Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-10-07

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 07/10/1997 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• EU urges Mediterranean Free Trade Zone
• Greece: EU should clarify terms for accession-candidates
• Queen Beatrix arrives in Greece
• PASOK, Synaspismos take first tentative steps towards cooperation
• Parliament reopens after summer recess
• Euro-MP takes Ankara to task over Turkish lawyer's conviction
• Tirana rejects 3 new Orthodox Metropolitans
• Attiko Metro says no danger of further subsidence
• Onassion inaugurates children's heart durgery unit
• Gov't again calls for return of Parthenon marbles
• Italian author wins Cultural Capital prize
• Greek exports to Japan slip 3.6 pct in first-half 1997
• National Bank of Greece to stage rights issue
• National Bank reduces interest rates
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

The private sector is the key to implementing a scheme backed by the European Union to create a free trade zone (FTZ) in the Mediterranean, EU Commissioner Christos Papoutsis announced yesterday.

Mr. Papoutsis, who is responsible for energy, tourism and small and medium- sized enterprises (SMEs), was speaking at the two-day 3rd "Euro-Mediterranean Industrial Summit" that began in Athens yesterday.

"Despite uncertainty in politics and regional security, the Barcelona process (of October 1995) is at an advanced stage and major progress has been made in developing Euro-Mediterranean cooperation," Mr. Papoutsis said.

The EU and 27 countries involved in the project plan to set up the free trade zone spanning the EU and Mediterranean by 2010.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis told delegates in a written message that Greece, which is centrally placed geographically for such a project, has pledged to work towards creation of an FTZ that would boost prosperity in the long term.

Taking part in the conference are more than 500 delegates from 31 countries from Europe,North Africa and the Middle East.

Organisers are the Federation of Greek Industries (SEB), Greece's development ministry, the EU's executive Commission and UNICE, a European association of industry and labour groups.

Saying that business ties in the region had enormous room for expansion, SEB president Iason Stratos named the key sectors for cooperation as agricultural foodstuffs, irrigation, energy, fish farms and environment- friendly tourism.

Development Minister Vasso Papandreou urged delegates to accelerate the pace of cooperation in the region following a healthy start to the project.

Many Greek firms were in a position to invest in southern Mediterranean countries, Ms Papandreou said.

She also stressed the need for countries of the region to focus their interest in building all kinds of supranational networks, involving firms, infrastructure, communications, information systems, trading etc.

UNICE President Francois Perigot described the Athens summit as an important step towards converting the Mediterranean into a region of peace, stability and greater mutual understanding at all levels. He stressed, however, that the economic integration among countries of the Mediterranean's south is proceeding very slowly due to the many political tensions in the area, while there has been greater progress in the north-south "front", even though the MEDA programme funds have failed to reduce the diverg ences of the economies involved.

The Athens summit's conclusions will be put to the Euro-Med cooperation group's ministerial meeting in Morocco on Oct. 30-31.

Greece: EU should clarify terms for accession-candidates

Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou, who took part in the EU General Affairs Council in Luxembourg yesterday, expressed Greece's reservations to an "unconditional" institutionalisation of a European conference of the EU with prospective member-states.

Mr. Papandreou said, among others, that Greece would not accept a new institution with ambivalent positions; that the role of the conference should be clearly defined; that conditions for the participation of a prospective member-state should be clearly defined and that it should be decided whether the Conference will include all 11 prospective members (10 east European nations and Cyprus) or only the six for which the Commission has proposed commencement of negotiations within 1998 - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia and Cyprus.

The Greek side made it clear that it did not intend to favour the participation of Turkey in the Conference under present conditions.

Mr. Papandreou said that Greece did not oppose Turkey's European prospects if Greek-Turkish relations were smoothed out; a process for the solution of the Cyprus problem began, and if Turkey responded to the Community's preconditions for membership of a candidate-country, mainly in the area of human rights.

Queen Beatrix arrives in Greece

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands arrived early yesterday evening at Corfu airport, and will fly to Athens this morning after spending the night on the Ionian island.

The Netherlands Queen is on a three-day official visit at the invitation of President of the Republic Kostis Stephanopoulos, whom she is scheduled to meet later today.

PASOK, Synaspismos take first tentative steps towards cooperation

Prefectural committees within Athens' first district from both the ruling PASOK and the opposition Coalition of the Left and Progress (Synaspismos) parties met yesterday to discuss issues of common interest and possible cooperation in local government elections next year.

The committees from both parties agreed that the present policy of Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos was inadequate, claiming that the city is having problems in finances and transport, a lack of transparency in procedures and a general neglect of poor er sections of Athens where immigrants live.

The committees agreed that cooperation between the two parties should continue, and discussion should continue on whether both parties should support a single nominee for mayor of Athens.

Parliament reopens after summer recess

Parliament resumed sessions yesterday following the summer break.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis, the Cabinet, the leaders of political parties and members of Parliament attended the ceremony. The first session held a minute's silence in tribute to Athanasios Tsaldaris, who died on Saturday. Tsaldaris was a former president of parliament.

Euro-MP takes Ankara to task over Turkish lawyer's conviction

The Turkish government is inconsistent, unreliable and dishonest towards the European Union on the issue of human rights, PASOK Euro-MP and vice- president of the Socialist Group, Yiannis Roubatis, stated in relation to the persecution of Turkish lawyer Esber Giamugdereli.

Mr. Giamugdereli, who is blind, is known for his defence of dozens of dissidents before Turkish courts, was sentenced to 23 years in prison by an Ankara appeals court on the basis of Turkey's so-called anti-terrorist law.

Mr. Roubatis has submitted questions to the European Commission and the Council of Ministers, asking to be informed of the following:

- What specific actions the two bodies intend to take so that Mr. Giamugdereli is immediately released and for the Turkish government to abolish all legal arrangements, which the country's Foreign Minister Ismail Cem and President Suleyman Demirel themselves have described as "shameful"?

- How long will the two bodies tolerate the deception, inconsistency and unreliability of successive Turkish governments, which have been promising for two years now to abolish all legal arrangements used to violate human rights and limit freedom of tho ught, and constitute an excuse even for taking the life of Turkish citizens?

Tirana rejects 3 new Orthodox Metropolitans

Three Orthodox Metropolitans appointed to serve in Albania by the Ecumenical Patriarchate met with the Albanian Minister of State Kastriot Islami yesterday, as Tirana continues its opposition to the appointments on grounds that it had not been consulted.

The opposition by the socialist government of Fatos Nano follows rejection of the appointments by the previous Berisha government.

Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana and All Albania also attended the meeting.

Following the meeting, Mr. Islami said: "The meeting was friendly, the three understood our positions, which are linked to previous decisions by the Albanian government".

He expressed confidence that "three Metropolitans will be found to integrate into the Holy Synod of Albania".

The government, he said, believed in "creating a Holy Synod through the appointment of Albanian nationals as heads of the Albanian Autocephalous Orthodox Church. Our stance reflects a traditional and historical stance that calls for an autocephalous church".

The three Metropolitans were not received by the Albanian president, the prime minister or the foreign minister for various reasons.

Difficulties emerge from an Albanian law forbidding the creation of a Synod comprised entirely by Greek nationals.

The delegation is expected to return to Istanbul this afternoon.

Attiko Metro says no danger of further subsidence

Problems continue to plague the "Attiko Metro" company constructing the Athens underground railway as fears grew of subsidence that could threaten buildings along central Panepistimiou Avenue, following the collapse of a kiosk on Friday night.

Yesterday two traffic lanes remained closed, while Attiko Metro chairman Leonidas Kikiras gave assurances that there was no danger to surrounding buildings, and rejected claims by academic Pantelis Theoharis to the contrary.

"Of course I'm talking about the buildings themselves, not signboards," said Mr. Kikiras, adding that work on line two to Dafni would continue using the giant TBM drill known as the "Metro-mouse", although conventional drilling methods would be used on line three from Syntagma Square to Kerameikos, which passes under many of Athens' ancient monuments.

Professor Theoharis maintains that the Metro-mouse will come up against major problems at the corner of Panepistimiou and Sina Street, which used to be a water-course.

Meanwhile residents of Panepistimiou 44 said they had been told by Attiko Metro officials to vacate the building as it had tilted 4mm and a crack had appeared in the walls. Mr. Kikiras denied that any such order had been given and contended that the crack was an old one. He said all buildings above the Panepistimiou tunnel works were being checked on a 24-hour basis.

Public prosecutor Manolis Rasidakis yesterday ordered an investigation as to whether charges of criminal liability should be brought, following press reports over the past few days with regard to the tunnelling under Panepistimiou Avenue.

Onassion inaugurates children's heart surgery unit

A new era has began in Greece's cardiovascular surgery field with the official operation of a children's heart surgery section at the Athens- based Onassion Cardiosurgical Centre.

The new section was inagurated yesterday by Health and Welfare Minister Costas Geitonas, who stressed that the Onassion Heart Surgery Centre played a leading role in the country's health system.

When fully developed, the new centre will be able to take care of the entire range of heart-related diseases requiring operation, considerably reversing the trend of resorting to foreign hospitals and medical centres that existed so far. About 800 to 1, 000 children are born each year with a heart-related disease, of which 500 to 600 need to be operated.

The new section of the Onassion will be able to perform about 500 operations annually.

Gov't again calls for return of Parthenon marbles

The European Parliament's cultural committee should intervene on behalf of Greece to have the Parthenon marbles returned from Britain, Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday.

He delivered the appeal at the meeting of the committee's members in Thessaloniki.

"The issue concerns two member-states and our position is rather delicate. Despite this, we shall return to this, discussing the issue at the committee," Committee President Peter Pecks said.

PASOK Eurodeputy Angela Kokola said that the Europarliament's role was more consultative, while decision-making is the responsibility of the European Commission and the European Council.

The eight-member committee will continue its meeting today.

Italian author wins Cultural Capital prize

Italian author Antonio Tabuchi won the "Aristeion" (excellence) European literature prize in Thessaloniki yesterday with his novel "Sostiene Rereira" ("Rereira Claims").

The prize was established in 1990 by initiative of the late actress and culture minister Melina Mercouri, and is awarded at the annual Cultural Capital of Europe to an original novel and a translation that promote European culture and new writing.

The translation prize was won by the German translation of Patrick McCade's book "The Butcher Boy", made by Austria's Hans Christian Oeser.

The awards carry six million drachmas in prize money each and will be handed out by Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Dec. 9 in Thessaloniki.

Greek exports to Japan slip 3.6 pct in first-half 1997

Greek exports to Japan edged down 3.6 percent to 47.6 million dollars in the first half of 1997 against the same period of 1996, Japan's foreign trade bureau in Athens (Jetro) said yesterday.

Japanese exports to Greece in January-June slumped 37.6 percent to 323.7 million dollars, Jetro said in a monthly trade report.

Greek exports to Japan are seen rising in 1997 following implementation of Hermes, an action plan for 1997-1999 that was set up by Greece's national economy ministry.

The plan aims to step up Greek exports and business contacts in the Japanese market.

National Bank of Greece to stage rights issue

National Bank of Greece, a blue chip on the Athens bourse, will hold a two- for-10 rights issue at 23,000 drachmas a share in order to tap the market for 80.37 billion drachmas.

Shareholders endorsed the move, which means the state bank's shares will trade ex-rights on Tuesday. Subscription is from October 10-November 14.

Issued will be 3.49 million new shares with a par value of 5,800 drachmas each.

Shareholders of the new stock will be entitled to the bank's dividend on 1997 profits.

Funds acquired from the rights issue will allow the bank to create a stronger presence abroad and rationalise companies in the group, National Bank's chairman Theodoros Karatzas said.

National Bank reduces interest rates

The National Bank of Bank will reduce its loan interest rates by up to 0.75 per cent and its deposits interest rates by 0.50 per cent as of today.

The main interest rate for working capital loans was set at 14.50 per cent from 15 per cent, the stable interest rate Ethnoanaptyxiakou 10 per cent from 10.25 per cent, the stable loans interest rate for fixed assets 12 per cent from 12.75 per cent, the main loans interest rate for fixed installations and equipment 12.50 per cent from 13 per cent and the fluctuating interest rate for housing loans 12.50 per cent from 13 per cent.

The new savings bank deposits interest rate will be 8.50 per cent from 9 per cent and 7 per cent for current accounts from 7.5 per cent.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(C.E.)

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