Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-02-16

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

CONTENTS

[01] PM Karamanlis visits Ireland, holds talks with Irish counterpart Ahern

[02] Papandreou demands early elections

[03] Bakoyiannis gives first interview as new FM

[01] PM Karamanlis visits Ireland, holds talks with Irish counterpart Ahern

"There are, of course, many opportunities and much potential for expanding and developing this cooperation even more, so a large part of our talks was devoted to this issue," he noted.

The Greek premier also pointed out that he had last visited Dublin for the celebrations marking the accession of the 10 new member-states of the EU. Stressing that the EU now faced "new challenges of major importance for the future," Karamanlis said that he and Ahern had carried out an overview of these challenges and exchanged views concerning the future of Europe, its enlargement and ways to approach the issue of the EU constitutional treaty after the end of a period of reflection.

"Greece wants to see a new energy in our efforts and the continuation of dialogue with careful exploration of future prospects. In this process, we must pay due attention to the concerns of the citizens and the need to restore their trust in the European enterprise," he said.

Karamanlis noted that achieving better conditions for the development of EU economies and creating new jobs would help significantly in this direction.

"In this framework, we also examined the progress of the Lisbon process with Mr. Ahern and agreed that even more must be done in order to achieve our targets," he added.

The Greek premier also briefed Ahern on Greece's positions on issues of regional and broader international interest, particularly the situation in the Balkans, Turkey's prospects of EU accession, the Cyprus problem and the Middle East.

Karamanlis was accompanied by newly-appointed Greek Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyiannis and a Greek delegation.

Immediately after the talks, the Greek premier and the Greek delegation left for Athens.

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[02] Papandreou demands early elections

He noted that the sooner these elections were held, the better it would be for the country.

He also called on MPs to "lead PASOK's struggle alongside all democratic citizens of the country" to replace the present conservative government with one that was "democratic and progressive".

"There is another way, which is guaranteed by PASOK," Papandreou stressed.

Among a litany of ills he blamed on the government, the main opposition leader particularly stressed the phone-tapping affair, which he described as a "scandal". He also accused Karamanlis of cover-ups and concealing the truth about the affair and asked why the premier had taken no measures to protect telecommunications security and privacy, even though he had known about the affair for 11 months.

Dismissing a call from Karamanlis for consensus and cooperation concerning the phone-tap affair, he said PASOK would not "rush to conceal ND's responsibilities" and claimed that the government had proved itself untrustworthy by ignoring the opposition parties on major issues of foreign policy, such as the Cyprus problem or the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

The main opposition leader also charged the government with "arrogant indifference" to the problems faced by the vast majority of Greeks, who he said were living in an unprecedented climate of corruption, economic insecurity and general impasses.

Papandreou dismissed reforms being attempted by the government as failed, while noting that unemployment was rising and the rights of workers under collective agreements, as well as individual rights and freedoms, were being eroded.

Criticising the recent government reshuffle, meanwhile, he said Karamanlis was "hiding from the problems, reality and his own responsibilities behind a recycling of party members.

"This is just a desperate attempt, because the electorate know and are not fooled by New Democracy's propaganda machine," he added.

Several of the ministers that left the government during the reshuffle were targeted for criticism by Papandreou, including veteran diplomat Petros Molyviatis who he accused of "dismal failure" on the Cyprus issue.

The main opposition leader was also highly critical of New Democracy's decision to leave the Athens municipality - the largest and most influential municipality in the country - without a leader, following the departure of Dora Bakoyiannis from the mayor's office to take over leadership of the foreign ministry.

He accused the government of treating ND in an unacceptable way and stressed that local government must be relieved of the "partisanship of the Right".

The reshuffle was not a new beginning but the beginning of the end for the government, Papandreou stressed.

Pledging to govern with sincerity, transparency and respect for citizens if elected, he also made a personal commitment for a "different relationship of ethics and power with the citizens", in which the voice of every citizen was heard and government was "sensitive, with knowledge and experience, with respect and confidence in democratic institutions, to values, meritocracy and changes without fear for the new".

Government reaction to Papandreou

Reacting to Papandreou's criticism on Thursday, government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos accused the main opposition party of "remaining stuck in its past as government, in modes of thinking that were conservative and practices that had led nowhere, that had been tried and had failed."

The Greek people paid and were still paying for their results, he added.

"The citizens appreciate the need for changes and for this reason they support the great institutional reforms of the government," he said.

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[03] Bakoyiannis gives first interview as new FM

Bakoyiannis arrived in Berlin on Wednesday, the same day that she was sworn-in as minister, accompanying Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis on an official visit to Germany.

"It is government policy. I will offer my abilities to reinforce this policy and the effort Greece is making to be present, to defend matters of Greek interest in the best possible way and to be an active player in the European Union at a time when, as you see, there are common problems and concerns," Bakoyiannis said.

Listing a series of issues such as bird flu, Europe's future course and the situation that had arisen after the Euro-Constitution was put on hold, she noted that these concerns were shared by both Germany and Greece, as well as the rest of Europe.

Concerning Turkey's prospects of EU accession, in the light of Ankara's continued refusal to recognise EU member-state Cyprus, Bakoyiannis underlined that Greece's support was conditional on Turkey's acceptance of EU rules and its fulfilment of all commitments.

"First of all, we must say that a European prospect for Turkey has been a standing position for Greece in the past years. Turkey, however, must itself wish to become a member of the EU, accepting and implementing all the agreements it has signed. In other words, the commitments that Turkey has made to the EU must be kept.

"For this reason, the paradox to which you refer [Turkey's refusal to recognise an EU member-state] - which is paradox of both institutions and essence - is not something that can continue. I believe that during [the accession negotiations], during which the EU will monitor the implementation of Turkish commitments, we will be able to draw final conclusions on whether Turkey truly desires to become a member of the united European family," Bakoyiannis said.

Questioned about the other thorny issue in Greek foreign policy - the dispute with the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) over the republic's adopted name of 'Macedonia' - and how Greece's stance was viewed by other European countries, the Greek foreign minister pointed out that the EU had agreed that accession negotiations with Skopje should begin using the name FYROM.

"This shows that there is complete sensitivity and understanding for the problem, for which negotiations to find a solution of the name issue are underway at the United Nations. I believe that the rest of our European partners understand that Greece has shown its good will in various instances and on several occasions," she said.

Greece was now waiting for the negotiations to yield a result that showed a corresponding good will on FYROM's part, she added.

The Greek foreign minister also underlined Athens' positive stance to the accession prospects of its Balkan neighbours Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, stressing that the benefits would outweigh any problems caused by their relative economic weaknesses.

"We believe that this entire region (southeast Europe) should have as a goal its eventual accession to the EU. Economically they are not countries that will cause the EU a problem, they are small countries. But for the wider region and for stability, which we are striving for, this prospect is very important. We support it and I hope that other types of thoughts and concerns within the EU will not influence the other countries in the direction of refusal," she stressed.

At the same time, she underlined that the criteria set by the EU for candidate-countries must be fulfilled and that this applied to all countries.

Regarding Greece's stance on the future of Kosovo and whether it could help in reconciling the widely different positions of the two sides in the negotiations, Bakoyiannis reiterated that any solution regarding Kosovo's status should be the product of real negotiations and not one imposed from above.

Noting that Greece was a "strong presence" in the region, she stressed that Athens' goal was peace and stability, which were a self-evident precondition for achieving any kind of solution, and that it would support the process that was due to begin.

Finally, regarding the results of the visit to Berlin by Karamanlis and herself, Greece's foreign minister described the meeting between Karamanlis and German Chancellor Angela Merkel as "exceptionally useful, with was an honest and substantial exchange of information and very good chemistry".

She said that Greek and German views coincided on several issues, including the need to revive the Euro-Constitution, while pointing out that Germany was Greece's strongest rading partner.

Concerning her own impressions of Chancellor Merkel as another woman in politics, Bakoyiannis said that she knew Merkel from earlier on and noted that the press always showed particular interest in women because there were so few in politics, both worldwide and in Europe.

"Notwithstanding, the first 87 days [since Merkel became Chancellor] have shown, I believe, that she has both the sensitivity and the ability to reconcile difficult or even outwardly irreconciliable issues. Let us wish her good luck, for the good of the German people but also of Europe, in which Germany is a pillar of European stability," she said.

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