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Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-06-17

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

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 17/06/1997 (ANA)


MAIN HEADLINES

  • Greece rejects Turkey's Imia request
  • Mount Athos treasures head to Thessaloniki
  • OTE share set at Dr 6,600/6,400 in float
  • Premier says EU summit decisions on employment a turning point
  • Economy minister: 'no ease-up on economic policy'
  • Kranidiotis in US for talks on Greek-Turkish relations
  • Turkish experts report cites 30 points of dispute
  • 2004 Olympic Games in Europe, says Samaranch
  • Weather
  • Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Greece rejects Turkey's Imia request

Greece said today that it had rejected a Turkish request for information on Greek navigation around the Aegean islet of Imia.

Confirming reports of the Turkish request in the Athens daily 'Eleftheros Typos', acting government spokesman Yiannis Nikolaou said the Turkish government had requested the information but avoided calling the request a formal demarche.

"Such acts are steadfastly rejected as this specific one was," he said.

The islet of Imia was the focus of a tense stand-off between Greece and Turkey early last year when Turkey disputed Greece's sovereignty.

Turning to the presence of Turkish battleships at ports in the Turkish- occupied north of Cyprus, Nikolaou said any act that did not contribute to the creation of a positive climate for a successful outcome to the talks between Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash in New York early next month was to be condemned.

"The Cypriot government is undertaking every effort for the talks to succeed while the Turkish Cypriot stance is to the contrary," he said.

Mount Athos treasures head to Thessaloniki

Priceless treasures from the Mt. Athos all male monastic community in northern Greece were given a blessing and glittering send-off for their journey to Thessaloniki, where they will be on display at the city's Byzantine Museum as the premiere event of the Thessaloniki '97 Cultural Capital of Europe celebrations.

About 2,000 artefacts from the autonomous monastic community will travel to Thessaloniki for the exhibition, which will be opened Saturday by President of the Republic Costis Stephanopoulos in the presence of the Cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Costas Simitis, opposition party leaders and numerous officials.

Artefacts have never before left the all-male monastic community, which bars women from visiting.

European Commission President Jacques Santer, during a recent visit to the monastic community, praised the spiritual tradition of Mt. Athos which he said could be a model for the Europe of the future, adding that its cultural heritage and history had contributed to the creation of a ''unique type of society which is based on spiritual values''.

Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos, speaking at the blessing at the community's capital, Karyes, described the exhibition of Athos treasures as ''the biggest exhibition event ever in Greece and one of the most significant internationally.

Representatives from 8 of the community's 20 monasteries did not attend the ceremony in protest over the Schengen Agreement recently ratified by the Greek parliament, although five of the protesting monasteries are sending artefacts for the exhibition.

The Mt. Athos holy community called for re-consideration of Parliament's ratification of Schengen.

OTE share set at Dr 6,600/6,400 in float

Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), which is already listed on the Athens bourse, will go on the market at 6,600 drachmas for institutional investors and 6,400 drachmas for individual investors following a second part-privatisation last week.

National Bank of Greece, Salomon Brothers and HSBC Investment Bank announced on Monday that due to strong demand for the 45-million share issue, which was three times oversold, the state would release an additional 2,109,970 shares to investors.

Another 6,330,000 shares would be made available under option to the lead managers, taking the issue to 53,439,970 shares.


Demand by domestic individual investors was 50 million shares and by domestic institutionals 17.5 million.
Foreign investors sought 82 million shares, with 45 percent of demand from the US, 23 percent from Britain, and 32 percent from elsewhere.
Domestic individual investors were allocated 35 percent of stock, domestic institutions 17 percent, and foreign institutions 48 per cent.

At an extraordinary shareholders meeting held on Saturday OTE's board proposed a share capital increase of 23,737,436,250 drachmas.

The capital increase will take place between June 18 and July 18, with six new shares on offer for every 80 old ones. A total of 31,649,915 new shares will be released for existing shareholders at 750 drachmas per share.

Funds from the increase will be used to help finance OTE's 1997-2000 investment programme, budgeted at around 1.2 trillion drachmas.

It intends to spend about 612.5 billion drachmas, or more 50 per cent of the total, on a phased conversion already underway of the analogue network to digital.

The programme also includes spending on OTE's international telecoms network and other international activities budgeted at 154 billion drachmas.

Premier says EU summit decisions on employment a turning point

Prime Minister Costas Simitis said the decisions taken by the EU summit in Amsterdam yesterday were an important intervention in the European Union's (EU) policy on employment and the economy.

Mr. Simitis was referring to decisions concerning the inclusion of a special chapter on employment and the convening of an extraordinary summit in autumn to discuss the problem.

He attributed these decisions to the "wider majority formulated within the framework of the EU", following political changes in France and Britain, where the majority which prevailed after recent elections, have employment as their focal point.

Mr. Simitis said the EU's 15 member-states decided to outline special policies to fight unemployment by closer coordination, intensifying of efforts in providing training for working people, the use of tax measures and contributions, the creation of a special committee to monitor developments in the labour market, the reconsideration of old programmes through renewed funding by the European Investment Bank and the intensifying of social dialogue.

He said that with these decisions the EU proved that it wants to preoccupy itself with the problem of unemployment, adding that the Summit Council had decided to assign ECOFIN with examining the process of political control over the Central European Bank.

Mr. Simitis said the message was clear in that to date, the EU had proceeded in the primary direction of stability which, however, was not enough and an effort must also be made in the direction of development and employment. He said developments were very sastisfactory, adding that an important big step was made, but pointed out that "much work is still required."

Economy minister: 'no ease-up on economic policy'

National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said there was no question of easing up economic policy in any European country, adding that the socialists accept that "economic stability and fiscal restructuring constitute its foundations".

However, he stressed that these measures were not enough and for this reason the 15 EU members took the historic decision yesterday of strengthening employment policy and letting placing political features prevail in exercising economic policy.

Referring to the decision to assign ECOFIN with submitting a proposal at the next Summit Council on political control of the Central European Bank, Mr. Papantoniou said that in all the countries of Europe the central banks are independent but operate within the framework of parliamentary institutions and democratic governments.

Mr. Papantoniou added that this cannot take place in the EU and for this reason it was decided that ECOFIN will elaborate a special plan and submit it to the Summit in Luxembourg.

Mr. Papantoniou explained that in the framework of employment policy there is no question of reallocating funds in the EU budget.

Meanwhile, the ECOFIN Council said in a resolution issued yesterday that the question of employment should remain high on the European Union's (EU) political agenda.

"It is a priority to give a push towards keeping the issue of employment steadfastly at the top of the European Union's political agenda," the resolution said.

"The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the Stability Pact will strengthen the internal market and encourage an anti-inflationary macroeconomic environment with low interest rates, which will strengthen conditions for economic development and job opp ortunities,"itsaid.

Kranidiotis in US for talks on Greek-Turkish relations

Foreign Undersecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis will hold talks in Washington on the Cyprus issue and Greek-Turkish relations with prominent Clinton administration officials and members of the US Congress.

His scheduled contacts include his US counterpart Thomas Pickering, members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Paul Sarbanes (D) and Richard Lugar (R), and the chairman and members of the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Gilman and Lee Hamilton respectively. Mr. Kranidiotis will also discuss Greek-Turkish relations with National Security Council director of European Affairs Alexander Versbau.

Mr. Kranidiotis arrived in Washington from Atlanta, where he attended the sessions of the Bildenberg Club.

Meanwhile, in an interview with the international TV network CNN yesterday, Mr. Kranidiotis said that a settlement to the protracted Cyprus problem constituted a prerequisite for the normalisation in Greek-Turkish relations.

He also expressed the view that now existed an opportunity to resolve the problem through the European Union's decision to include Cyprus in the next phase of its enlargement, underlining that the US and the EU had the responsibility of helping achieve a just and viable solution.

He said that the prevailing political instability in Turkey was a negative factor in Greece's effort to find a reliable interlocutor on the Turkish side.

Answering a question on NATO's planned enlargement, he said Greece believed that enlargement should include Balkan countries in order to secure peace and stability in this sensitive region.

Turkish experts report cites 30 points of dispute

The Turkish experts committee report on Greek-Turkish differences mentions 30 points of disagreement between the two countries, Turkish sources said yesterday.

The report is part of an initiative by Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van Mierlo, who is presiding over the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers Council, calling on Greece and Turkey to submit separate reports of disputed issues as a means of working towa rds solutions.

In Turkish press reports, the sources critised the Greek committee report, while a high-ranking Turkish Foreign Ministry official has allegedly stated that Greece is hampering efforts towards resolving differences between the two.

Sources also attributed the failure of a recent visit to Athens by Turkish Undersecretary Onur Oymen and the "freezing" of meetings between Oymen and Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou to a "Greek manoeuvre".

2004 Olympic Games in Europe, says Samaranch

Africa and South America do not seem as likely candidates for hosting the 2004 Olympic Games, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Juan Antonio Samaranch said on Saturday, hinting that the games would be hosted by a European city.

"Africa and South America do not seem to me to be ready as yet," Mr. Samaranch said while on a visit to Finland, for celebrations marking the centennial since the birth of legendary Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi.

Mr. Samaranch declined to name the city favoured to host the 2004 Olympic Games, saying that he doesn't even take part in the voting by the Committee.

Athens is one of the bidding European cities, along with Rome and Stockholm.

WEATHER

Sunny weather with some local clouds, moderate northerly winds and a slight drop in temperatures is forecast for most parts of Greece today. Athens will be sunny and cooler with temperatures between 21-33C. Thessaloniki will also be sunny with few local clouds with temperatures from 19- 32C.

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

Friday's closing rates - buying

US dlr. 271.927 Pound sterling 443.305 Cyprus pd 527.486 French franc 46.584 Swiss franc 188.311 German mark 157.172 Italian lira (100) 15.993 Yen (100) 237.574 Canadian dlr. 196.515 Australian dlr. 204.491 Irish Punt 413.565 Belgian franc 7.619 Finnish mark 52.530 Dutch guilder 139.743 Danish kr. 41.303 Swedish kr. 35.083 Norwegian kr. 37.662 Austrian sch. 22.348 Spanish peseta 1.860 Port. Escudo 1.554

(M.P.)


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