Parliament, the EU's only directly-elected body - over the respect for human rights in that country.
In Cannes, Cyprus President Glafcos Clerides said his meeting with Mr. Papandreou prior to the commencement of the summit sessions focused on co-ordination of action between Greece and Cyprus during the summit. Cyprus is attending in the framework of the structured pre-accession talks with the European Union.
In Ankara, Reuters quoted Turkish Foreign Minister Erdal Inonu as saying yesterday Cyprus could become a European Union member only after a settlement was found between the two communities on the island. Mr. Inonu stressed Turkey's continued support of the breakaway Turkish Cypriot state at a press conference after his arrival on the Turkish-occupied northern side of Nicosia for talks with the Turkish Cypriot leader.
Greece and Lithuania signed two bilateral agreements on police co-operation and road transport issues yesterday after the arrival Sunday of a high-ranking Lithuanian government delegation, led by Prime Minister Adolfas Slezevicuius.
Mr. Slezevicuius will have a range of meetings with government ministers tomorrow before giving a press conference at noon. He is due to meet Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis and President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos in the morning as well as Industry Minister Costas Simitis and National Economy Under-Secretary Ioannis Anthopoulos.
Public Order Minister Sifis Valyrakis and his Lithuanian counterpart K. R. Vaitekunas signed a police co-operation agreement providing for closer co-operation in the areas of battling drug trafficking, terrorism and serious crime while the transport ministers of Greece and Lithuania, Thanassis Tsouras and Jonas Birziski, signed an agreement on the international transport of passengers and goods by road.
Mr. Tsouras said the agreement was part of the Transport and Communications Ministry's general policy of deregulating the international transport of passengers and goods by road. He said it entailed reciprocal economic and commercial benefits and contributed to further strengthening friendly relations between the Greek people and this country. Agreements with Slovenia, Latvia and Ukraine have already been initialled and will be signed soon.
Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday main opposition leader Miltiades Evert had been "hasty" in criticising the premier for not referring to national issues "when the summit had not even commenced". "It is regretful that Mr. Evert was so quick to make these statements," Mr. Venizelos said.
On Thursday, Mr. Evert said the prime minister should raise Turkey's provocativeness at the Cannes summit and criticised the government of going to the twice-yearly summit "unprepared." He again called on the premier to bring up the issue at the summit at his address to the European Peoples Party conference in Cannes on Sunday.
On his return to Athens yesterday, Mr. Evert again called on the prime minister to raise Greece's national issues, especially Turkey's provocative statements against Greece, at the summit. "Mr. Papandreou should state his positions in order for me to support them. At the moment he has not stated any positions," Mr. Evert said.
Mr. Evert said Mr. Papandreou was guilty of "negligence", adding that there was no Greek participation or voice in defence of Greece's national interests at the conference. Furthermore, he told reporters that he would not be meeting with Mr. Papandreou when he returns to Athens saying that "a briefing in retrospect" was of no use. He expressed hope, however, that a unified national foreign policy would be drafted, "one to aim at long term goals and not chase after events."
The European Union ended a long-standing row over funding for eastern Europe and the Mediterranean yesterday, but still struggled to agree financing for its main development aid programme. Diplomats said EU leaders meeting in a summit in the French resort of Cannes has agreed to pay 6.69 billion European currency units (8.7 billion dollars) over five years to help bring eastern European countries into the EU.
They also agreed to pay 4.69 billion ECU's (6.09 billion dollars) over five years to help stabilise the economies of the southern Mediterranean rim. "It was a deal brokered by (German Chancellor Helmut) Kohl and (Spanish Prime Minister Felipe) Gonzalez," said one EU diplomat.
A separate plan to pay 13.3 billion ECU's (17.29 billion dollars) over five years in development aid to African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries was held up by Italy, which has seen its contribution increase along with the devaluation of the lira.
Apart from the mounting cost in their own currency, the Italians were reluctant to pay as much as Britain, which negotiated a roughly 23 per cent cut from its previous payment to a European Development Fund, diplomats said. But they said the problem should be resolved by today. The money allocated to eastern Europe and the Mediterranean was more than had been expected going into the meeting. The deal ends a long struggle between northern and southern EU states over competing foreign policy goals.
National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said projects included in Inter-European networks, including the Egnatia motorway and the Patras-Athens-Thessaloniki-Evzonoi axis, would be speeded up.
Speaking to Greek reporters yesterday on the results of talks at the European Council, Mr. Papantoniou said projects concerning Greece lay outside the "danger zone", adding that the European Council aimed at reconsidering all issues having problems in t he construction of projects (loaning by the European Union, participation of the European Investment Bank and reorganising co-operation relations with the private sector).
Mr. Papantoniou said contracts on the Rio-Antirrio bridge and Spata airport would be signed in July, adding that relevant funds had been approved for the 1994-1999 period regarding projects of Greek concern.
He went on to say the government would announce a package of measures in July on employment and combating unemployment, including measures for vocational training investments, alleviating the cost of labour of young people unemployed and incentives for increased competitiveness in the labour market. Mr. Papantoniou avoided going into details on the issue, saying the government's economic committee would decide in this respect, starting from a proposal by the Economic and Social Committee, OKE.
National Defence Minister Gerasimos Arsenis will pay an official visit to Albania early next month, the National Defence Ministry said yesterday. The announcement said Mr. Arsenis would visit Tirana "during the first few days of July" but did not elaborate. The minister's visit follows an invitation by his Albanian counterpart.
Opposition Political Spring party leader Antonis Samaras met with Greek Commissioner for energy, tourism and SMEs Christos Papoutsis in Brussels yesterday, on the first day of a four-day visit that will take in talks with European Commission President Jacques Santer as well as the president of the European Parliament and EU commissioners responsible for Mediterranean affairs.
Prior to his departure yesterday, Mr. Samaras said that during his talks, he would defend Greece's positions on its foreign policy issue. He added that he felt Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou should focus on employment issues during the Cannes EU summit and that he also defend Greece's positions on its foreign policy issues which are related to the Yugoslav crisis.
Prominent ruling PASOK party members have began beefing up their internal party call in view of the upcoming Political and Organisational conference in 10 days' time. Former ministers Paraskevas Avgerinos, Theodoros Pangalos, and Vasso Papandreou, and Trade and Industry Minister Costas Simitis, known as the 'gang of four' for their past criticism of internal party procedures, met again after the prime minister's departure for Cannes on Friday, voicing criticism at the lack of dialogue and mass participation of cadres in preparation for the conference, which, they predicted, will make no substantial contribution to the party.
In statements to the daily Ethnos today, Mr. Simitis said he intended to be a candidate for the leadership of the party when the issue arose, "if it is useful in the realisation of the aspirations, ideas and views which I hold for society, in a non-hegemonic PASOK".
He said the recent reversal of a decision to build a casino in the Floisvos area of the suburb of Paleo Faliro gave the impression that the government lacked co-ordination and transparency. There was a problem of style in the exercise of power which ought to be watched, he cautioned.
Former alternate foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos said in an interview to the newspaper Ta Nea yesterday that he did not wish, "up to a point," to be nominated as successor by Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou. "I am not under the impression that Andreas Papandreou has ever thought of me as his successor, or that he might have thought of me as such. He is a different political personality, with a different political style, and I find it totally natural that he may not wish or imagine me as his successor," he said.
Deputy and Executive Bureau member Stephanos Tzoumakas, who was quoted as intending to resign from both posts in a Sunday newspaper interview due to his feeling that the party was "in a stalemate", said yesterday he would never do so in the absence of the prime minister abroad, and, at any rate, not before meeting with him.
He presaged the formation of a new political current inside PASOK, representing the generation which grew into politics during and immediately after the era of the colonels' dictatorship. Informed sources said relevant discussions for such a current, aiming at "an effective regeneration of PASOK... but not being against anyone," had already taken place, involving, among others, Environment Minister Costas Laliotis, Interior Minister Costas Skandalidis, and EU Commissioner Christos Papoutsis.
In his interview with Eleftherotypia on Sunday, Mr. Tzoumakas said, "clashes within the leading group in the party have surpassed all limits lately," and that "audacity has been upgraded into competence and the lack of self-respect into a new culture".
Certain members, he said, "want to govern at any cost, and hold adventurist views". Interior Minister and Executive Bureau member Costas Skandalidis is reported to have said that "the present PASOK, in terms of formation, form and practice, has been outpaced by reality. Its fast entanglement in the exercise of power seemed to annul the effort to proceed to another road". "The new PASOK cannot and must not complete the course towards being transformed into the 'officialdom' of power," he said.
Prominent New Democracy party deputy and former mayor of Thessaloniki Sotiris Kouvelas yesterday called on his party to exercise a more rigorous opposition to the government.
Speaking at a press conference in the northern city, he accused the government of inability to promote any projects in view of its assumption of the role of Cultural Capital of Europe in 1997, and his own party of not realising its strength and responsibility towards the hard-tried Greek people. New Democracy, he said, must intensify its pace, and not be carried along by its goodwill, "because time goes by and there is no room for waiting or patience".
He let it be understood that he considered party leader Miltiades Evert responsible for the lack of paunchiness in the opposition to the government. Asked to comment on such criticism upon his return from Cannes, Mr. Evert told the reporter "this is not the time nor the place".
Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos and Pope John Paul II will pray together on Thursday at St Peter's basilica in the Vatican on the occasion of St Paul's and St Peter's day. Today, the leaders of the Churches of the East and West will hold talks at the Vatican.
This is Vartholomeos' first visit to the seat of the Roman Catholic Church, since his election to the Patriarchate of the Orthodox Church four years ago. Relations between the two churches have been tense since the dissolution of former Yugoslavia and what Constantinople says are efforts by the Vatican to convert Orthodox believers in the region to the Roman Catholic Church.
The Vatican, and the Pope, have also been criticised for promoting the dissolution of Yugoslavia and fuelling anti-Serb feeling in the West. The Vatican was the first state to recognise the independence of mainly Catholic Croatia, before efforts by US and European diplomats to avoid conflict in Yugoslavia had ended.
On the eve of Vartholomeos' visit, the Pope publicised a circular marking the anniversary of a circular of Pope Leon XIII called Orientalium Dignitas (Values of the East) which created the foundation for co-operation with the Orthodox church. The new circular, called Orientale Lumen (The Light of the East) called for dialogue among all Christians regarding the Primacy of Rome which appeared to criticise many of the acts which the Vatican had been blamed for in its relations with the Orthodox Church. The circular also calls on Christians, especially the Orthodox, to proceed in a dialogue for the unity of all Christians.
The Phanar does not oppose dialogue but says it should first focus on the problems created for the Orthodox Church in Eastern European countries. Vartholomeos has stressed the need to avoid artificial polarisation which tends to obscure "the common Christian roots in Europe" and the "common inheritance of the peoples in Europe."
In an address to the European Parliament Plenary Session in April 1994, the Patriarch spoke of the "two lungs of Europe, the Eastern and the Western" stressing that today's impasses in Europe demand calls for the re-evaluation and use of Orthodox tradition. Meanwhile, French President Jacques Chirac sent a reply to Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos yesterday, noting the Patriarchate's efforts for the rapprochement of the Churches of the East and West, an ANA dispatch from Istanbul reported.
In his reply to Varthomeos' congratulatory note on his assumption of the presidency recently, President Chirac wished for the "establishment of the Phanar's role at the heart of a region which has been the meeting place of different civilisations and traditions." "Under my leadership, France will continue to serve peace and security in this troubled world," the French president added.
The US presidential emissary on the dispute between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Matthew Nimetz is in Greece with his family on holiday, and reliable sources said no formal contact is planned with the Greek government. Mr. Nimetz arrived on the holiday island of Santorini late Sunday after spending three days in Crete. He told the ANA he hoped that the New York consultations for settlement of the dispute between the two countries would resume soon.
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin will soon visit Greece, Israel's Ambassador to Athens David Sasson said yesterday. "The dates of the visit have to be finalised, but I believe it will be soon," Mr. Sasson said in Iraklion, Crete.
During his visit to the island, the Israeli envoy said relations between Greece and Israel "were growing stronger by the day, becoming closer and more significant". The prospects of Israel's co-operation with Crete and Greece in general are great," Mr. Sasson said.
International Day Against Narcotics yesterday should serve as a day to highlight the scourge of narcotics to society and individuals, Public Order Minister Sifis Valyrakis said yesterday.
Mr. Valyrakis said the drug cartels were based on the ignorance of the people and called on all members of society to "fight back with the powerful weapons of knowledge and the right upbringing of youth." Noting the "resourcefulness" of drug traffickers, Mr. Valyrakis praised the contribution of Greek police to the prevention of drug trafficking.
Opposition Political Spring party leader Antonis Samaras stressed the necessity for a national policy on the issue and suggested the establishment of a special standing inter-party committee aimed at examining the legal status quo on drugs.
The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) voiced its opposition to drugs and drug substitutes in an announcement, attributing the increasing consumption of narcotic substances to unemployment, financial crisis and political tolerance in contemporary society. The KKE suggested that the state develop a programme for the rehabilitation of drug users as well as the education of judges to be able to cope effectively with the cases of rehabilitated former drug users tried for crimes which they have committed during the times they were addicted to drugs.
Coalition of the Left and Progress Nikos Constantopoulos told a press conference yesterday the legislative body did not follow a consistent, comprehensive policy when legislating on the issue.
The Centre for the Rehabilitation of Chemically Dependent Individuals (KETHEA) manager and director, Haris Tzalas and Haralambos Poulopoulos respectively, addressed a press conference entitled "Social Isolation, Social Intervention and Mass Media." UN Information Centre Administrator Mirka Gondika also addressed the conference.
Greece's Police Chief, Lieutenant General Manolis Hourdakis, and Interpol Secretary-General Raymond Kendall held a meeting here yesterday to discuss further and more effective co-operation in crime prevention. The two men discussed new forms and dimensions of criminality and ways to control and avert it.
Mr. Kendall praised the co-operation of Greek police with InterPol headquarters in Lyon for the effective combating of international crime. He also praised the contribution of Greek officers employed at Lyon's headquarters to the structure and operation of Interpol.
A British warplane will carry out a test flight to Greece on June 29 in preparation for the "Open Skies" treaty signed by Greece on July 6, 1992. The British group will be accompanied by Italian and Spanish observers. The treaty anticipates the establishment of an air observation system in signatory countries without exclusion zones to monitor the implementation of armaments control agreements.
Industry Minister Costas Simitis announced yesterday that the Hydrocarbons Exploration and Exploitation S.A. company (DEP-EKY) had prepared a wide-ranging five-year development programme worth 36 billion drachmas.
Mr. Simitis said the programme had a strong development and business nature and the company aimed at research in selected regions in Greece providing an interest in oil, awards in Greece including the participation of DEP-EKY, the company's participation in joint ventures abroad and rendering services to third parties. DEP-EKY will seek investments abroad in low risk deposits aimed at securing revenues as quickly as possible.
Apart from its participation in a North Sea deposit, additional investments abroad are anticipated over the 1995-1999 period amounting to 30 mil lion US dollars. DEP-EKY's revenues stemming from these activities are estimated at 11 million dollars over this five-year period. The programme foresees training staff, co-operating with specialised advisers, investments abroad and participating in programmes funded by the European Union.
A team of US Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officers yesterday set up shop at the Comptroller's office to help Greek tax authorities clamp down on tax evasion, Finance Ministry sources said.
Over the next few weeks, the four-member team of specialists will study the Greek taxation system and financial crime legislation before drafting a study and making recommendations on the efficient operation of the audit system in Greece. The same sources said their assistance was requested by Finance Minister Alexandros Papadopoulos during his recent visit to the United States.
The minister, the sources added, "intends to establish permanent co-operation with the team and send ministry experts to the US for training". "The minister considers invaluable the contribution of the US experts in setting up a new auditors' corps under a new bill, which will go into effect at the end of the summer," the sources said.
A bill is due in Parliament next week on restructuring the audit mechanism, and the sources said Mr. Papadopoulos would also announce measures to combat rising fuel smuggling. Mr. Papadopoulos, the sources said, met with Treasury and State Department and World Bank officials during his Washington visit last week.
The officials, the sources added, expressed the view that "the improvement of Greece's economic indicators is evident" but stressed "there should be continuity and stability in order to reverse the negative climate and interest major investors in the Greek economy".