Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 00-03-17

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From: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.

CONTENTS

[01] PAPANDREOU-BURNS MEETING

[02] PROSPECTS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY

[03] GAINS OF 1.79% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

[04] LARGE NUMBERS OF TURKISH TOURISTS VISIT THESSALONIKI

[05] THE MERGER OF EUROBANK - ERGO BANK WILL TAKE PLACE BY JUNE

[06] GENETICALLY ALTERED COTTON SEEDS IN GREECE

[07] NATO FORCES WILL GO TO KOSOVO VIA THESSALONIKI

[08] THE MAYOR OF ISTANBUL WILL VISIT ATHENS IN APRIL

[09] THE NEW DEMOCRACY PLATFORM CONFERENCE OPENS TODAY

[10] NEW OPINION POLL GIVES A SMALL LEAD OF 0.6% TO PASOK

[11] KOSTOV-OTE-KPN MEETING

[12] BRITISH MPS ARE IN FAVOR OF THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES TO

[01] PAPANDREOU-BURNS MEETING

The situation in Kosovo was the main issue of discussion in the meeting today of Greek foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou with US ambassador to Athens Nicholas Burns, while they also discussed issues concerning the NATO military exercise that will be held in Kosovo.

Mr. Papandreou also had a telephone communication today with his Yugoslav counterpart.

Greek government spokesman Dimitris Reppas stated that the NATO military exercise will be held in accordance with the UN Security Council decisions in agreement with the big powers and Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic. The developments in Kosovo will be discussed in the EU foreign ministers council meeting that will be held on Monday.

[02] PROSPECTS OF COOPERATION BETWEEN GREECE AND TURKEY

The new climate that has been created between Greece and Turkey opens the way for cooperation in the sector of transportation, according to the Turkish Railways officials, who met yesterday with minister of Macedonia-Thrace Yiannis Magriotis in Thessaloniki.

In the meeting it was stressed that the goal of the Turkish side is to put in operation the Thessaloniki-Istanbul railway line by May as well as the Pantirma-Volos sea line from where most of the Turkish goods will be channeled to western markets, via the Greek Railways, instead of the ports of France and Italy.

[03] GAINS OF 1.79% IN THE ATHENS STOCK EXCHANGE

Gains were recorded again today in the Athens Stock Exchange. The main index increased by 1.79% closing at 4.845,08 points, while the volume of transactions reached 215.6 billion drachmas.

The transactions were held in a positive climate and the main element of today's session was the increased purchase interest.

[04] LARGE NUMBERS OF TURKISH TOURISTS VISIT THESSALONIKI

Thessaloniki was visited this week by more Turkish tourists than ever before, a fact that is proven by the number of visitors to the house of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, located at the yard of the Turkish consulate.

According to facts provided by the Turkish consulate in Thessaloniki, the number of Turkish tourists who visited the house of Kemal Ataturk on March 13-16 were over 3.500 and by the end of the week is expected to be over 5.000.

Turkish vice-consul Aida Eroglu stated to MPA that in previous years the number of people visiting the house of Kemal Ataturk were about 5.000-6.000 annually. The increase in the number of visitors is the result of the improvement in the Greek-Turkish relations and also due to the religious Muslim feast, the Kurban Bairam.

[05] THE MERGER OF EUROBANK - ERGO BANK WILL TAKE PLACE BY JUNE

The legal merger of the Greek banks EFG Eurobank and Ergo Bank will be completed by June.

The new bank organization will have 7.500 employees, a network of 330 branches across Greece, a capital of 600 billion drachmas, total assets of 5 trillion drachmas and funds under management, including mutual funds, reaching 7.6 trillion drachmas.

It will be the third in size bank group in the Greek market and the fifth company in capitalization terms trading in the Athens Stock Exchange.

[06] GENETICALLY ALTERED COTTON SEEDS IN GREECE

The Greek farmers and the ministry of agriculture were alarmed by the revelation that genetically altered cotton seeds have been imported to Greece, according to the Athens radio station "Flash". This was confirmed by an analysis of samples in two Greek and a German research centers.

The Greek ministry of agriculture called on all import companies to submit by March 26 the documents certifying the country of origin of their imports and that their imported products have not been genetically altered.

[07] NATO FORCES WILL GO TO KOSOVO VIA THESSALONIKI

Special NATO forces that will take part in the alliance's military exercise in Kosovo, code-named "Dynamic Response 2000", will arrive at the ports of Thessaloniki and Litochoro.

The estimated 2.000 soldiers will be from the United States, Argentina, Poland, Holland and Romania. They will bear light arms and will be accompanied by light vehicles and tanks. The exercise, the preparation of which started in September, will take place throughout Kosovo starting on March 23 and will continue during the month of April having as a goal to test the readiness of the NATO forces to reinforce the peacekeeping force deployed in the region in case of an emergency.

[08] THE MAYOR OF ISTANBUL WILL VISIT ATHENS IN APRIL

Istanbul mayor Ali Mufit Gurtuna will be in Athens in April for a formal visit. Mayor of Athens Dimitris Avramopoulos met with Mr. Gurtuna within the framework of the international conference of city mayors in Paris.

The Turkish newspaper "Sabah" writes that the two mayors have stated that they and their families have become friends and they intend to take their summer vacation together starting with a cruise from Istanbul to Athens.

[09] THE NEW DEMOCRACY PLATFORM CONFERENCE OPENS TODAY

The proceedings of the extraordinary conference of right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy platform conference will open in Athens this afternoon with the speech of its leader Kostas Karamanlis and will be completed on Sunday.

The speeches of New Democracy honorary president Konstantinos Mitsotakis and former party leader Miltiadis Evert are expected with great interest and the climate of the conference will be purely within the pre-election campaign framework. Athens mayor Dimitris Avramopoulos will not attend the conference as he had a previous engagement in Paris.

[10] NEW OPINION POLL GIVES A SMALL LEAD OF 0.6% TO PASOK

New opinion poll conducted by the polling company "ALCO" after the announcement of cooperation between the Liberals of Stephanos Manos and right-wing main opposition party of New Democracy and the decision by Political Spring party not to run in the April 9 elections gives a small lead of 0.6% to the governing socialist party of PASOK.

The outcome of the opinion poll was published in the Athens newspaper "TO ETHNOS" and according to it, PASOK gets 34.5%, New Democracy 33.9%, the Communist Party 4.8%, the Democratic Social Movement 4.4% and Coalition of the Left 3.8%, while the undecided are 11.9%.

In the wider Athens region, PASOK leads with 39.4% followed by New Democracy 28.8% while in the rest of Greece New Democracy is leading with 36.7% compared to PASOK's 31.8%.

According to another opinion poll conducted by "ALCO" on behalf of the Athens radio station "Alpha News" on a daily basis, the undecided voters are 11.6% and 60% of them are women, mostly of a young age.

On the popularity of the political party leaders Coalition of the Left leader Nikos Konstantopoulos is leading with 55.5%, followed by prime minister and PASOK leader Kostas Simitis with 48.1%, Democratic and Social Movement leader Dimitris Tsovolas with 46.9%, New Democracy leader Kostas Karamanlis with 40% and Communist Party general secretary Aleka Papariga with 24.2%.

[11] KOSTOV-OTE-KPN MEETING

Bulgarian prime minister Ivan Kostov met with Greek Telecommunications Organization, OTE, executive general director Georgios Simeonidis and Dutch KPN company board of directors member Marten Peters.

Mr. Peters stated that the goal is to sign an agreement soon for the privatization of the Bulgarian Telecommunications Organization, BTK. He also expressed the hope that prime minister Kostov was persuaded that the candidate Greek-Dutch OTE-KPN joint venture has the ability to contribute to the development and upgrading of telecommunications and computer technologies in Bulgaria.

From his side, Mr. Simeonidis underlined that different views of the two sides were discussed in the meeting and stressed that the negotiations appear to have entered their final phase.

Bulgarian communications minister Antoni Slavinski clarified that there are certain problems on which negotiations still continue.

[12] BRITISH MPS ARE IN FAVOR OF THE RETURN OF THE PARTHENON MARBLES TO GREECE

Two out of three British parliament deputies, namely 66%, would have been in favor of the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece in case of a free vote today, according to a research conducted by the newspaper "The Economist". Only the conservatives disagree, while prime minister Tony Blair and culture minister Mr. Smith refused to respond.

British Committee for the Return of the Parthenon Marbles secretary Elena Cubitt stated to radio station "Flash 961" that the fact that the research was conducted by a magazine that had never backed the return of the marbles is especially positive.

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