Culture minister to visit EU counterparts
NEWS IN DETAIL
Prime minister meets with protesting pensioners
Prime Minister Costas Simitis interrupted a Cabinet meeting he was chairing
today to meet with representatives of protesting pensioners who had stood
in the rain for two hours outside Parliament.
After the meeting, pensioners' representative Christos Triantis and
Undersecretary to the Prime Minister's Office George Paschalidis told
reporters that the dialogue between pensioners and the competent minister,
Miltiades Papaioannou would continue at the Ministry of Labour and Social
Security.
Triantis said the prime minister had reiterated that the state of the
economy did not allow the satisfaction of pensioners' demands for higher
benefits.
He said he had responded by pointing out that the government had ''given
away'' hundreds of billions of drachmas to oil companies and football
clubs.
Paschalidis underlined that ''the road to dialogue'' was that which would
bring results.
Local gov't can help create new climate between Greece, Turkey
Athens Mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos today told a visiting delegation of
Turkish businessmen that local government in Greece and Turkey could play
an important role in the creation of ''a new atmosphere'' in both
countries.
Avramopoulos received the delegation at the town hall this morning. The 60-
member delegation is one of the largest of Turkish businessmen ever to
travel abroad.
The delegates are attending a two-day conference of the Greek-Turkish
Business Cooperation Council which opened here yesterday.
''The time has come to pave the way for closer cooperation,'' Avramopoulos
said, calling on the business world to act as a ''channel'' for closer
bilateral relations.
He stressed in particular the need to overcome the problem of what he
called ''the psychological factor'' which impedes closer ties between the
two neighbours.
Avramopoulos asked the Turkish delegates to try and understand that there
were specific political problems which must be resolved, the ''key'', as he
put it, being the continuing Turkish occupation of Cyprus.
''The Turkish government must at long last provide a solution, in order to
substantially open the way for an improvement in bilateral relations,'' he
said.
At the same time, Avramopoulos urged ''the raising of the flag for better
cooperation in the economic sector'', as well as for common interests and
common areas for action to be identified ''in order to place yet another
brick in the wall which will protect us''.
During the meeting, which took place in a good atmosphere, Avramopoulos
described the Turkish businessmen as ''the European expression of
contemporary Turkey.
He urged them to unceasingly link the future of their country with the
European Union and expressed the hope for even closer cooperation with his
local government counterparts in Turkey.
The head of the Turkish delegation, Rahmi Koc, who is the president of
Turkey's biggest business conglomerate and also President of the Turkish-
Greek Business Council, said he was convinced that rapprochement between
the two countries would be reality ''in the not too distant future''.
Before the meeting with Avramopoulos, the Turkish delegation was received
by US Ambassador in Athens Thomas Niles.
According to informed sources, Niles urged the businessmen of both
countries to implement specific business plans, expressing the view that
this would undoubtedly lead to a substantial improvement in the political
climate prevailing between Greece and Turkey.
Academic reveals past Turkish recourse to international court over Imia
A distinguished academic today shed further light on the background to the
Imia issue, announcing that he had discovered evidence that Turkey had in
the past agreed to refer the matter to the International Court at the
Hague.
The announcement serves as further proof of the groundlessness of Ankara's
disputing of Greece's sovereignty of the Aegean islets, which brought the
two countries to the brink of war in January this year.
In an interview with the Macedonian Press Agency (MPA), Professor of
International Law Dimitris Constantopoulos said he had discovered a 1929
agreement between Turkey and Italy to refer the Imia issue to the
International Court, in order for the latter to decide whether the islets
belonged to Greece or Turkey.
''Meanwhile, Italy and Turkey signed a treaty in 1932 and a protocol in
December the same year which clearly state which islets belong to Turkey
and which to Greece. So, in 1933 Italy and Turkey withdrew their recourse
to the International Court,'' Constantopoulos said, stressing that the 1932
treaty and protocol both recognized Greek sovereignty of Imia.
''This has not been announced in the past. Perhaps apart from the Turkish
government it was known only to the Italian foreign ministry,'' Constantopoulos
added.
4,000 jobs at stake in flooded, blockaded Thrace
An industry representative in Xanthi warned today that over 4,000 workers,
craftsmen and employees would be out of a job if a solution was not found
within the week to problems caused in Thrace by recent floods and the
farmers' blockade of roads.
''We have no raw materials to operate our enterprises. Orders worth
millions of drachmas have been cancelled. Exports have come to a halt
because the borders with Turkey and Bulgaria are closed,'' Dimitris
Bezermelis, President of the Industrialists' Association of Xanthi told the
ANA.
''Through no fault of our own, we have been labelled insolvent by the
importers with whom we cooperate. If the state does not help us immediately,
we shall be forced to close our businesses and this will be a particularly
severe blow for our region which already has a high rate of unemployment,''
Bezermelis added.
The presidents of industrial and commercial associations of Xanthi have
meanwhile sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Costas Simitis requesting
immediate financial assistance amounting to 50 per cent of the total losses
incurred from the floods.
They are also requesting favourable bank loans by the end of the year to
cope with the other 50 per cent of losses, a two-year suspension of
undertakings' outstanding debts to banks without the calculation of default
interest and other accommodations.
Farmers protests force temporary lay-off of 2,000 workers
In a related development, the Vice-President of the Panhellenic Association
of Fruit and Vegetable Exporters, Dimitris Maratzidis told the ANA that
over 2,000 workers in fruit standardization and export companies had been
temporarily laid off since the start of the farmers' protests almost two
weeks ago.
Maratzidis said many businessmen in the branch were considering taking
legal action against ''all persons responsible'' for the financial losses
they have incurred.
''Each day that passes, we are losing orders from major supermarkets in
Germany, the Netherlands and Austria. Meanwhile, the Spanish are rushing to
fill the gap. The situation is so bad that many companies will not be able
to pay their employees the Christmas bonus,'' Maratzidis said.
He maintained that the farmers' protests were not only hitting companies
active in the processing, standardisation and export of fruit and
vegetables but also the producers themselves.
''This is because the refrigerated trucks stranded (by the farmers'
blockades) in northern Greece which were headed for abroad are loaded with
fruit and vegetables which will reach European markets at a considerably
increased cost, due to the delays, and also because of the higher freight
charges since in some cases the trucks have had to travel from Piraeus to
Thessaloniki by ferry-boat,'' Martatzidis said.
Most of the workers laid off are believed to be in the prefectures of
Imathia and Pella, where many of the fruit standardization and export
companies are based.
Farmers' protests continue as cabinet meets
The Cabinet meets today to discuss the prospect of serious disruption in
traffic and distribution of goods arising from almost two weeks of farmers'
roadblocks throughout the country, as both sides refused to budge from
their stated positions yesterday.
The government, through its spokesman, Dimitris Reppas, reiterated its
readiness to enter into structured dialogue after the farmers removed the
roadblocks.
Other ministers, and most prominently National Economy and Finance Minister
Yiannos Papantoniou, stressed that the government would not yield to
blackmail, and it was inconceivable that the hard-won efforts for a drop in
inflation would go wasted due to a group of farmers.
Farmers are demanding higher crop prices, increased subsidies, cheaper fuel
for agricultural use, the favourable settlement of outstanding debts and
lower fertiliser prices.
President Kostis Stephanopoulos and main opposition New Democracy (ND)
party leader Miltiades Evert expressed concern over the continuing
protests.
Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said later that the government was
ready for "an institutional dialogue of a national nature" on the problems
of Greek agriculture, but only on the condition that the farmers lift their
blockades of the country's roads and rail links.
Mr. Reppas said that the Cabinet would meet today, chaired by Prime
Minister Costas Simitis, to discuss the new uniform pay scale for civil
servants. He clarified that the issue of the farmers' protests would also
be examined at the meeting.
Greek, Cypriot defence ministers continue talks
National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos had two hours of talks this
morning with his Cyprus counterpart Costas Iliades which, according to
informed sources, focused on the implementation of the two countries' joint
defence doctrine.
After the meeting, both ministers declined to make any statement.
Tsohatzopoulos and Iliades, who met for talks recently in Cyprus, are
expected to continue their discussion at the National Defence Ministry
tomorrow.
Culture minister to visit EU counterparts
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos will have a series of meetings this
week with his European Union counterparts, it was announced today.
Venizelos is due to meet with culture ministers of southern Europe in Paris
before travelling to Copenhagen for talks with his Danish counterpart and
events marking the end of Copenhagen's term as Cultural Capital of
Europe.
While in the Danish capital, Venizelos will officially take the ''baton''
for Thessaloniki's assumption of Cultural Capital of Europe for 1997.
He will present the programme for the northern Greek port city in Brussels
on 16 December before flying to Rotterdam for the inauguration of the
architecture exhibition ''Town and Sea''.
WEATHER
Overcast with rainfalls in most parts of Greece and rainstorms in the west.
Same weather in the Ionian and northern Aegean sea and the mainland with
backed by strong winds. Athens will be overcast with rainfall later in the
day and temperatures ranging from 11-15C. Same in Thessaloniki with
temperatures from 6-12C.
SPORTS
Results of three Greek First Division soccer matches played Monday:Paniliakos
- Kalamata 4-0, Athinaikos - OFI 0-0 and Edessaikos - Kavala 0-0.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
(Closing rates -buying) U.S. dlr 242.484, Can. dlr.178.282, Australian dlr.
193.619, Pound sterling 398.387, Irish punt 399.677, Cyprus pd 517.626,
French franc 46.235, Swiss franc 183.421 Belgian franc 7.577, German
mark 156.190, Finnish mark 52.231, Dutch guilder 139.297, Danish Kr.
40.811, Swedish Kr. 35.543, Norwegian Kr. 37.398, Austrian Sh. 22.197,
Italian lira (100) 15.851, Yen (100) 214.113, Spanish Peseta 1.856,
Portuguese Escudo 1.547.
(M.P.)
