Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-06-23

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

NEWS IN ENGLISH

Athens, Greece, 23/06/1997 (ANA)

MAIN HEADLINES

• Philippine President Ramos begins official visit
• Domestic flights cancelled
• Concert to press for Athens 2004 Olympics bid
• Albanian PM Fino confident of success in elections
• Athens condemns Ciller's statements
• FYROM requests Greek support for EU agreement
• Greece pays tribute to Andreas Papandreou`s legacy
• Mount Athos exhibition warmly welcomed
• Defence minister in US for talks
• Weather
• Foreign exchange

NEWS IN DETAIL

Philippine President Fidel Ramos, the first head of state of the Philippines to vist Greece, today held talks with Prime Minister Costas Simitis aimed at strengthening political and economic ties between the two countries.

Earlier, he met with President Costis Stephanopoulos with whom he discussed a wide range of issues of interest to the two countries.

Ramos arrived in Athens Sunday night at the head of a 12-member official delegation on the last leg of a tour of Britain, Oman and Greece to drum up foreign investments.

During the visit, a number of agreements will be signed, including a bilateral cultural accord and a memorandum of understanding between the Philippine Bureau of Export Trade Promotion and the Hellenic Foreign Trade Board.

The Philippine delegation includes Labour Secretary Leonardo Quisumbing, Trade and Industry Secretary cesar Baautista, Senator Alberto Romulo, and Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Rodolfo Severin, who will meet with Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos this afternoon.

Ramos is due to meet this afternoon with leaders of various political parties, Greek shipowners and managers of Greek-flag vessels, which employ about 36,000 Filippino seamen.

Before leaving tomorrow, Ramos will also meet with representatives of various Filippino organisations in Greece, where about 25,000 Filippinos are employed, mostly as domestic help.

The main purpose of Ramos' visit is to further political, maritime and economic ties between the two countries. Philippine trade with Greece, though small-scale, has been steadily increassig over the last five years.

A West Point graduate, Ramos, 69, was a former minister of national defence and chief of staff of the Philippine armed forces before becoming president in 1992.

Ramos' talks with Stephanopoulos and Simitis focussed on bilateral relations, given the large number of Filippino workers in Greece and seamen on Greek-flag ships, and the situation in the Balkans, southeast Europe and southeast Asia.

President Stephanopoulos told reporters after his meeting with Ramos, which was also attended by Pangalos and Labour Minister Miltiades Papaioannou,, that there we4re no problems in bilateral relations and stressed the prospects for further expanding cooperation between the two countries.

He said he had briefed his Philippine counterpart on the problems in the Balkans and southeast Europe, adding that the substantial presence of Filippinos in Greece constitued an "additional bond in our relations".

President Ramos underlined the common interests of the two maritime countries, noting that bilateral relations were also strengthened through the dialogue that had commenced between the EU (of which Greece was a member) and ASEAN (to which the Philippines belonged).

Ramos stressed the prospects for strengthening the ties between the two countries in the commercial, shipbuilding and repair and invesstment sectors, adding that consultations would begin for an agreement that would promote protection of investments.

He said he had also discussed with Stephanopoulos the Filippinos living and working in Greece and measures for their further protection.

Domestic flights cancelled

Nineteen scheduled domestic flights of Olympic Aviation were cancelled this morning as a result of the ''go slow'' by the company's technicians and mechanics in support of branch demands.

The president of the technicians and mechanics' labour union, Theodosis Arbatzoglou stressed however that the ''go slow'' was not tantamount to strike action, but a refusal to work overtime.

''We are working our normal eight-hour shifts, in order to press for the hiring of seasonal staff who are necessary for maintaining the normal flights schedule,'' he added.

Up to noon, a further five scheduled flights eventually left after delays of three to four hours, causing irritation among passengers waiting to travel to the islands, many of whom were visitors from abroad.

Olympic Aviation said it would announce within the day changes to the flight schedule for the next fifteen days, which will in effect result in a reduction in the number of flights to and from the Greek islands.

In particular, the number of flights to and from Chios, Samos, Limnos, Thessaloniki, Mykonos, Santorini, Skiathos, Zakynthos, Kythera, Naxos, Milos, Syros and Paros will be less than normal for the summer months.

Arbatzoglou claimed that Olympic Aviation's flight schedule relied entirely on overtime work, which often meant employees having to work an additional six to ten hours after their regular eight-hour shift.

He added that three aircraft were currently grounded and the problems for passengers were increasing.

Meanwhile, passengers whose flights to and from the islands and Thessaloniki have been cancelled are going on waiting lists, which is in turn creating serious problems for flights which would otherwise depart on time.

Concert to press for Athens 2004 Olympic bid

Cultural events within the framework of Athens' bid to host the 2004 Olympic Games will get under way on July 2 with a joint concert by world renowned Yugoslav composer Goran Bregovic and one of Greece's most popular singers, George Dalaras.

''The cultural events which we are organising constitute a prelude to the four-year cultural Olympiad which will be held from 2001 to 2004,'' Athens 2004 Bid Committee President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki told reporters today.

''It is a great honour for us that George Dalaras and Goran Bregovic will be inaugurating this cultural period and are providing such valuable support for Athens' bid to host the 2004 Games,'' she added.

''I am a strong supporter of the Olympic Games. I was bitterly disappointed and hurt when we were not selected for the 1996 Olympics,'' Dalaras said.

Bregovic said he remembered the Winter Games in Sarajevo, where he was born and grew up.

''It was one of the most pleasant experiences of my life. I hope with all my heart that Athens will have the opportunity to experience the joyous moments of an Olympiad,'' the composer said.

Albanian PM Fino confident of success in elections

Albanian Prime Minister Bashkim Fino today expressed confidence that general elections in his country next Sunday would produce a broadly based coalition government, and called on all Albanians currently in Greece to return home to vote, according to an ANA despatch from Tirana.

''Bearing in mind the situation which has been shaped and expressing the positions of my party, I believe that the elections will result in a broadly based coalition government,'' Fino said in an exclusive interview with the ANA.

Asked about the difficulties experienced by the two main parties in presenting their programmes in certain parts of the country, Fino said it was his party which had proposed alternative campaign methods, such as television or radio ''but the other parties preferred rallies and tours''.

Replying to another question on the apparent reluctance of the approximately 400,000 Albanians in Greece to return to their country to vote, Fino underlined that they should return to Albania to vote, particularly since they had been given assurances that they would be able to come back to Greece.

Fino said Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos and the Greek Embassy in Tirana had given assurances that coaches of Albanians returning to vote would be protected by the multinational force in Albania and local police squads.

Athens condemns Ciller's statements

Turkish Foreign Minister Tansu Ciller's statements on Greek-Turkish relations are part of the ''domestic political game'' in the neighbouring country and serve only to compromise both her and Turkey, government spokesman Dimitris Reppas said today.

This situation, Reppas added, merely creates an adverse climate which is ''pointless''.

The spokesman also dismissed statements by Ciller on Cyprus' accession to the European Union, stressing that ''the course of the island republic's accession has been decided by the EU''.

In a written statement issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Ciller reiterated that Cyprus could not join the EU before Turkey.

Reppas once again condemned the violations of Cyprus airspace by Turkish aircraft, adding that ''all the appropriate representations'' had been made.

FYROM requests Greek support for EU agreement

The head of the FYROM liaison office in Greece, Ljupco Arsovski, requested Greece's assistance for speedy approval by the European Parliament of the EU-FYROM Cooperation Agreement, informed sources said.

The request was made during a meeting with Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou held at Arsovski's request.

The same sources salso said that during the half-hour meeting Arsovski expressed desire to seek ways of overcoming the practical problems that will arise from the application of the Schengen agreement.

Greece pays tribute to Andreas Papandreou's legacy

Prime Minister Costas Simitis last night paid tribute to the legacy of Andreas Papandreou at an event at the Athens Concert Hall, on the first anniversary of the death of the late founder and president of ruling party PASOK.

The function at the Athens Concert Hall ended a day of commemoration to Papandreou, begun with a memorial service at midday at the Athens First Cemetery attended by more than 2,000 people.

Mr. Simitis said the event - which included an address from former French culture minister Jack Lang and a concert by singer George Dalaras conducted by composer Stavros Xarhakos - aimed at honouring the memory of a great politician.

The founder of PASOK was a charismatic leader, a visionary, a man who gave shape to the people's dreams, who transformed concerns into speech and political prospect, as well as the sensitivities and claims of the progressive side, Mr. Simitis said.

"He showed that fatalism, acceptance, compliance is not necessary and neither must it rule our lives. This is his great lesson to all of us," Mr. Simitis said, adding that Andreas Papandreou was decisive in leading Greece away from "the climate of post-civil war psychosis".

"Struggles to redefine the visions of the democratic left in modern conditions of market globalisation and technological revolutions also link us to Andreas Papandreou, because he was the ideologist who sought new paths for socialism which left prevailing models," he said.

Mount Athos exhibition warmly welcomed

The long-awaited exhibition of priceless relics from the all-male monastic community of Mount Athos was officially opened by President Kostis Stephanopoulos at Thessaloniki's Byzantine Museum on Saturday.

The major event of this year's Thessaloniki Cultural Capital activities received an enthusiastic response from the public, with more than 2,000 people visiting the exhibition yesterday, the first day it was open to the public.

Prime Minister Costas Simitis was also in attendance at Saturday's official opening.

"This exhibition once again teaches the world what Byzantium was and what it offered to civilisation through time," President Stephanopoulos said.

Mr. Simitis said in a brief address that the exhibition was "Orthodoxy's response", as expressed by Mount Athos, the greatest Byzantine and post- Byzantine monument in Europe.

The proceeds from the sale of tickets and special publications will go to Mount Athos for the construction of works to be decided by the Holy Community.

Defence minister in US for talks

National Defence Minister Akis Tsohatzopoulos arrived in Washington for a six-day visit to the US in the context of the Greek presidency of the Western European Union's (WEU) cross-Atlantic activities.

While there, he will address a meeting of WEU and NATO defence ministers, meet with US Defence Secretary William Cohen, Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, Congresswoman Olympia Snowe and Congressman Paul Sarbanes, address a US Senate Committee a nd hold talks with American businessmen on matters concerning defence and the economy respectively.

WEATHER

FOREIGN EXCHANGE

(M.P.)

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