Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 02-06-29

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

CONTENTS

[01] ROUSSOPOULOS: PM AT TRAGIC DEAD END

[02] CLAUDIE HAIGNERE, THE WOMAN COSMONAUT AND MINISTER OF RESEARCH AND

[03] SIMITIS: PASOK WILL WIN THE ELECTIONS

[04] PARLIAMENTARY GREECE-CUBA FRIENDSHIP DELEGATION IN HAVANA

[05] TSOHATZOPOULOS: THE GREEK PEOPLE OWE US NOTHING, WE OWE IT

[06] TSOCHATZOPOULOS: GREECE'S GEO-ENERGY ROLE IS UPGRADED

[07] THE CONFISCATION OF GERMAN REAL ESTATE IN GREECE STOPS

[08] GREECE COMES 2ND IN HEART ATTACK DEATHS AMONG THE OECD COUNTRIES

[09] GEORGIEVSKI IN THE INAUGURATION OF THE THESSALONIKI-SKOPJE PIPELINE

[10] ECONOMIST: THE BUSINESS CLIMATE IN GREECE IMPROVES

[11] THE 56TH PAN-MACEDONIAN CONFERENCE IS UNDERWAY IN FLORIDA

[01] ROUSSOPOULOS: PM AT TRAGIC DEAD END

"Mr. Simitis is at a tragic dead end. Seeking light in the tunnel of crisis that is plaguing his party, and in a state of panic, he resorts to slander, insults, the distortion of reality, the forgery of history. He is transmitting messages of division, intolerance, and fanaticism again, and resorting to a political speech referring to the past, and which is doomed", stated New Democracy spokesperson Thodoris Roussopoulos, commenting on the Prime Minister's speech.

"Forgetting what he promised in 2000 and what he considered standard facts until yesterday, Mr. Simitis confessed today that the 20 years of PASOK have been wasted. Now he asks for 10 more years, so that the Greek people can have "for the first time - as he said verbatim - the opportunities for education, quality of healthcare and living standards existing in other European countries"", he stressed and added:

"It is obvious that Mr. Simitis has lost all sense of measure and reality. He convinces no citizen any more. The emergency holding of the "last supper" on Monday, proves that he cannot even convince his own party members any more. Mr. Simitis is and will proceed alone on his political decline", he ended.

[02] CLAUDIE HAIGNERE, THE WOMAN COSMONAUT AND MINISTER OF RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY

French Minister of Research and Technology Claudie Haignere, the first French woman cosmonaut, was in Thessaloniki two days ago participating in the proceedings of the 20th Ministerial Conference of the EUREKA initiative.

Ms. Haignere studied Medicine and specialized in Rheumatology. In August 1996 participated in her first space mission and for 16 days she was in the Russian space station MIR within the framework of the joint French-Russian mission Cassiope. She took part in medical, technical and biological experiments. She also participated in the missions Perseus and Andromeda and studied the ionosphere.

Responding to the question, how difficult it was for a woman to become an astronaut, she stated that it was a difficult challenge and had to practice a lot, but thanks to the technical support offered by her country she was able to make it.

[03] SIMITIS: PASOK WILL WIN THE ELECTIONS

"PASOK, the force of change in Greek society, will win the next elections as well, because the Greek people want Greece to move forward, because they want to build the Greece that has been the vision of many generations", stressed Prime Minister Kostas Simitis during his speech in Arta, with which he completed his tour of Ipiros.

The Prime Minister underlined that PASOK does not belong to officials, or persons, or groups, but that it belongs to the Greek people, and he stressed that "to the spite of all those who hurry to make predictions concerning PASOK, its people everywhere have a fighting spirit, they believe in the country's future, they believe in the victory of the Movement and are present".

"The Greek people will trust us again at the next electoral confrontation. The victory of 2004 will be ours. PASOK has the power to change, with its iron hand, all predictions and all estimations, because it stands on its own work", he said.

Mr. Simitis attacked the Opposition, stating that "it is employed only with unproductive reaction, insists on empty words, populism, and views with no facts", and he stressed that "the Greek people will punish all those that are continuously and consciously provocatively absent from the major issues of the country's future, harshly".

The Greek people will punish New Democracy because it is far from the major battles the country fights he said, and he criticized the Opposition for its stance on the securities issue.

Referring to the PASOK Organizational Conference, he pointed out that with his election as President by all Party members and with the election of the Secretary and the Executive Office, a new era is beginning from the Conference .

He also made mention of the up-taking of the EU Presidency by Greece, stressing that "from now and for one year we will strengthen our presence in Europe and offer ways out of many problems that have remained unsolved for many years".

Mr. Simitis stressed that PASOK will be leading the country to the final covering of the distance between Greece and the other developed countries of Europe. "Andreas Papandreou said that change is a continuous, constant procedure and the goal of this procedure is plainly clear on the horizon today: It is the end of the long time during which Greece was behind, far behind the others. We will lead the chariot of development towards convergence. PASOK will take the country to the point that marks a new start, a new beginning for Greece and Hellenism", he said.

Finally, referring to the municipal and prefecture elections, he repeated that in every municipality and in every prefecture, the goal is victory and he called all progressive citizens from all parties to consolidate.

[04] PARLIAMENTARY GREECE-CUBA FRIENDSHIP DELEGATION IN HAVANA

A delegation of the Greece-Cuba Parliamentary Friendship Group is in Havana, following the invitation of the Cuban International Relations Parliamentary Committee.

Participants of the delegation include MPs Orestis Kolovos (heading the group), Athanasios Matis, Zoe Makri, Christos Zoes and Asimina Xyrotiri.

During its stay there until July 15, the Greek delegation will have meetings with the Cuban Foreign Ministry and Parliament and will visit the Havana hospital to deliver pharmaceutical aid for the Cuban people.

[05] TSOHATZOPOULOS: THE GREEK PEOPLE OWE US NOTHING, WE OWE IT

PASOK is in debt to the Greek people and if it does not realize it and continues to believe that it has the exclusive rights to "tying and untying", things will turn out badly, pointed out Minister of Development Akis Tsohatzopoulos, during his speech at the Developmental Conference of the PASOK Prefecture Committee of Thessaloniki.

The Greek people voted for a PASOK government for four years, in order for that government to materialize a specific plan, and the government must respond to that responsibility, he said characteristically, and added: "We are not here just to do 'favors'".

The Minister stressed that there is a lack of democratic procedures in PASOK and he noted that democratic procedures must come into effect at all levels, not just the issue of electing the party President. He added that the application of democratic procedures in PASOK, will contribute to avoiding bad past experiences. He was in favor of dialogue within PASOK and pointed out that it would be a crime for PASOK if this dialogue on different opinions was to be characterized as introversion.

Mr. Tsohatzopoulos attacked the President of New Democracy Kostas Karamanlis sharply, saying that he became the self named representative of Neoliberalism. He commented on Mr. Karamanlis' statement that the Center-left has no visions, and underlined that it was the Center-right that has no visions, and that its only objective was for the market to prevail at the expense of the working man. He called PASOK to open an ideological and political front against neoliberalism. To promote its political proposal in a clear and complete way, to call the Greek people to walk in harmony with them.

The Minister also said that Greece needs a democratic development which will secure the participation of the citizens in whatever positive results come from the development of macroeconomical figures.

[06] TSOCHATZOPOULOS: GREECE'S GEO-ENERGY ROLE IS UPGRADED

Minister of Development Akis Tsochatzopoulos sees favorable prospects for the development of cooperation between Greece and the rest southeastern Europe in the geo-energy sector under the precondition that the necessary planning will be promoted.

Mr. Tsochatzopoulos addressed the one-day conference on the relation between the mineral industry and local communities held in Thessaloniki today. Among others, he stressed that for the Serb market in particular, there are a number of proposals submitted by Greek businesses interested in exploiting minerals, while significant prospects are being opened in Bulgaria and Romania.

He also suggested the establishment of clusters in the sector of mineral industry for the Greek companies active in the sector to be in a position to respond to the challenges in a more effective and coordinated manner.

[07] THE CONFISCATION OF GERMAN REAL ESTATE IN GREECE STOPS

The Plenary Session of the Greek Supreme Court ruled that the confiscation of German real estate in Athens (Goethe Institute and German Archaeology School) should end. The Greek Supreme Court ruled that the Greek government has the responsibility to allow or reject such a move.

Minister of Public Order Philippos Petsalnikos will have to decide whether he will allow the confiscation of German real estate to satisfy part of the claims for war reparations by the relatives of the 218 victims of the Nazi atrocities committed in Distomo, central Greece on June 10, 1944.

[08] GREECE COMES 2ND IN HEART ATTACK DEATHS AMONG THE OECD COUNTRIES

Greece comes second in heart attack deaths after Korea among the 17 Organization for the Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, countries, while Greek women appear to be more vulnerable to heart disease. Korea comes first in heart disease related deaths with an increase rate of 13.7% (both for men and women), while Greece follows at the second place with 1.9% for women and 0.7% for men.

Meanwhile, based on a research conducted by Ippocration Hospital in Thessaloniki in the period of March 2000 to August 2001, it was established that the coronary disease affects mostly men as only 18% of the patients were women.

[09] GEORGIEVSKI IN THE INAUGURATION OF THE THESSALONIKI-SKOPJE PIPELINE

FYROM Prime Minister Ljupco Georgievski and Greek Minister of Development Akis Tsochatzopoulos will be present in the inauguration of the Thessaloniki-Skopje crude oil pipeline that will be held on July 2 in the Hellenic Petroleum industrial complex.

The pipeline, which is an investment of US$100 million, will link the OKTA oil refineries, a Hellenic Petroleum property, with Thessaloniki.

According to information, Hellenic Petroleum considers the likelihood to construct two more pipelines for oil products. The first one will be 50-60 kilometers long and will link OKTA with Kossovo and the second one will link the plant with southeastern Serbia.

[10] ECONOMIST: THE BUSINESS CLIMATE IN GREECE IMPROVES

Greece occupies the 31st place among 60 countries, according to the figures provided by a comparative research conducted by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). This development is very encouraging as Greece moves three places higher in the world listing.

The Economist sees improvement of the business environment in Greece in the period 2002-2006 and indirectly it praises the efforts made toward this direction by the economic staff of the government.

According to the research, which is published by the Athens newspaper Imerisia, the business environment in Greece is evaluated as good, while previously it was characterized as average.

[11] THE 56TH PAN-MACEDONIAN CONFERENCE IS UNDERWAY IN FLORIDA

The 56th Conference of the Pan-Macedonian Association of America is underway in Clearwater, Florida in the United States with the participation of 250 delegates representing over 120 associations from all the US states, members of the Pan-Macedonian.

The conference participants stressed that the Greeks living abroad should overcome the problematic spots in the Greek idiosyncrasy and contribute to the efforts for a better Greece and a better hellenism for the next generations.

A moment of silence was observed in the opening of the conference proceedings in memory of the former presidents and members of the association as well as in memory of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attack on New York.

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