Athens News Agency: News in English (AM), 97-06-11

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 11/06/1997 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Simitis warns: 'don't relax European unification efforts'
• Major support for SMEs in eastern, southeastern Europe
• Congress pressed to consider sale of warships to Greece
• Albanian Socialist Party delegation in Athens
• Parliament to ratify Schengen Treaty today despite protests
• Budget revenue up 11.8 percent in Jan-May
• National Bank of Greece to lure foreign investors
• Balkan ministers agree on regional trade centre
• Athens Stock Exchange stages technical rebound
• Kos island airport project completed
• V. Papandreou sees increase in Russian tourist flow to Greece
• Sainz wins 44th Acropolis Rally
• Athens athletic championships attract record participation
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Prime Minister Costas Simitis yesterday cautioned that recent changes in the electoral map of Europe should not cause a relaxation of Greece's efforts to remain firmly in the process of European unification.

"For Greece, changes in Europe are welcome, they are an encouragement, but if we stay outside European unification, we shall have deprived the country of another opportunity. Therefore, there must not only be no illusion of a relaxation, but on the contrary there must be a new impetus for the attainment of permanent national objectives," he said during the pre-agenda debate in Parliament on the government-sponsored "social dialogue" on economic and labour issues.

He reiterated that the dialogue was a process of planning the developmental priorities of the country, and agreeing on the social conditions for the planned policies.

"Social dialogue represents the multiplying dynamics of all the productive and creative forces of Greek society, and was successfully applied in other countries such as Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal, and Ireland," he stressed.

The premier stressed that the government had succeeded in establishing a climate of confidence in the economy, and that issues concerning the labour market should be discussed in combination with a policy for development.

Major support for SMEs in eastern, southeastern Europe

European Investment Bank (EIB) vice-president Panayiotis Gennimatas said yesterday that the European Commission and the EIB are in the process of drafting two ambitious financial mechanisms to support to private enterprises, especially small- and medium-s ized enterprises, in eastern and southeastern European countries which aim to attain full EU membership.

Addressing a meeting of southeast European businessmen in Thessaloniki, which was timed to coincide with a conference of Balkan foreign ministers in this northern Greek city Mr. Gennimatas said the programmes aim to assist those countries converge with the economies of European Union member- states, so as to be able to become members themselves.

"The first programme concerns a new special pre-accession financial mechanism, the aim of which will be to facilitate even further the process of economic convergence. It should be ready by the end of the year," he said.

"Equally important, and perhaps more interesting for businessmen, is the planning of an additional financial mechanism for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), undertaken by the EU, EIB, and the PHARE programme," he added.

The amount to be disbursed in the form of loans was likely to exceed Ecu3.5 million, while the Community's financial organ par excellence, the PHARE programme, envisaged additional funding to the tune of Ecu6.7 million until 1999.

Congress pressed to consider sale of warships to Greece

US State Department and Pentagon officials are making representations to Congress for the sale of three destroyers and two frigates given on loan to the Hellenic Navy for some time now, according to the military review "Defense News".

The magazine claimed that the move aims to secure parallel Congressional authorisation for the delivery of three Perry-type frigates to Turkey, a sale which has been frozen through the initiative of several US legislators with pro-Greece sentiments.

Turkey has already paid for the frigates.

Albanian Socialist Party delegation in Athens

An Albanian Socialist Party delegation headed by its leader Fatos Nano will begin an official four-day visit to Athens today for talks with political leaders.

The Albanian delegation will meet Prime Minister Costas Simitis, Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos, National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos, main opposition New Democracy party leader Costas Karamanlis, Coalition of the Left and Progress leader Nikos Constantopoulos and with the ruling PASOK party's executive bureau.

Parliament to ratify Schengen Treaty today despite protests

A bill ratifying the Schengen Pact, the European Union's open-border, is expected to be approved by Parliament today, as both the ruling PASOK and the main opposition New Democracy have announced support for the controversial agreement.

The expected ratification comes amid often violent protests outside Parliament yesterday and late Monday evening by demonstrators mostly affiliated with fundamentalist Orthodox groups. On Monday, riot police used teargas to disperse the crowd. Yesterday, a seven-member group of protesters handed Parliament President Apostolos Kaklamanis a resolution against the pact.

Protestors, including several clerics, have accused the pact of containing a direct reference to the the numerical sequence "666", a number representing the anti-Christ, as stated in St. John's the Divine's Book of Revelation.

Secular critics, on the other hand, have charged that Schengen will create a massive electronic file of information targetting EU citizens and turning Europe into a police state.

Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou also commented on the pact, which calls for border controls between EU member-states to be removed, and for increased cooperation in law enforcement issues, especially customs checks and screening for non-EU citizens entering the Union.

Commenting, Mr. Papandreou said that according to the pact - allowing free movement of Greek citizens to all the EU countries which have signed the agreement - the state will hold information only on citizens which have been convicted or are under criminal persecution.

"Greek citizens are free to check on the type of information held by the state," the minister added.

Government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said the Schengen accord would go into effect when conditions for its implementation were met. He went on to say that conditions were "ripe."

Greece holds a strong interest in the implementation of Schengen, which calls for the protection of EU's external border, Mr. Reppas said.

France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal and Germany are all countries that have ratified Schengen. Greece, Austria, Italy, Denmark, Finland and Sweden have signed but not yet fully ratified the accord through their national legisla tures.

Budget revenue up 11.8 percent in Jan-May

Finance Undersecretary George Drys repeated that the government would impose no new taxes in 1997 and that it had abandoned its 1996 policy of debt rescheduling.

Briefing the parliamentary economic affairs committee on state revenue for 1997, Mr. Drys said that implementation of the budget would produce no major deviations.

"Targets set in the budget are very difficult but attainable," he said. Revenue had risen by 11.8 percent in the first five months of the year compared with the corresponding period in 1996 to reach 3.2 trillion drachmas, Mr. Drys said.

Predicting the course of budget revenue for the rest of the year, Mr. Drys said that monies from income tax, new state securities and privatisation would rise.

National Bank of Greece to lure foreign investors

National Bank of Greece will launch an advertising campaign abroad to lure foreign institutional investors into the domestic market following an upgrade for its custodian services unit, senior bank officials said.

Inaugurating new premises for the unit, the officials said the bank already managed shares and debt paper for 1,600 Greek and foreign funds, representing capital of 1.5 trillion drachmas. Consultancy is part of the package. Part of the upgrade for the u nit, opened by Governor Theodoros Karadzas, is an advanced technology computer system.

National Bank's competitors for Athens-based custodian services are Citibank and Barclays.

Balkan ministers agree on regional trade centre

Balkan ministers meeting in Thessaloniki yesterday agreed to create a regional centre based in Turkey to promote trade.

They also supported a proposal to extend the activities of the Bucharest- based Balkan Centre for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises to southeast Europe.

Athens Stock Exchange stages technical rebound

The Athens Stock Exchange staged a technical recovery on Tuesday after a four-session fall in prices which pushed the market below support at 1,600 points.

The general index ended 0.88 percent higher at 1,603.84 points but turnover shrank to 13.9 billion drachmas as massive outflows for a public offer by Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE) drained the market. Most sector indices scored gains.

Banks rose 0.95 percent, Leasing was 1.83 percent up, Insurance gained 0.87 percent, Investment increased 0.72 percent, Industrials were 0.13 percent up, Construction fell 0.51 percent, Holding rose 0.73 percent and Miscellaneous rose 0.29 percent. The P arallel Market index fell 0.46 percent.

Investors focused on OTE's shares ahead of its second share offer, starting today. Its price ended 200 drachmas higher at 7,105 on heavy volume.

Broadly, advancers led decliners by 113 to 104 with another 25 issues remaining unchanged. Minerva, Ergodata, Kekrops and Flexopak scored the biggest gains, while Ermis, Parnassos and Mouriadis suffered the heaviest losses. National Bank of Greece ende d at 36,310 drachmas, Ergobank at 18, 050, Alpha Credit Bank at 19,750, Titan Cement at 25,400, Intracom at 13, 100.

Kos island airport project completed

An airport development and modernisation project for the Dodecanese island of Kos was completed in record time for the peak summer tourist season.

The project, worth 3.7 billion drachmas, included extension of air terminal facilities, extension of landing slots by 35,000 square metres - up 100 percent from last year's capacity, runway extension to 2,400 metres, and the purchase of three new passen ger buses.

V. Papandreou sees increase in Russian tourist flow to Greece

In an interview with "Pravda-5" newspaper, Development Minister Vasso Papandreou expressed her conviction that in the near future Russian tourists will occupy third place among visitors to Greece after the Germans and the British.

Ms Papandreou said 1.2 million tourists from eastern European countries visited Greece in 1996, a figure representing 12.2 per cent of Greece's total number of visitors. This figure is expected to increase to 1.35 million in 1997, or 13.5 per cent.

She said traditional relations between Russia and Greece can contribute to a further significant increase in the number of Russian tourists, provided that problems are also resolved concerning the ease with which visas are given to tourists.

Sainz wins 44th Acropolis Rally

Two-time world champion driver Carlos Sainz is the winner of the 44th Acropolis Rally.

At the end of yesterday's sixth special stage (Analipsi II), the Spanish driver was in the first place in the general standings with a total penalty time of 4:56.24. It was the third time Sainz, driving a Ford Escort, won the Acropolis Rally, after 1990 and 1994.

Second place after 20 special stages went to Juha Kankkunen from Finland (Ford Escort) with 4:56.41 followed by Briton Richard Burns (Mitsubishi) with 4:58.31.

Athens athletic championships attract record participation

At least 195 countries will participate in the World Athletics Championsips at Olympic Stadium in Athens on August 1-10, creating a new international record regarding participation of countries in such an event.

A total of 2,677 athletes will participate (1,626 men and 1,051 women). The previous record occurred at the world athletics championships in Goteborg in 1995 with 1,804 athletes from 191 countries participating.

Greece will participate in the games with 71 men athletes and 56 women. The largest team will be that of the United States with 74 male and 65 female athletes, followed by Germany with 116 athletes, Kenya 88, Britain 86, France 84, Russia 82, Spain 78 a nd Italy with 77.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(C.E.)

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