Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-10-12
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 12/10/1997 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- Turkey's Yilmaz at CoE: the EU and Greece
- Turkish minister blames EU for Cyprus deadlock
- Albanians kill soldier, wound woman friend
- Local government reform bill unveiled
- Prime Minister's message to SMEs
- EOT to boost conference tourism
- Greece defends security record
- Greece, Cyprus hold exercises
- Greek equities end week flat
- Weather
- Foreign Exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
Turkey's Yilmaz at CoE: the EU and Greece
A Turkish delegation, headed by Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz, on Saturday
wound up its broad round of diplomatic contacts on the sidelines of the
Council of Europe summit with thinly-veiled hints against Greece and
without any apparent willingness for consultations with the Greek
side.
In statements to Turkish journalists, Mr. Yilmaz reported that in his
contacts he drew attention to mainly three issues, first, the threat posed
to Turkey by the installation of Russian-made S-300 missiles on Cyprus,
secondly, the pressures which, according to his opinion, the European Union
should exercise on Greece for there to be progress in Greek-Turkish
relations, and thirdly on the need for the EU summit in Luxembourg to send
a clear message on Turkey's European prospects.
In his speech to the summit, Mr. Yilmaz also made an unspecified but
obvious reference to Greece -not contained in the official text distributed
by the Turkish delegation- regarding what he called the unacceptability of
member-states of the Council of Europe supporting terrorist organisations.
Turkish and European diplomatic sources said the reaction of European
leaders and officials whom Mr. Yilmaz met, such as the French and Dutch PMs,
Lionel Jospin and Wim Kok, was rather guarded.
Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker told Greek and Turkish
reporters regarding Mr. Yilmaz's references to terrorism that relevant
evidence did not exist and he could not imagine that it was possible that a
member-state of the European Union supported the carrying out of terrorist
activities in another country.
Continuing, Mr. Juncker said efforts should be made, chiefly by the two
countries concerned, for a de-escalation of the tension between Greece and
Turkey, and that the current EU Presidency wished to make a positive
contribution in that direction.
Turkish minister blames EU for Cyprus deadlock
Turkish foreign minister Ismail Cem has accused the European Union of
creating a deadlock in the Cyprus problem by initiating the procedure for
membership of the island-republic.
"It is big mistake (...) which has brought the Turkish Cypriots in a very
difficult position," he said in statements to the Turkish NTV network on
Saturday.
Referring to the order of Russian-made S-300 missiles by Cyprus, Cem
claimed it was an even more serious mistake.
"It is one of the most serious mistakes that could have been committed. No
one should expect that we shall remain indifferent," he warned.
Finally, the Turkish foreign minister called on the EU to stop "always
asking Turkey to settle its differences with Greece".
"It takes two parts to reach a settlement of a bilateral dispute," he
said.
Albanians kill soldier, wound woman friend
A manhunt is under way for a gang of armed men, allegedly Albanians, who
shot and killed an off-duty soldier and wounded his girlfriend near
Oreokastro, Thessaloniki Friday night. Police suspect the attackers may be
the same men that robbed another couple in the same area early Thursday.
Constantine Gidaris, 21, and his girlfriend Evangelia Kostarela, 22, were
in a car parked in the forest when Gidaris saw the armed men approaching
them and began reversing the car in an attempt to get away. The men then
fired on the car with Kalashnikov rifles, killing Gidaris and shooting his
friend in the leg. The car overturned and the attackers ran off.
Ms. Kostarela managed to limp three kilometres to the village of Oreokastro.
According to coroner Samuel Zaou, Gidaris was killed instantly.
Local government reform bill unveiled
Interior Minister Alekos Papadopoulos on Friday unveiled the government's
comprehensive draft bill on the compulsory merger of the multitude of small
local government entities around the country to the leadership of the
Central Union of Municipalities and Communities (KEDKE).
The bill (named after modern Greece's first executive head of state,
Ioannis Capodistrias) provides for the creation of 804 new municipal
councils, which together with existing ones in the Attica and Thessaloniki
prefectures, and the 133 community councils which re main intact, will
lower the total number of local government organisations (OTA) to 1,033,
from 5,775 today.
The reform will be financially supported with 1.025 trillion drachmas until
2002. The bill retains all tax privileges for the residents of small
villages and the existing definition of mountainous and disadvantaged
areas.
Mr. Papadopoulos reiterated that there would be no changes in the planned
mergers, but promised there would be a full debate on all other aspects of
the bill, which, he said, was only the beginning of far-reaching administrative
reform.
"This great institutional incision and reform begins, rather than ends
today. It will require at least five years of hard work so that we may
found a different kind of strong municipalities, for the countryside to be
revitalised, for life to take root in our declining villagesI" he
emphasised.
Prime Minister's message to SMEs
Prime Minister Costas Simitis addressed a PASOK meeting of small business
operators from all over Greece today on government policy in the sector.
Mr. Simitis expressed his satisfaction with government achievements in the
economy, referring to decreases in the public sector deficit and inflation
and the increase in growth rate above the European Union average. The
premier stressed that these goals were achieved "without being accompanied
by a spread of social distress - because we did not want just to improve
certain indices, certain figures, we wanted to improve the lives of
citizens, the lives of all of us".
Mr. Simitis also said that for the governent, the survival and dynamic
growth of the average SME means strength in its ability to deal with
competition, and to expect support from artificial sources. He said that
this would be achieved by increasing the size of enterprises, improving on
product quality, business administration and access to the international
market.
Finally the premier indicated that the government has nearly completed the
legislative framework for free competition that will rid the market of
restrictive practises which undermine competitiveness.
EOT to boost conference tourism
Greece will soon be the "capital" of conference tourism in Europe, Greek
Tourism Organisation (EOT) secretary general Nikos Skoulas said today.
"We are beginning now, together with private enterprise, the effort to
achieve this goal. We'll succeed in upgrading both general tourism and
conference-business tourism," he said at the opening of the 1st Conference
Forum in Athens today.
He called on private enterprise to rally round EOT's new policy which
involves qualitative upgrading, appropriate training, and the creation of
ultra-modern units.
Greece hosts about 2,500 conferences annually.
"With the right organisation and planning, our country can host more than
10,000 conferences a year," said Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos in his
address to the forum.
The event is taking place in parallel with the first exhibition on
conference tourism, travel incentives as well as professional and
exhibition tourism, entitled "Meetingreece-ICB '97", which opened at the
Peace and Friendship Stadium in Faliro today. The exhibition will last till
Monday.
Greece defends security record
"It is well known that November 17 and the Revolutionary Popular Struggle
(ELA) are terrorist organisations and must be dealt with decisively,"
government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said yesterday. He made the statement
when asked to comment on the list made public by US Secretary of State
Madeleine Albright on Thursday, which contained both organisations.
Mr. Reppas underlined however that Greece had a much better level of
security than other countries which "supposedly have more advanced systems
and mechanisms for combatting such phenomena".
"In Greece we do not have indiscriminate and mass attacks," Mr. Reppas said,
adding that terrorist targets here were specific individuals.
Greece, Cyprus hold exercises
The medium-scale air and naval exercise of the Greek armed forces,
codenamed "Toxotis", got under way Friday east of Crete with the participation
of three frigates, three torpedo and missile carriers, two submarines and
Hellenic Air Force units.
"Toxotis" is being held in conjunction with the Cypriot armed forces
exercise "Nikiforos" which is already in progress in the island republic.
The exercises will be watched by National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos
who is scheduled to visit Cyprus on Monday.
During his stay on the island, Mr. Tsohatzopoulos will have talks with
Cyprus' political leaders and state officials.
Both exercises will end on October 15.
Greek equities end week flat
Share prices ended the week with minor changes on the Athens Stock Exchange
despite the fact that the market set two new record closes and the general
index breached the 1,800 level intra-day.
A drop in consumer price inflation to 4.9 percent in September, the lowest
in two decades, followed by a cut in interest rates by the central bank and
the state-owned National Bank of Greece gave the market new impetus and
pushed prices higher.
But then a wave of interest rate increases in Europe, led by a 30 basis
point rise in the repo rate by the Bundesbank on Thursday, dampened
sentiment.
Traders said that a trend of higher interest rates in Europe would narrow
the scope for a rapid relaxation of monetary policy in Greece.
The Athens general share index ended the week 0.10 percent off, and the
FTSE/ASE index dropped 0.24 percent.
Trading remained heavy throughout the week and turnover totalled 160.073
billion drachmas at a daily average of 32.01 billion drachmas, up from 29
billion the previous week.
Weather
Scattered showers mainly in western and northern areas and a gradual
strengthening of southerly winds will be the main features of the weather
scene today and tomorrow. Athens will have light cloud, and rain is likely
in Thessaloniki. Monday's temperatures in Athens will range from 17-26C, in
Thessaloniki from 14-22C.
Foreign Exchange
Friday's closing rates - buying US dlr. 274.125
Pound sterling 445.141 Cyprus pd 530.404
French franc 46.853 Swiss franc 188.922
German mark 157.421 Italian lira (100) 15.959
Yen (100) 228.163 Canadian dlr. 199.400
Australian dlr. 201.344 Irish Punt 403.805
Belgian franc 7.628 Finnish mark 52.450
Dutch guilder 139.759 Danish kr. 41.338
Swedish kr. 36.361 Norwegian kr. 39.182
Austrian sch. 22.369 Spanish peseta 1.867
Port. Escudo 1.549
(Y.B.)
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