Athens News Agency: Daily News Bulletin in English, 00-07-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Government reprimands unions on opposition to employment measures

[02] Reppas denies November 17 terrorists have been detected in Thessaloniki

[03] Simitis to chair meeting on relief measures for fire victims

[04] PM Simitis on Bulgaria visit

[05] Preparations for new identity cards get underway

[06] Two Greek Euro-MPs table question over arrest of T/C journalists

[07] Greece participates for the first time in meeting of euro zone finance ministers

[08] Convertible bonds issued for state telecom, petroleum

[09] Measures against foot-and-mouth disease to be discussed at EU committee on Wednesday

[10] Greek stocks rebound strongly in hefty turnover

[11] Hellenic Bank Association names new secretary general

[12] General Bank's new chairman unveils strategic plan

[13] Mount Sinai treasures on display at Hermitage Museum

[14] "Zorba the Greek" opens Balkan cinema festival

[15] Archaeologists discover Roman-era statue of Apollo on Lesvos

[01] Government reprimands unions on opposition to employment measures

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

"Everyone must help accomplish this goal," he told reporters, "both employers and workers. What's important is for each side to engage in social dialogue and propose policies and measures that can lead to accomplishing this specific target."

Social dialogue, a process of negotiation involving the government, employers associations and trade unions, may begin at the end of the month at the invitation of the Labor minister.

On the 35-hour week issue, Reppas said the government was considering this proposal but had to bear in mind the interests of the economy, of businesses and of the workers themselves.

"The government is open to approaches that lead to the creation of new jobs," he added.

Regarding the so-called "Peponis Law" which restricts the hiring of new staff in the public sector, Reppas said that the law would remain in place.

"This law will not change, we believe it is a very important framework and it remains intact," he said.

Meanwhile, the Labor and Social Security ministry announced that the first of a series of broad ministerial meetings would take place there on Tuesday to discuss employment-related issues.

Taking part will be Labor minister Tassos Yiannitsis, Development Minister Nikos Christodoulakis, Education Minister Petros Efthymiou, Agriculture Minister George Anomeritis and Deputy National Economy Minister Christos Pachtas.

The aim of the meetings will be to coordinate and streamline the ministries that will be handling the bulk of funds from the Third Community Support Framework package and implement the measures for increasing employment.

The need for closer cooperation between these ministries on employment issues was decided by a meeting of the Inner Cabinet on July 13, especially in view of the added difficulties created by the General Confederation of Greek Workers (GSEE) decision to reject the measures and refuse the government's invitation to take part in social dialogue.

Trade unions reject government's plans on employment: Christos Polyzogopoulos, chairman of GSEE, Greece's largest trade union organization, said the new employment measures presented last week by Labor Minister Tassos Yiannitsis and National Economy and Finance Minister Yiannos Papantoniou, were designed to benefit employers and were against workers' interests. "It is a policy that does not deal with unemployment," he said.

"GSEE has decided not to take part in a dialogue sponsored by the government," Polyzogopoulos told reporters after a union meeting.

He urged the government to agree to an open dialogue aimed to determine a policy to boost employment and combatting unemployment.

GSEE's chairman warned that trade unions were determined to respond to the implementation of any "shock therapy policies" with industrial action, if necessary, during the summer.

He also urged the government to withdraw its proposals by September.

Divisions, however, emerged within the union with Communist Party of Greece affiliated unionists calling for immediate reactions and workers' rally next Thursday outside the Labor ministry's building.

Journalists' Union reactions: The Panhellenic Federation of Journalists' Unions (POESY) rejected the government's measures to combat unemployment on Monday, saying that they did not contribute to reducing unemployment but were an attack on workers' rights.

[02] Reppas denies November 17 terrorists have been detected in Thessaloniki

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

"All that is being said or written about a specific number of suspects or their detection in certain regions in Greece has nothing to do with the truth," he said.

Reppas said that what is true is very good cooperation with a Scotland Yard mission currently visiting Greece and expressed the wish that this cooperation will produce results.

[03] Simitis to chair meeting on relief measures for fire victims

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

According to the spokesman, the meeting will be followed by an announcement of measures for the relief of fire victims.

Responding to questions on the state's level of preparedness for dealing with the fires, Reppas said that the Agriculture ministry had given regional authorities 42.6 billion drachmas to spend on policies that would also be useful for combatting fires. The government, he added, couldnt deal with extreme weather conditions, such as those that existed in the past week.

Finally, Reppas said that Simitis had not yet decided which of the fire-stricken districts he would visit.

In a related development, the mayor of one of the hardest hit municipalities on the eastern Aegean island of Samos, where a massive forest fire this past week ravaged the verdant isle, has requested assistance from the city of Athens.

Pythagoreio Mayor Nikos Markou, whose municipality contains several fire-gutted mountainous villages, said he would hold a conference at the Greek capital's Town Hall this week, a meeting that will include representatives of various societies representing Samos natives.

The town of Pythagoreio on Samos, located just across the Asia Minor shores, takes its name from its most famous ancient son, the philosopher Pythagoras.

Meanwhile, a wildfire was reported near Karyes, Laconia earlier on Monday, erupting in three different sites in the early morning.

The government has blamed the recent firestorm of blazes on a combination of arson, carelessness and a scorching heat wave that passed through Greece.

Authorities order investigation into headline story of alleged graft: The Athens public prosecutor's office on Monday ordered a preliminary investigation into an alleged case of graft that headlined in the day's issue of "Ta Nea", where a man claimed to have paid a 20 per cent bribe in order to receive a subsidy for his fire-damaged home.

Vassilis Marinakos reported that he had paid an unknown man 400,000 drachmas in order to receive a two-million-drachma government subsidy to replace household goods damaged during the fires on Mount Penteli in 1998.

Marinakos said his application had originally been turned down by the authorities, on the grounds that only 75 per cent of his household equipment had been destroyed. Soon afterward, however, he received a phone call from an unknown man who offered to arrange for him to receive the two-million-drachma subsidy in exchange for 20 per cent.

During a later meeting, the unknown man told Marinakos that through his connections he had arranged for another 52 applicants turned down by prefectural authorities to receive the subsidy.

Marinakos agreed to the deal and soon afterward received a government cheque.

The preliminary investigation has been assigned to the Athens Police Financial Crimes department under the supervision of Public Prosecutor Yiannis Provataris.

According to reports, Justice Minister Mihalis Stathopoulos has personally requested an investigation into this case.

[04] PM Simitis on Bulgaria visit

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

Other issues to be discussed will be increasing the volume of trade transactions through the signing of an amended protocol agreement on the avoidance of double taxation, attracting more investments to the neighboring country, assistance provided to Bulgaria by Greece for the democratization of its structures and further strengthening educational and cultural exchanges.

The two leaders will also discuss the process of promoting Bulgaria's gradual integration into Euroatlantic structures, the situation in the Balkans, inter-Balkan cooperation and problems experienced by the two countries as a result of recent destructive forest fires.

In a related development, Simitis held talks with National Bank of Greece Governor Theodoros Karatzas on Monday, who briefed the prime minister on the bank's activities in the wider Balkan region and Bulgaria in particular, where the National Bank recently acquired a majority stake in the United Bulgarian Bank, one of the biggest banks in the country.

The official transfer of the Bulgarian bank's shares to the National Bank will take place at a special event in Sofia on Thursday in the presence of Karatzas and a National Bank delegation.

Meanwhile, Kostov and Greece's Ambassador to Sofia Mihalis Christidis inaugurated a project on Monday for the building of a border checkpoint and relevant road infrastructure to link the Bulgarian town of Goche Delchev with the Greek town of Drama.

The projects' total value is estimated at 25 million euros and will be funded by the European Union's PHARE programmed. The major cross-border project is expected to be completed in a year and a half.

[05] Preparations for new identity cards get underway

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

A relevant decision was signed on Monday by Public Order Minister Mihalis Chrysohoidis and Deputy Finance Minister George Drys to make adjustments to identity cards in line with a decision taken by the Personal Data Protection Authority.

According to the decision, the father's name and surname will also be written in the Roman alphabet to enable the identity cards to be used as passports to European Union countries. The new identity cards will be valid until the issuing of news ones is decided and which will be determined for all EU countries.

[06] Two Greek Euro-MPs table question over arrest of T/C journalists

BRUSSELS, 18/07/2000 (ANA - V. Demiris)

Euro-MPs Antonis Trakatellis and Christos Zaharakis, both from the New Democracy party, tabled questions regarding the arrest of the journalists, all of who work for the T/C daily "Avrupa".

Agents of Denktash regime in the occupied areas claim the journalists at the paper spied for foreign governments.

A Turkish Cypriot pseudo-state was declared in the Turkish-occupied areas in 1983, with only Turkey recognizing the illegal regime to this day.

[07] Greece participates for the first time in meeting of euro zone finance ministers

BRUSSELS, 18/07/2000 (ANA - V. Demiris)

"The Greek people's long and painful effort for the country's accession to EMU has been vindicated. Greek participation in the Eurogroup was met with positive comments by the euro zone finance ministers. They expressed the conviction that Greece's participation in the euro zone will signal a period of strong and speedy development for the Greek economy," Papantoniou said in statements after the meeting of the Eurogroup, as the group of euro zone countries is now called following Greece's accession to EMU.

Addressing the meeting, Papantoniou referred to the course of the Greek economy and to developments concerning the public deficit in particular. He said the public deficit is developing in a favorable way. The target of the convergence programmed which anticipated a public deficit amounting to 1.2 percent of GDP has been exceeded this year. He added that in 2001 the Greek budget would not have a deficit for the first time in its history.

Regarding present economic conditions, Papantoniou said Europe is at the beginning of a positive economic cycle with positive development prospects. This economic development creates the possibility for big structural reforms to be promoted with boldness and courage, which are aimed at securing conditions of stable and maintainable development and the creation of many new jobs, which will decrease the percentage of unemployment, he said.

Referring to the introduction of the euro, Papantoniou said that at EU level problems exist concerning information for the public and the market regarding the functioning of the new currency. He said that Greece, despite the fact it had not participated in the euro zone so far, had followed preparations by the "11" on the new currency's introduction.

"We are absolutely on time regarding relevant procedures, as was revealed by the recent meeting of the euro's coordinating committee in Athens," he said.

Papantoniou said that Greece, unlike most countries, would impose the compulsory double listing of prices for goods and services in euro and drachmas as of January 1, 2001 with the purpose of acquainting the public with the unified currency and preventing the possible risk of illicit profits, which could result from disinformation.

Papantoniou said of the dangers of economic globalization that open, free and competitive markets create far greater opportunities for speedy economic development. However, the unchecked functioning of certain markets leads to sudden, big and unjustified movements of capital, which operate in a destabilizing fashion and produce chain reactions in the operation of the global economic system. He referred to the crises in Asia and Russia as an example.

[08] Convertible bonds issued for state telecom, petroleum

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

Both four-year issues are backed by the Greek state and will be sold on domestic and international markets through book building until July 19. The coupon is 2.0 percent annually.

The coordinators and underwriters of the two issues are Deutsche Bank and EFG Eurobank, with Alpha Bank and National Bank of Greece acting as co-underwriters for the domestic market.

The convertible bond in OTE is for 400 million euros in around 13,000,000 common shares. The Hellenic Petroleum bond is worth 300 million euros for about 22,000,000 shares.

A 15 percent increase in the number of shares is being considered.

The bonds' ratings are the same as those for the Greek state - A2 from Moody's and A from S&P.

[09] Measures against foot-and-mouth disease to be discussed at EU committee on Wednesday

BRUSSELS, 18/07/2000 (ANA - V. Demiris)

Greece announced last week that cases of foot-and-mouth disease occurred in the Evros region and that it had taken measures to eradicate the problem by slaughtering herds of animals infected and banning the trafficking of dairy products from the specific region.

The Belgian authorities issued instructions on the problem of foot-and-mouth disease, which were given widespread publicity in the Belgian media and the Internet. Some overreacting media called on Belgian tourists traveling to Greece, Turkey and Bulgaria to avoid coming into contact with animals infected with foot-and-mouth disease to prevent the transfer of the infection to Belgium.

On the sidelines of the Council of Agriculture Ministers taking place here on Monday, Greek Agriculture Minister George Anomeritis held talks with his Belgian counterpart. He explained the issue to him and called on him to prevent any exaggeration or inaccurate publicity on the part of Belgium, which could harm Greek interests in general.

On his part, the Belgian minister showed full understanding for the Greek position and requested all available informative material from the Greek authorities to facilitate a new announcement by the Belgian Agriculture Ministry and the modification of information provided by the Internet.

[10] Greek stocks rebound strongly in hefty turnover

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

Shares in the Leasing and smaller capitalization sectors were top gainers, while banks and telecommunications led the market higher.

Analysts predicted that if the market continued moving higher on Tuesday, then investors could reappear strongly in the market in the next three weeks. The cited the 4,250 level as a strong resistance level in the short-term.

The general index ended at 4,081.52 points, up 1.87 percent, with turnover at 127.3 billion drachmas.

The FTSE/ASE 20 index for heavy traded blue chips ended 1.44 percent higher at 2,264.28 points and the FTSE/ASE 40 index jumped 2.41 percent to 590.81 points.

The parallel market index for smaller capitalization stocks ended at 803.70 points, up 6.01 percent.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 310 to 26 with another six issues unchanged.

Unisoft, Fanco, Doudos, Informer and Naoussa Spinning were the most heavily traded stocks.

Equity futures rise in line with Athens bourse: Equity futures traded on the Athens Derivatives Exchange finished higher on Monday, in line with the indices on which they are based.

The underlying FTSE/ASE 20 index closed 1.44 percent up, and the FTSE/ASE 40 ended 2.41 percent higher.

Turnover was 12.72 billion drachmas from 12.54 billion drachmas a day earlier.

A total of 1,636 contracts were traded on the FTSE/ASE 20 with turnover at 7.4 billion drachmas.

On the FTSE/ASE 40 index, 2,260 contracts changed hands on turnover of 5.3 billion drachmas.

Bonds end mixed in light trade: Bond prices in the domestic secondary market on Monday finished mixed in light trade.

The Greek benchmark 10-year bond showed a yield of 6.127 percent from 6.093 percent in the previous session.

The Greek paper's yield spread over German bunds was 80 basis points, the same as the previous session, from 83 basis points a day earlier.

Turnover through the central bank's electronic system totalled 67 billion drachmas from 54 billion drachmas in the previous trading session.

Sell orders accounted for 36 billion drachmas of turnover.

Drachma up vs. euro, dollar: The drachma on Monday rose against the euro and the US dollar in the domestic foreign exchange market.

At the central bank's daily fixing, the euro was set at 336.600 drachmas from 336.650 drachmas in the previous session.

Also at the fixing, the US dollar was set at 358.750 drachmas from 359.210 drachmas a day earlier.

Retail sales, building activity rise in April: The value of retail sales increased by 5.4 percent in April from the same month last year, while total turnover in the January-April period rose 3.4 percent, the National Statistics Services said on Monday.

The NSS also announced that private building activity rose 1.1 percent in April, reflecting a 9.5 percent rise in the Attica region and a 11.7 percent increase in the rest of the country.

Building activity, however, fell 1.3 percent in the January-April period hit by a 12.8 percent drop in the Attica region. It was 4.2 percent up in the rest of Greece.

[11] Hellenic Bank Association names new secretary general

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

Gortsos, 39, has studied law and economics in Athens, Zurich, Penn State and Geneva and has majored in international and European banking law.

He works at Hellenic Bank Association since 1991.

[12] General Bank's new chairman unveils strategic plan

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

Speaking to reporters on the occasion of the official assumption of office, Manos - a former secretary-general at Hellenic Bank Association - said his immediate priorities were the restructuring of the bank's network, strengthening its capital base, developing efficient internal and external control systems and offering updated banking products to customers.

The plan also envisages the continuous training of the bank's workforce, adopting the latest technology and activating its affiliates.

General Bank's board also appointed Yiannos Mourgelas as general manager of the bank.

[13] Mount Sinai treasures on display at Hermitage Museum

ST. PETERSBURG, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

The exhibition presents a collection of objects, manuscripts and icons dating back to the early Byzantine era, covering the middle Byzantine period and reaching the period of the last Russian Czar, Nicholas II.

It is a unique combination of two famous treasures from the Sinai Saint Catherine's Monastery and the Hermitage Museum. The exhibition is taking place at the initiative of the Hermitage State Museum and the Saint Catherine Monastery Foundation.

[14] "Zorba the Greek" opens Balkan cinema festival

VIENNA, 18/07/2000 (ANA - D. Dimitrakoudis)

The festival will last until August 13 and includes three more Greek films, including Jules Dassin's "Never on Sunday", starring the late Melina Mercouri.

A total of 58 films of Balkan origin will be screened during the festival, 12 of which will be shown in Austria for the first time. They include works by Emir Kustarica, Alexandar Petrovic and Yilmaz Guney.

[15] Archaeologists discover Roman-era statue of Apollo on Lesvos

Athens, 18/07/2000 (ANA)

According to a Monday announcement, the marble statue depicts a man resting his elbow on his left leg but is missing the head, right arm and right leg and archaeologists say it may be an important work of art. It was found within the boundaries of the town's Hellenistic necropolis.

Cyprus to host OSCE meeting NICOSIA, 18/07/2000 (CNA)

Cyprus will host the next meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe's (OSCE) expanded bureau, from October 2 to 5, head of the Republic's delegation to the OSCE, Marcos Kyprianou told a press conference on Monday.

"This is very important for Cyprus," the MP said, adding that a seminar on "Organized Crime and Corruption" will take place on the sidelines of the meeting, to be held in the southern coastal town of Limassol.

A total of 55 countries, including the USA and Canada, participate in the OSCE.

Turkish warplanes violate Cyprus airspace NICOSIA, 18/07/2000 (CNA)

Turkish Air Force planes violated Cyprus' airspace on Monday. An F16 warplane flew over the occupied areas, while a transport aircraft landed at the illegal airport Ercan, in the Turkish-occupied village of Tympou.

Defense Ministry Spokesman, Andreas Charides, told CNA that for an hour "there was a violation by an F16, which entered from the north, flew over the Turkish-occupied part of the old town of Nicosia, headed towards Famagusta and exited again from the north".

Charides also said that a Turkish transport plane landed at the illegal airport of Tympou.

Turkish warplanes frequently violate Cyprus' airspace and Nicosia Flight Information Region (FIR). The Republic of Cyprus has repeatedly protested to the United Nations over those violations.

Turkish troops have been occupying 37 per cent of Cyprus territory since 1974 in violation of repeated UN resolutions calling for their withdrawal.

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