From: tzarros@ccs.carleton.ca (Theodore Zarros) Subject: News (in ENGLISH)- Tue, 14 Jun 1994 (Greek Press Office BBS, Ottawa). Athens News Agency Bulletin, Parties size up Europoll aftermath ---------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): Greece's ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) scored a solid win in the weekend European election, in which Greek parties contended for 25 seats in the European Parliament, but the results left an unexpected picture of Greece's political map with the two major parties noting a significant drop in their showing of last October's national elections and smaller parties picking up the difference. PASOK may have won a clear victory but its vote dropped sharply by 9 percent and Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou pledged he would speedily press ahead with the party's charted programme. Mr. Papandreou is expected to reshuffle his cabinet after the European Union summit in Corfu towards the end of the month. On Sunday night, government officials noted that the government needed to take corrective measures in its policies, while PASOK's top officials are expected to meet in coming days to discuss ways to boost the party's vote in future elections. Government spokesman Evangelos Venizelos said yesterday the results were unexpected. Mr. Venizelos attributed PASOK's drop to the fact that "this was a European election, in which the governing of the country was not at stake." PASOK's drop was not translated to a gain by Main Opposition New Democracy party (ND), which lost 7 percent of its October vote. The result has sparked off a round of soul-searching among the New Democracy party. Leader Miltiades Evert yesterday announced the parliamentary party will convene tomorrow to assess the result, and addressed a letter to all members asking they abstain from making statements until then. Meanwhile, former prime minister Constantine Mitsotakis described the result as "defeat," but said "ND will remain united and strong," adding the result showed the people had also rejected PASOK policies. Sources close to the former PM say he believes that had the main opposition followed different tactics and strategy, it would have managed to benefit from popular disillusionment with PASOK. Mr Evert has not replied to his predecessor in public, but argues privately that his efforts in recent months had centred not on the party's immediate electoral prospects, but on its modernisation and change in political profile. Vice president of the party Yiannis Varvitsiotis said ND was on the right path, but had to change its tactics. Former minister Andreas Andrianopoulos also conceded the party had suffered defeat, adding the results signified the end of the post-dictatorial era in Greek politics. Unexpectedly, the difference was picked up by the smaller parties, the Political Spring party, the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) and the Coalition of the Left and Progress which almost doubled their vote in the October national elections. Political Spring almost doubled its vote and may have won third place, but political analysts yesterday showed scepticism over party leader Antonis Samara's stated optimism that "(the results have) noted the beginning of the end of the two major parties" and "the Political Spring party was now elevated to a party of power." According to analysts, the KKE and the Coalition of the Left and Progress would now focus efforts on retaining their vote, by doubling and channelling their attention on cashing in their gains at municipal elections in the fall. Democratic Renewal's (DHANA) also benefited from the loss by the major parties, but did not secure a seat in the Strasbourg assembly. Analysts were speculating yesterday that this might lead party President Kostis Stephanopoulos to withdraw from the public scene. With votes counted, PASOK leads with ten seats in the European Parliament, followed by New Democracy with 9 and Political Spring, KKE and Coalition of the Left and Progress with 2 seats each. KKE: main two parties' Europoll losses to influence developments ---------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): The fall in popular vote power of Greece's two main parties in the Euroelections will have a bearing on political developments, a Communist Party of Greece's (KKE) Politburo statement said yesterday. The working class was a main factor in bringing about such a loss, the statement added. KKE won two out of Greece's 25 seats in Sunday's European parliament elections. But loss in power as such "does not lead to positive developments for the people," the statement said, adding that gains by smaller parties like Political Spring and Coalition of the Left and Progress (SYN) were immaterial since these parties would rather toe the majority line instead. KKE is confident that workers constantly build up experience in politics and realise they have options in deciding about governments. Party leaders will discuss Euroelection results at a Central Committee meeting next Wednesday. PM, PASOK committees examine party Euroelection showing ------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): Prime Minister and Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) President Andreas Papandreou met yesterday with European parliament deputies victorious in Sunday's elections to discuss strategies, party platforms and entrance in the parliament's socialist group. PASOK won 37 percent of the vote and 10 of Greece's 25 Europarliament seats Sunday. Christos Papoutsis, head of the Eurodeputies, told journalists PASOK's showing showed a strong centre-leftist leaning in Greece. Today, PASOK's Political and Executive Secretariat will convene to discuss Euroelection results. Sometime this week, the governing party's Executive Office will also convene to examine results. Greece reaffirms Skopje package as New York talks in the making --------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): Greece reiterated yesterday that it would not recognise any state whose name contained "Macedonia" or any derivative. Foreign Ministry spokesman Costas Bikas also said that Greece would only lift its trade sanctions against the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) if Skopje changed its flag, amended its Constitution or alternatively gave assurance to the United Nations that the FYROM parliament would change certain articles of the Constitution indicating irredentist designs. Greece imposed a set of trade sanctions as retortion measures on Skopje on 16 February in a bid to retaliate FYROM intransigence. It demands that the neighbouring state change its flag, name and Constitution containing irredentist designs against Greece's northern province of Macedonia. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Karolos Papoulias was due to leave for New York today for talks Thursday with UN mediator for the FYROM issue Cyrus Vance. His departure was cancelled late last night following advice that Mr. Vance was ill. The UN mediator has invited Mr. Papoulias and his FYROM counterpart Stevo Crvenkovski for talks in an effort to find a solution to the dispute between the two Balkan neighbours. Mr. Bikas clarified that Mr. Papoulias and Mr. Crvenkovski would have separate talks with Mr. Vance without ruling out the possibility of US President Bill Clinton's special mediator for the Skopje issue Matthew Nimetz being present. Mr. Nimetz last week visited Athens and Skopje to sound positions of both sides before briefing Mr. Vance. Greece details Skopje retortion arguments, asks Eurocourt dismiss EU injunction request ----------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): Greece will justify a set of trade sanctions it has imposed as retortion measures on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on February 16 in a closed hearing at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg today. The hearing will last about two hours and the Greek government will present its arguments in a bid to avoid an emergency interim ruling ordering it to call off the trade sanctions. European Commission lawyers are asking the court to declare Greece, which holds the European Union presidency until the end of June, as violating EU law for acting unilaterally. If the Commission fails in its bid to force Greece to call off the sanctions, the legal battle might last another 18 months before it is settled. Greek observations comprise two parts. The first concerns an analysis of the actual event, registering its past history as briefly as possible and portraying the political dimension of the case. The second part contains legal arguments to counter the European Commission's positions. Final results of the European Parliament elections in Greece are as follows: ----------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK) 37.60% 10 seats New Democracy 32.63% 9 seats Political Spring 8.67% 2 seats Communist Party of Greece 6.29% 2 seats Coalition of the Left and Progress 6.26% 2 seats Others 9.55% - Interior Ministry sources said 71.22 per cent of Greece's 9,480,495 registered voters participated in the election of 25 Greek Eurodeputies. The figure includes Greek citizens living in European Union member states. Voting is mandatory in Greece. Of the 6,755,937 votes cast, 6,485,345 were valid, 143,731 were invalid and 126,861 were blank. Amnesty International inquires about ethnic Greeks held in Albania ----------------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): Amnesty International has requested Albanian authorities to provide explanations on the recent arrest and interrogation of six members of the ethnic Greek political organisation "Omonia". According to an announcement by the Greek branch of Amnesty International (A.I.), the six have been charged with unlawful possession of arms, anti-constitutional activities and contacts with Greek intelligence. The announcement said Amnesty International had written the Public Prosecutor of Tirana inquiring which articles of the Albanian penal code were invoked in regard to the last two charges, and whether or not the six were being interrogated on all three charges. Amnesty also inquired whether or not the six detainees had been provided with legal aid during questioning, adding concern at reports that Omonia offices and homes of ethnic Greeks in Gyrokastr, Delvino and Santi Quaranta had been searched without warrants. Meanwhile, an ANA dispatch from Gyrokastr quoted reliable sources as saying the six members of Omonia would stand trial in July, when Greece will no longer hold the European Union rotating presidency. The sources added the trial will be held in the presence human rights international organisations officials, who will be invited to attend. Meanwhile, Albanian authorities in Tirana continued interrogating more ethnic Greeks, members or former members of the Omonia party, over the weekend. In another development, Nerktan Ceka, President of the Albanian "Democratic Alliance" party, criticised the Albanian government for its policy toward Greece. An ANA dispatch from Gyrokastr said yesterday Mr. Ceka had voiced criticism on the Albanian government for its handling of Greek-Albanian relations, at a meeting with US Ambassador to Tirana William Reyerson. Commenting on heightened tension between Greek-Albanian relations, sparked off in April after Albania accused Greece of launching an attack against a conscript camp resulting in the death of two Albanian recruits, Mr. Ceka said "it is hard to determine who is to blame." Calling the incident "totally irrational" and "artificial," Mr. Ceka said "seriousness should replace Albania's obsolete policies in relations with Greece." "The Albanian government hastened to bring an irrational accusation against Greece and now it should have the courage to apologise," Mr. Ceka added. State Department spokesman: US made request, no demand to disarm planes ---------------------------------------------------------------- Washington, 14/6/1994 (ANA/D.Dimas): "We have urged Greeks on several occasions to make a reciprocal gesture to the Turkish decision to remove air-to-air weapons from their planes flying over the Aegean. This is consistent with United States policy seeking to reduce tension and avoiding incidents over the Aegean, and the Secretary (Christopher) had a productive discussion with the Greek Foreign Minister on this point," State Department spokesman Michael McCurry replied yesterday when asked whether or not the Secretary of State had "in effect demanded" disarmament of Greek fighter aircraft, when the two men met recently in Istanbul. "I would think it easy to go back and look at the transcript of his remarks and see that there was no discussion of any type of demand or any language of that nature", Mr McCurry added. Farming Ministers' broad agenda at Brussels council meeting ----------------------------------------------------------- Athens, 14/6/1994 (ANA): European Union Agriculture Ministers discussed farm produce prices for the 1994-95 period, associations of trades involved in the production and distribution of farm produce, the protection regime for cultivated varieties, mad cow disease, the establishment of a Community market for bee-keeping products, the operation of the GATT agreement in agriculture, importation of lamb from New Zealand, protection of Mediterranean forests, at a recent meeting of the Council under the chairmanship of Greek Agriculture Minister Giorgos Moraitis, in Brussels. Inter-trade associations and a market for bee-keeping products were raised by the Greek delegation headed by Under-secretary Floros Constantinou. Discussion on inter-trade associations centred on establishing rules governing their founding and operation. As regards bee-keeping products, the European Commission has replied it will submit a study to the European Parliament for approval by the end of the month. The Council decided to prolong the commercial period on prices until June 30, 1994 for cauliflower, apricots, nectarines, lemons, tomatoes and peaches. The next Council session, on June 20-22 should finalise prices and other related matters for 1994-95. Regarding the protection of cultivated varieties, the Council discussed the legal basis, financing, and the seat of the overseeing agency, for which the Greek delegation proposed Thessaloniki, owing to its adequate scientific and technical infrastructure. Concerning the operation of the GATT Agreement, the Commission has replied it will soon submit a comprehensive proposal. On mad-cow disease, all countries except Britain requested an extension of protection measures and the banning of the use of bovine tissue in children's foods and cosmetics. In relation to imports of lamb from New Zealand, France asked for the adoption of measures to counter competition to Community products. The proposal was seconded by Greece, Ireland, Spain, and Portugal, which asked for the adoption of a ceiling to imports due to falling prices in all EU countries. The Danish delegation also brought up the issue of pesticide residues in subterranean waters and the Commission replied that common regulations are to be instituted.