The government yesterday unveiled its plan to keep the country's second largest shipyard operating despite threats of closure by its owner. The Investment Bank, a subsidiary of the Commercial Bank, will undertake the task of liquidation while the shipyards continue operations, National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said yesterday following a high-level meeting on the issue.
In Crete last night, Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou gave his personal undertaking that the government would do its utmost to avert loss of jobs. "I am personally assuming the responsibility; my main goal is to avoid retrenchments and we will work towards this (goal) immediately," he told reporters. "I want the workers to get the message that we will do all we can."
The workers' demand that the Commercial Bank oversee the running of the shipyards and that it revert to state control, the prime minister said, "conflicts with our party commitments. We are undertaking the responsibility that there will not be any jobs lost in the process of selling the shipyards to a solvent buyer. The salaries and wages of the workers will be paid by us."
Industry Minister Costas Simitis, Finance Minister Alexandros Papadopoulos, Alternate Industry Minister Christos Rokofyllos, the prime minister's legal adviser Antonis Vgontzas and governors of banks with interests in the shipyards attended the inter-ministerial meeting on the future of the shipyards.
Mr. Papantoniou said the government had agreed to liquidate the Elefsina shipyard but keep it operating until a new buyer was found. "A liquidator will be appointed, a recovery report will be drafted and in the end, an international tender will b e announced for the sale of the company operation," Mr. Papantoniou said. He said the three-point plan would help preserve the shipyard as a "vital, lively and active part of the Greek industry".
Mr. Papantoniou clarified that processes would be speedy and that the new administration the liquidator would appoint would take office immediately. He called on workers to co-operate constructively with the new administration.
The emergency plan was announced after the Peratikos Group said Monday it was gearing towards closing the Elefsina shipyard, leaving about 2,100 workers without jobs. A Peratikos spokesman said the group was "misled" as to the true value of Elefsina shipyard which was auctioned off at $36 million by the previous cash-strapped conservative government in 1992.
The announcement was greeted with shock and disbelief and the government said it would take all measures to save jobs and keep the yards open. Hundreds of Elefsina workers staged protests this week urging the government to take control of the once state-run shipyard. Cost-conscious shipowners ordered tug boats to Elefsis to pull out vessels sent in for repair.
"The state should not shoulder the debts and losses of Peratikos... and the state has to maintain its obligations to the European Union," said Industry Minister Costas Simitis. Mr. Simitis further said the state should not undertake and support ailing enterprises and that the state should guarantee jobs, adding that the shipyards' privatisation in 1992 was proof that the previous New Democracy government had the wrong policy on this crucial issue.
"The bad deal in 1992 has resulted in a fiasco in 1995," said Mr. Rokofyllos. The government blasted Peratikos, calling the move an act of "blackmail" linked to the sale of the Skaramangas Shipyard.
Greece is under pressure by the European Commission to settle the sale of Skaramangas by September 5 or face multi-million dollar fines and recourse at the European Court. Under European Commission decisions, Greece has the right to fully own or control only one shipyard. Mr. Rokofyllos said Athens would decide by the end of the month whether it would seek 51 per cent of Skaramangas or sell it entirely to a private investor. He did not rule out asking for an extension to the September deadline.
The board and general assembly of the Workers Union of the Elefsina Shipyards (SENE) rejected Mr. Simitis' proposal for a liquidator to be appointed at the enterprise. An announcement said the government proposal constituted the first step towards the dissolution and scaling-down of the enterprise towards final closure. The union proposed the Commercial Bank, a major shareholder, appoint a board for the enterprise and that a process to return the yards to state control begin.
An announcement by the ruling socialist PASOK party's press office said when 2,000 workers lost their jobs from one day to the next by a simple order by a private owner, no Greek could remain calm.
It said the greatest possible efforts were required by the state, the private agency and the workers for the creation of a healthy, competitive and viable productive infrastructure of a shipbuilding and repairing nature. With a substantive dialogue with all sides, it added, the government must take initiative and safeguard both Greek shipping and jobs.
A later announcement by the press office said: "We believe that the governmental committee, with its specific initiative and decision, is dealing with the issue promptly and constructively".
Commenting on decisions taken at yesterday's meeting on the shipyards, main opposition New Democracy party spokesman Dimitris Kostopoulos said "these decisions not only prove the irrelevance but also the panic under which the government is acting." Mr. Kostopoulos again called on the government to declare when the shipyards would reopen.
In another development, Mr. Kostopoulos tabled an application for the Industry Minister in Parliament yesterday, calling on him to promptly submit all documents exchanged between the government and the Elefsina Shipyards (Peratikos Group) over the past 22 months.
Mr. Kostopoulos claims in the application that since February 1994 the Peratikos Group had submitted to the Industry Ministry proposals concerning the modernisation and restructuring of the Elefsina Shipyards costing 11 billion dr. which had relevant approval by the European Union's committee and had met with no response.
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) Politburo member and deputy Mitsos Kostopoulos yesterday visited the shipyards and said the liquidation was a "political fraud."
A Political Spring party spokesman said "patching up was not enough. The government must explain its new position towards the Elefsina Shipyards as well as its general strategy concerning the Greek shipbuilding and repairs industry."
Coalition of the Left and Progress leader Nikos Constantopoulos, who also visited the shipyards, said "the government is substantively rejecting the workers' proposal before even listening to it. The Coalition supports the workers' struggle. Their proposal is a proposal which must be put on the table and discussed."
Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias will fly to Belgrade today for talks with Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic on latest developments in the Bosnian crisis.
Speaking to the press after talks with Greek Orthodox Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America yesterday, Mr. Papoulias said he would fly to Rome for talks with his Italian counterpart Susanna Agnelli immediately after his talks with Mr. Milosevic. Mr. Papoulias' trip to Belgrade comes a week after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi.
"Greece has always been in favour of a peaceful and political solution to the Yugoslav conflict," Mr. Papoulias said. He said communication with Moscow was "good" and that there was an identity of views between him and Mr. Kozyrev as well as with most of his European Union counterparts. Mr. Papoulias will return to Athens tonight.
Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias will have a series of meetings August 25-27 with his Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts, Georgui Pirinski and Teodor Melescanu respectively, in Ioannina on the situation in the region and bilateral relations.
Mr. Papoulias will meet with each minister separately before the three have a joint meeting on August 27.
During the meeting, the three ministers will focus on the construction of a 'gigantic road axis' which will begin at the Danube, passing through three countries and ending in Greece. All three countries place great importance on the materialisation of this project and an agreement may be signed in Ioannina. Mr. Pirinski is scheduled to arrive in Greece on August 25 and Mr. Melescanu on August 26.
Female ministers from Balkan nations, who are to participate in the UN international conference on "Action for Peace, Equality and Development" in Beijing in September, will gather for an informal meeting in Thessaloniki on Monday.
The meeting is being held at the initiative of Macedonia-Thrace Minister Constantine Triarides and Under-Secretary to the Prime Minister's Office Maria Arseni within the framework of the creation of a National Mechanism for the Co-operation of Women in the Balkans, which aims at bringing women in the Balkans together to co-ordinate joint action.
A delegation of the Political Spring Youth Executive Office (NEAN) will visit Istanbul today, headed by its president Dionysis Stamenitis.
The delegation will visit the Greek general consulate and meet with the board of directors of the Greek Youth Association there, in light of a general campaign organised by NEAN to support the Greek minority in Turkey.
The delegation will met with Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos tomorrow morning to hand him a resolution from the NEAN conference supporting the re-opening of the Halki Theological School (which remains closed by the Turkish authorities) and will also visit the school's premises in the afternoon.
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) Defence Minister Blagoi Hajinski is optimistic that direct talks between Skopje and Athens can resume in New York soon but says that the contentious issue of the name will not be negotiable.
Speaking to Greek reporters at a press conference yesterday, Mr. Hajinski claimed that the perception that the dispute should be resolved as soon as possible had become the norm both in his country and Greece.
"The preconditions have already been created by mediators (at the UN Cyrus) Vance and (US presidential envoy Mathew) Nimetz so that the process to resolve the problem can start again," he said. But, he said, "any change in name is unfeasible", pointing out that a large number of countries and international organisations had already accepted his country under its constitutional name.
FYROM, he said, "is not contesting the history and past of Greece and neither are we claiming that we originated from the ancient Macedonians. We are Slavs who came to the territory of the region of Macedonia in the 4th and 5th century and we got our name from there. We have no other name to call ourselves."
Mr. Hajinski said he had been misinterpreted in a report run by the "Nova Makedonja" newspaper in which he appeared to have stated that a stable and independent FYROM was more to Greece's interests than a "Greater Serbia."
"My statement is as follows: If a solution is not found soon in the framework of the Contact Group's Conference with the three parties involved and if there is a direct confrontation between Croatia and Serbia in Eastern Slavonia, then we will be concerned over a possible destabilisation of the entire region. Under these circumstances, the corridor of communication between North and South will acquire a new significance. Then both 'Macedonia' and Greece should take an interest to see that this corridor will open as soon as possible".
"For this reason I believe that Greece is aware that an independent and stable 'Macedonia' is essential for stability in the Balkans which will be able to participate in the European integration process, while at the same time this long-term traditional corridor of communication will open forever," he said.
He said co-operation with the Greek Defence Ministry "has considerable significance" for his country and will contribute to the maintenance of peace and stability in the region, adding that such co-operation was also desired by the US and that FYROM is ready for such co-operation "as soon as the two countries conclude diplomatic relations."
An international conference, entitled "Gas, Fuel and Electricity Network Links in the Balkans", will be held October 16-17 in Thessaloniki, according to an announcement yesterday.
The conference, organised by the European Commission's Energy Directorate, is being held within the framework of the SYNERGY programme for international co-operation on energy and aims to promote a complete and developmental plan for energy networks in the Balkans.
Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias met yesterday with visiting Archbishop Iakovos of North and South America.
Mr. Papoulias said after the meeting that they had discussed "crucial issues" and that the archbishop's experience and political ideas were a "useful tool'. "We discussed what is happening around us. I am certain that, despite his intention to withdraw, he will continue to provide for the Church and the nation and his help for our national issues is invaluable. I hope we will co-operate in finding the best solutions," Mr. Papoulias said.
Archbishop Iakovos said he would continue to offer his services to the Church and Greece. Replying to questioners on a statement by US President Bill Clinton to a private TV channel and his interest in problems faced by Greece and relations between Greece and Turkey in particular, Archbishop Iakovos said the US president was sincere.
Mr. Papoulias said he also considered the US president's statement sincere, adding that President Clinton always showed interest in problems preoccupying Greece. "Mr. Clinton's interest was a given although there has been no progress in relations between Greece and Turkey," Mr. Papoulias said.
Albanian Foreign Minister Alfred Serreqi is due in Athens on August 31 for two days of talks with his Greek counterpart Karolos Papoulias. The two countries have reached an agreement on the signing of a friendship and co-operation pact. The pact is expected to be signed during Greek President Kostis Stephanopoulos' visit to Albania in autumn.
Greek Justice Minister Anastasios Peponis wound up his three-day visit to Albania yesterday. During his visit, Mr. Peponis and his Albanian counterpart Hektor Frasheri signed two agreements, concerning judicial support and the mutual execution of court rulings in penal cases.
Mr. Peponis had meetings with Albanian President Sali Berisha and Prime Minister Aleksandr Meksi on bilateral relations.
Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou said last night that his ministers and members of the ruling party PASOK had to stop back-biting and get back to work.
Speaking to reporters after receiving the keys to the city of Elounda, in Crete, Mr. Papandreou said he was sending a message to the members of his government "to increase their output in their field and to avoid the damage (caused by) statements and counter-statements. This circle of statements must end because it causes us to detour from our work and our duty to the people".
Asked whether he would take any measures if his message was ignored, he replied "definitely".
Asked whether there would be any change in the government, he said he "had his thoughts" but was not about to institute them without the necessary consultations with the party. "I can simply not say whether they will or will not happen. Personal differences (however) is one thing: differences over policy will not exist. The government has a policy and changes in policy will not happen," he said.
George Stephanopoulos, one of the US President Bill Clinton's senior advisers, yesterday said he was departing for a two-week tour that will take him to Turkey, Cyprus and Greece, for discussions on US relations with the countries o f the region as well as problems in the eastern Mediterranean.
"I want to better understand the situations in these three countries and express our desire to continue good relations," he said. He stressed that he would focus on the problem of divided Cyprus, which constitutes a source of tension between Athens and Ankara within the NATO alliance.