Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-12-18

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

CONTENTS

[01] Weather Forecast: Cloudy, showery on Wednesday

[02] Exchange Rates - Wednesday

[03] PM presents Athens' priorities for the Greek EU presidency

[04] Cyprus EU accession a catalytic step for problem's resolution, Simitis

[05] Greek, Turkish travel bureaus to set up joint committees

[01] Weather Forecast: Cloudy, showery on Wednesday

Cloudy and showery weather is forecast in most parts of the country on Wednesday with storms in the Aegean and light snowfall on high ground. Winds variable, moderate, turning strong in parts of the Aegean. In the north, temperatures will range from 01C to 08C; in the west from 04C to 14C; and in the rest of the country from 06C to 15C. Temperatures in Athens between 07C and 13C; and in Thessaloniki from 05C to 08C.

[02] Exchange Rates - Wednesday

Reference buying rates per euro released by the European Central Bank

U.S. dollar 1.038

Pound sterling 0.649

Danish kroner 7.486

Swedish kroner 9.166

Japanese yen 125.4

Swiss franc 1.485

Norwegian kroner 7.352

Cyprus pound 0.577

Canadian dollar 1.617

Australian dollar 1.828

[03] PM presents Athens' priorities for the Greek EU presidency

The shared enjoyment of rights, security, democracy and quality of life by all Europeans would be the pivotal aim of the Greek presidency of the European Union over the next six months, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis said on Tuesday in statements to reporters.

The presidency's catchphrase was ''Our Europe: sharing the future in a Community of values'' and reflected the desire of the EU that there be no discrimination, no exclusion and no exceptions, Simitis said.

The Greek premier, who had earlier chaired a meeting of the cabinet to discuss the priorities of the Greek presidency, also presented main areas that the Greek presidency intended to focus on:

One of the key issues would be European enlargement and the effort to adhere to the timeframe, so that everything was ready for the signing of accession acts with each of the 10 candidate-states in Athens on April 16 and also for signing pre-accession strategies with Bulgaria and Romania and a new EU-Turkey association agreement.

The Lisbon strategy for policies to promote development, competitiveness, social cohesion and sustainable development, were a second major issue. Simitis said that this would be assessed and reviewed in order to accelerate the policies at the informal EU summit in Brussels in March 2003.

A third major issue was migration and ways to handle the problems that this created, while Greece would also have to initiate procedures for wrapping up the future of Europe process.

Another important issue that would be tackled by the Greek presidency would be a common EU policy for foreign affairs and defence in order to upgrade Europe's role in international developments.

[04] Cyprus EU accession a catalytic step for problem's resolution, Simitis says

Cyprus' accession to the European Union is a catalytic step toward the resolution of the protracted Cyprus problem, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said in an address to Parliament on Tuesday.

''The accession of Cyprus to the European Union is a catalytic step toward the resolution of the Cyprus problem since it guarantees the security and the rights of all Cypriots, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, and it formulates a new framework that never existed,'' Simitis said in an off-the-agenda discussion called by the Communist Party of Greece (KKE) on the ''Copenhagen Summit in correlation with the plan to resolve the Cyprus issue.''

''This new framework of coexistence is seeking a solution. Conditions have matured now to overcome the last sorrowful outstanding issue in Europe since the fall of the Berlin wall,'' Simitis said.

Speaking in the presence of Cyprus' House of Representatives President Demetris Christofias, Simitis also said that the accession of Cyprus constitutes ''a new page for Hellenism, Cyprus is now with us in the European Union and this has crucial effects on its (Cyprus') present and future.''

''The solution will not be coming in ten or twenty years, when it was late in coming 30 years already, while the coming years will also have a negative note, since history is not waiting forever,'' he said, adding ''we owe it to the younger generations to resolve the Cyprus problem, otherwise there is the danger of a new confrontation and the history of Greece should not be a conveyer belt of mistakes.''

Speaking on the Annan plan, the premier said that the plan adopts a significant part of 1989 Cyprus' National Council decisions and accepts the standing position concerning the continuity of the state of Cyprus, the single sovereignty and the single state.

[05] Greek, Turkish travel bureaus to set up joint committees

The HATTA travel operators trade group in Greece and its Turkish counterpart TURSAB are to set up four committees to promote cooperation, they said in a statement on Tuesday.

Among the two groups' objectives is to encourage tourism from third countries, including the creation of joint package holidays for US and Chinese tourists, the statement said.

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