Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-10-04

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] GSEE's Labour Academy officially open for business

[02] Greek govt approves draft bills on energy market deregulation

[03] Defence minister on visit to Armenia

[04] Papandreou resumes sharp attack on gov't; targets budget, EU-Turkey talks

[01] GSEE's Labour Academy officially open for business

The mission of the Labour Academy which opened on Tuesday at the Athens Municipality's Technopolis centre is to provide additional training to trade unionists and provide them with the tools required to ably represent workforces.

Among those attending the inauguration ceremony were Employment Minister Panos Panagiotopoulos, main opposition PASOK leader George Papandreou, Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni, Parliament vice-president Yiannis Tragakis.

Papoulias expressed his best wishes for GSEE's efforts to upgrade the quality of the trade union movement in the country, stressing that the Greek workforce needed and deserved the best possible trade union representation during a "difficult time of great unemployment and strong insecurity".

In a brief address, GSEE president Christos Polyzogopoulos said that the trade union movement had an obligation to provide trade unionists with effective management and problem-solving tools in order to deal with the problems that workers faced on a daily basis.

He also thanked the Athens municipality for providing the facilities to house the Academy.

Panagiotopoulos conveyed the best wishes of Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis and said that the government supported the foundation of the Academy, stressing that Greece needed to make great strides to catch up with the rest of Europe with respect to life-long education.

He said GSEE's initiative was necessary for Greece to become competitive in the framework of globalisation.

The main opposition leader said the Labour Academy was a "historic decision" since knowledge was the basis of democracy.

He also underlined that the trade union movement was called on to fight for a different role, "to carve an alternative path against the policies of neoliberal growth" in order to "win the wager of humanising globalisation".

Bakoyianni said the municipality was very happy to be able to GSEE's initiative by providing premises for the academy and expressed hope that other municipalities would follow Athens' example.

[02] Greek govt approves draft bills on energy market deregulation

The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, approved four draft laws submitted by Development ministry envisaging the deregulation of electricity and natural gas markets, promoting the use of bio-fuels and the formation of a National Energy Council.

Speaking to reporters, after the meeting, Development Minister Dimitris Sioufas said the two first draft bills would create new opportunities for energy investments in the country, while the bill on bio-fuel would offer Greek farmers the opportunity to cultivate energy plants to cover up to 5-6 percent of oil needs by 2010. The use of bio-fuel would both save money and improve environmental protection in the country, Sioufas said.

The Greek minister said a National Energy Council would offer energy counsel services to future governments. Commenting on the reaction of Public Power Corporation's workers to a plan to deregulate the country's electricity market, Sioufas said the draft bill was long overdue and expressed the hope of a successful completion of talks with all interested parties.

Sioufas reiterated the government's decision to change labour status for new hirings in Public Power Corporation.

[03] Defence minister on visit to Armenia

During his visit, the Greek minister will hold talks with Sargsyan, and will also meet with Armenian president Robert Kocharyan, prime minister Andranik Margaryan, and Patriarch Garegin of Armenia.

The agenda of the talks include bilateral military and technical defence cooperation and reorganisation of the Armenian Armed Forces, matters relating to NATO and the European Union, as well as the security situation in SE Europe and the wider region of the northern Caucasus.

Earlier, Spiliotopoulos attended an inner cabinet meeting in Athens that ratified four draft bills for deregulating the energy market.

[04] Papandreou resumes sharp attack on gov't; targets budget, EU-Turkey talks

Papandreou, who was foreign minister in the previous Simitis government, mostly centred his criticism on the recently revealed draft budget for 2005 and Athens� response to Turkey�s European prospects and the start of EU-Turkey accession negotiations.

The PASOK leader said the 2005 budget was an unfounded document, since the price of oil, interest rates and government plans for the securitisation of debt were all ?up in the air?. Along those lines, he said it was premature to bank on the EU Commission's approval of the securitisation plan, while again charging that the government�s economic policy benefited the few and harmed the many.

Regarding the last-minute deal on Monday allowing the commencement of EU-Turkey accession talks on the October 3 starting date, Papandreou included criticisms of Athens� role in the negotiation process, or, as he charged, Greece�s lack of substantive involvement.

Nevertheless, he defended his government�s role in developing the ?Helsinki criteria? applied to Turkey�s EU prospects, while again saying PASOK supports the neighboring country�s European orientation.

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