Athens News Agency: News in English, 06-03-03

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article

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

CONTENTS

[01] Greece funds new research post at LSE

[02] Bakoyannis in Pristina, stresses support for Kosovo talks

[03] KKE supports increase of renewable energy sources

[01] Greece funds new research post at LSE

The new post for a research fellow, similar to a senior lecturer or associate professor, will enable an experienced academic to spend time at the Observatory producing high quality research for up to one year, the LSE said in a statement.

"This is a major initiative, a central policy choice as part of our economy's outward-looking approach in expanding and making use of potential within the countries of southeastern Europe," Alogoskoufis said in the UK capital.

The minister is an alumnus of LSE. He obtained an MSc in Economics in 1978 and a PhD in Economics in 1981. He holds a chair in Economics at the Athens University of Economics and Business.

'This is a timely boost for LSE's focus on southeast Europe: it gives us greater specialisation in an area of economic policy of increasing relevance to the European Union as a whole," Professor Kevin Featherstone, director of the Hellenic Observatory, said.

"Coming after the announcement of a fellowship funded by the National Bank of Greece, the new Chair in Contemporary Turkish Studies, and the specialist expertise of colleagues elsewhere in the School, this enables us to make a valuable contribution to relevant policy debates,' Featherstone added.

Also welcoming Alogoskoufis was the director of LSE, Howard Davies.

"LSE's links with Greece are long-established: this post will boost them further. The debate to come about the future of the EU will inevitably focus on Europe's Eastern frontiers. This post will help us to contribute to that debate. We are most grateful to Mr Alogoskoufis and the Greek government for making it possible," Davies noted.

Established in 1996, the Hellenic Observatory addresses a range of topics of interest to academic, media, financial and business sectors. Its core aim is to promote teaching and research on the contemporary politics, economics and society of Greece and Cyprus.

LSE has around 215 Greek students each year - around 190 master's or research students, and the remainder undergraduates.

Finmin urges investment in Greece as regional hub

Later in the day, Alogoskoufis urged investors to place their funds in southeastern Europe using Greece as a strategic ally.

"Greece is no longer an isolated economy with a population of 10,000. It lies at the centre of an area with a population of 140 million, has been a member of the European Union for 25 years, and is also a member of the eurozone. Greece has the most developed social policy and economic infrastructure in southeastern Europe," he told a seminar arranged in London by the British-Hellenic Chamber.

The minister underlined that 5.22 billion euros were invested in the Athens bourse in 2005. In January-February 2006, foreign investors placed 1.1 billion euros in the Greek capital market.

Education Minister Marietta Yiannakou told the seminar that Greece was working to create an education system to match standards abroad through measures taken over the last two years; and Deputy Foreign Minister Euripides Stylianides called on investors to make Greece their centre for regional operations.

ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved.

[02] Bakoyannis in Pristina, stresses support for Kosovo talks

She also underlined that the talks should take place without pressing deadlines, so that the result might have a solid basis, while she highlighted issues of security and stability in the region.

Bakoyannis arrived in Pristina for the last top of a tour of Balkan countries that included visits to Sarajevo and Belgrade.

Meeting Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu and the leader of Kosovo's main opposition leader Hashim Thaci, who heads the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the Greek minister urged reinforcement of a process for applying the international community's criteria and called for protection of the cultural heritage of the Serb minority, while underlining Greece's support for the European prospects of the western Balkans.

Sejdiu pledged to respect the rights of minorities in Kosovo and stressed that he intends to seek good neighbourly relations and to promote Kosovo's rapprochement with Euro-Atlantic structures.

Thaci, on his part, reiterated that "the will of the people for independence must be respected," and appeared convinced that independence for Kosovo would be achieved within 2006.

During her visit, Bakoyannis also met the head of the UN administration in Kosovo, Unmik chief Soren Jessen Peterssen while a meeting is pending with Kosovo's former premier Bajram Kosumi, who resigned unexpectedly on Wednesday.

Her agenda in Pristina additionally includes meetings with the chief representative of Kosovo Serbs Oliver Ivanovic - head of the Serb List for Kosovo-Metohija - and the leader of the ORA party Veton Surroi, while she is scheduled to lay a wreath on the tomb of the late Kosovo president Ibrahim Rugova and visit the Greek command centre of NATO KFOR troops.

ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved.

[03] KKE supports increase of renewable energy sources

However, she expressed her party's strong opposition to the commercialisation of the social commodity of energy, which is being promoted in general by the European Union framework of "deregulation" of the electric power market.

KKE maintains that "the government's draft bill is promoting this anti-popular direction and for this reason KKE rejects it categorically. The exit lies at the other end of the EU's policy, in the unified and exclusively state-controlled energy agency which will constitute popular property and will aim at the combined satisfaction of popular needs in the framework of the popular economy."

ANA-MPA Copyright © 2004-2005 All rights reserved.

Athens News Agency: News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article