Macedonian Press Agency: News in English, 05-11-01

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

CONTENTS

[01] INVITATION FOR UNITY

[02] PRESIDENT PAPOULIAS RETURNS TO GREECE

[03] NEW INDICTMENTS AGAINST JUDGES

[04] SAKIS ROUVAS WILL BE THE HOST OF EUROVISION IN ATHENS

[05] DEMARCHE TO ALBANIA ON THE CANCELLATION OF THE MEETING OF THE

[06] PAPIER-SKOURIS VISITED THE GERMAN SCHOOL IN THESSALONIKI

[07] FORMER THESSALONIKI MAYOR THANASIS GIANNOUSIS PASSED AWAY

[08] PAPOULIAS-MOISIU MEETING CANCELLED

[09] THE PRESIDENTS OF ROMANIA AND BULGARIA TO VISIT ATHENS TOMORROW

[10] US DRAFT RESOLUTION URGES FYROM TO STOP PROPAGANDA AGAINST GREECE

[01] INVITATION FOR UNITY

Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis speaking in Parliament yesterday sent a message of unity to the political forces in the country to promote Greece's position and solve the issues of national importance.

The Greek people want union of hearts at least on major national affairs, stated Mr. Karamanlis.

Main opposition Socialist Party PASOK President Giorgos Papandreou accused the government of inconsistent policy and stated that the Karamanlis government has no direction and goals.

Communist Party General Secretary Aleka Papariga and Coalition President Nikos Alavanos launched strong criticism on the two major parties for the foreign policy that is being followed.

[02] PRESIDENT PAPOULIAS RETURNS TO GREECE

The scheduled meeting of Hellenic Republic President Karolos Papoulias with his Albanian counterpart Alfred Moisiu in the Albanian city Sarante was cancelled.

President Papoulias stayed at the Greek consulate in Gjirokastra for over 2 hours when protesters gathered outside the Sarante hotel where the meeting of the two presidents was scheduled to take place.

The Greek President is now on his way back to Greece.

[03] NEW INDICTMENTS AGAINST JUDGES

Minister of Justice Anastasis Papaligouras after meeting with the Supreme Court leadership announced new indictments against two judges accused of receiving bribes and failing to submit a declaration of assets and also against three lawyers accused of paying bribes.

The goal is to remove any shadow cast over justice and the definite will to proceed with reforms is present, stated Mr. Papaligouras, while Supreme Court presiding judge Romilos Kedikoglou stated that the Greek people should have absolute trust in the justice servants.

[04] SAKIS ROUVAS WILL BE THE HOST OF EUROVISION IN ATHENS

Greek pop singer Sakis Rouvas will be the host of the 51st Eurovision Contest to take place in Athens in May 2006.

The announcement was made in a press conference today during which the Athens Eurovision video clip and logo were also presented.

[05] DEMARCHE TO ALBANIA ON THE CANCELLATION OF THE MEETING OF THE PRESIDENTS OF GREECE AND ALBANIA

Such behaviours do not contribute to the mutual effort for the continuous improvement of bilateral relations and to Albania's European prospect, stresses the Hellenic Republic Presidency Office in a statement issued on the occasion of the incidents in Sarante that led to the cancellation of the scheduled meeting of Hellenic Republic President Karolos Papoulias with his Albanian counterpart Alfred Moisiu.

In the relevant statement it is stressed that the Hellenic Republic Presidency expresses regret for the cancellation of the scheduled for today informal meeting of the Presidents of Greece and Albania after the unacceptable behavior of extremist elements who insist in promoting non existent issues.

Meanwhile, Greece's ambassador to Tirana received the order to make a strong protest demarche as soon as the incidents recorded during President Papoulias' visit to Albania were made known.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos stressed that the Albanian authorities did not take the necessary measures for an unobstructed meeting between President Papoulias and his Albanian counterpart in Sarante. In addition, the necessary measures were not taken aimed at discouraging the known extremist elements who in their efforts to hinder the smooth progress of bilateral relations insist in promoting unacceptable non existent issues at a time when Albania tries to make steps toward the fulfillment of its European prospect.

The Hellenic Republic President has already returned to Greece.

[06] PAPIER-SKOURIS VISITED THE GERMAN SCHOOL IN THESSALONIKI

The fundamental functions of the Supreme Court in Germany were presented by Hans-Jurgen Papier, president of the Constitutional Court of the Federal Republic of Germany for the past three years. The presentation was made in the German School in Thessaloniki with the participation of European Court President Vasilis Skouris.

Prof. Papier, who ranks fifth in the German hierarchy after the chancellor, underlined in his speech that Europe needs a Constitution and maintained that the European integration will not lead to the abolition of the EU member states. At the same time, he expressed concern over the fact that in the Constitutional Treaty were given no answers to basic questions on the future of Europe.

Prof. Skouris, European Court President for the past two years, who is a German School graduate, outlined the profile of the European Court.

[07] FORMER THESSALONIKI MAYOR THANASIS GIANNOUSIS PASSED AWAY

Former Thessaloniki mayor Thanasis Giannousis passed away yesterday at the age of 88. His funeral was held this afternoon.

The Book Fair exhibition was established as an institution when he was mayor in May 1982.

He was the only communist mayor of Thessaloniki and in 1981 he had succeeded Michalis Papadopoulos when the latter died.

He studied Law at Thessaloniki's Aristotle University. In 1975, he was elected city councilor and in 1978 he was reelected. After the death of mayor Michalis Papadopoulos in 1981, he served as mayor for a period of about 10 months.

[08] PAPOULIAS-MOISIU MEETING CANCELLED

Hellenic Republic President Karolos Papoulias cancelled his meeting with his Albanian counterpart Alfred Moisiu because an event was held by Tsamides aimed at promoting their known demands in the city of Sarante where the meeting of the two leaders was going to take place.

The decision to cancel the meeting was reached after negotiations that lasted two hours aimed at holding the meeting brought no results. (archive photo)

[09] THE PRESIDENTS OF ROMANIA AND BULGARIA TO VISIT ATHENS TOMORROW

Presidents of Romania and Bulgaria, Traian Basescu and Georgi Parvanov respectively, will be in Athens tomorrow to attend the vote in the Greek Parliament for the ratification of their countries' EU accession treaties.

Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia and Cyprus have already ratified the treaties for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union.

[10] US DRAFT RESOLUTION URGES FYROM TO STOP PROPAGANDA AGAINST GREECE

A draft resolution calling on the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) to put an end to its negative and nationalistic propaganda against Greece and cooperate with the United Nations and Athens to find a mutually acceptable name, was tabled in the US House of Representatives by the co-presidents of the Congress' Hellenic Caucus group, Representatives Carolyn Maloney and Michael Bilirakis.

According to the GreekNews, the draft resolution refers to the UN General Assembly decision to accept FYROM to the organisation under the name Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in April 1993, to the 817/1993 Security Council resolution for settling the dispute over the new state's name, and to the 1995 Interim Agreement between Athens and Skopje.

It is also pointed out in the resolution that FYROM has allowed the dissemination of negative and nationalistic propaganda through school books that teach pupils that parts of Greece - including Greek Macedonia - belong to FYROM, and through maps that show a Great Macedonia extending to Mount Olympus in Greece and to Mountain Pirin in Bulgaria in the east, thus consolidating, among parts of its population, enmity towards Greece.

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