Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 97-11-27

From: Macedonian Press Agency <mpa@philippos.mpa.gr>

Macedonian Press Agency: News in English Directory

MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCY NEWS IN ENGLISH

Thessaloniki, 27 November 1997

NEWS IN ENGLISH

[A] NATIONAL NEWS

[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

TITLES

[A] NATIONAL NEWS

[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

NEWS IN DETAIL

[A] NATIONAL NEWS

[01] PRIME MINISTER SIMITIS IS IN LONDON

Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis will meet with his British counterpart Tony Blair in London today. Their talks will focus on the Greek-Turkish relations, Ankara’s relations with the EU, issues concerning the European Union enlargement and the Cyprus issue.

Mr.Simitis is also scheduled to visit Paris on Sunday where he will meet with French president Jacques Chirac, prime minister Lionel Jospen and EU Commission president Jacques Santer.

Prime minister Simitis is accompanied by foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos and deputy foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou.

Yesterday, during an interview of Mr.Papandreou with the US television channel, CNN, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash intervened with a telephone call and reiterated his known position that the Cyprus issue must be resolved before Cyprus’ accession into the EU. Mr.Papandreou responded that this against the interests of the Turkish Cypriots.

Meanwhile, a source close to the Turkish National Security Council revealed that according to a decision made by the Council, the country’s accession into the EU will not be included in the daily agenda if there is no favourable decision in the Summit meeting of Luxembourg in December. This move is made within the framework of the efforts aimed at increasing the pressures for the lifting of the Greek veto concerning the acceptance of the jurisdiction of The Hague on the issue of Imia.

[02] TWO STRONG EARTHQUAKES SHOOK ZAKYNTHOS

The residents of the Ionian Sea island of Zakynthos panicked in the early morning hours today as a result of two earthquakes that occurred two hours apart from each other and came from the same epicenter with the recent strong earthquake that measured 6,6 on the Richter scale.

The first tremor occurred at 4:27am and measured 5,2 on the Richter scale and two hours later came another stronger tremor of 5,3 on the Richter scale.

[03] MINISTER OF NATIONAL ECONOMY AND FINANCE ON STATE BUDGET

The Minister of National Economy and Finance Yiannos Papantoniou stated today that the government is not to consider any modification to the tax changes in the state budget submitted to parliament for approval.

Mr. Papantoniou said that the discussion of the budget will not turn into a debate for the new taxes.

[B] INTERNATIONAL NEWS

[04] PANGALOS: CYPRUS IS ALMOST AN EU MEMBER

Cyprus is almost a member of the European Union and there is a decision for the opening of accession negotiations on a specific date, stated Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos in an interview broadcast by the new satellite program of the BBC.

Mr.Pangalos, commenting on Greece’s veto power and if it would have been exercised it the case of Hungary due to the problem in Cyprus’ accession, responded that when the decision on the enlargement negotiations is made it should concern all candidate states regardless of whether there will be two accession speeds. Mr.Pangalos added that Greece believes that positive political messages should be received by the other two neighbouring countries as well, namely Bulgaria and Romania, that they too will become EU members.

Mr.Pangalos’ interview focused on the issue of the EU enlargement on the occasion of the visit of British foreign secretary Robin Cook to Hungary.

The Greek foreign minister, referring to possible obstacles to the enlargement process, said that no one wants to block the process but difficulties are likely to come up and the main one will be the economic cost related with the accession of new members.

[05] KASOULIDES AND HANNEY WILL MEET IN LONDON

Cypriot foreign minister Yiannakis Kasoulides will meet in London today with British special envoy to Cyprus Sir David Hanney.

Mr.Kasoulides will brief him on the outcome of the visit to Cyprus by UN secretary-general special adviser Diego Cordovez.

Also, the Cypriot foreign minister will meet with British Parliament members.

[06] SANTER-YILMAZ MEETING

Prime minister of Luxembourg Mr.Junker, who is also the president of the European Council, together with European Commission president Mr.Santer are in Istanbul for talks with the Turkish government in view of the European Union Summit meeting that will be held in Luxembourg in December.

Mr.Junker and Mr.Santer will meet with Turkish prime minister Mesut Yilmaz and government ministers.

[07] ARMED CONFLICT ERUPTS AT KOSSOVO

Three persons were killed during the past two days during armed conflict that erupted at Kossovo between Albanian nationalists and policemen.

Yesterday evening, according to Belgrade’s press, a policeman was killed along with an Albanian civilian at the Rejnice village, According to reports, strong police forces are guarding the village.

Complete archives of the Macedonian Press Agency bulletins are available on the MPA Home Page at http://www.mpa.gr/ and on the U.S. mirror at http://www.hri.org/MPA/