Athens News Agency: Daily News Bulletin in English, 00-08-21

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

CONTENTS

[01] Ministers back at work with focus on economy

[02] Archbishop resumes combative stance toward government's 'religion-free' identity cards

[03] Park is just a 'sop' to clear the way for environment-damaging construction for Olympics, NGOs say

[04] Illegal naturalizations probe centers on N. Greece municipality

[05] Palestinian NGOs attend EU MEDA program

[01] Ministers back at work with focus on economy

Athens, 21/08/2000 (ANA)

National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou is scheduled to have successive meetings with his economic staff on Monday and Tuesday for a discussion of the drafting of next year's budget and fiscal policy.

Sources say the prime minister is also to put focus on reform plans in the areas of labor relations, education, health, and social policy, and will announce a new package of tax breaks in his keynote speech on the economy at the opening of the annual trade fair in Thessaloniki in early September.

Meanwhile, the newly appointed Chairman of the Athens Stock Exchange's Board of Directors, Panagiotis Alexakis, is due to announce on Tuesday a new package of measures for boosting liquidity and transparency in the capital market, and modernizing the stock exchange.

The same sources also said that Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Public Order Minister Michalis Chrysohoidis are to discuss on Monday issues related to the battle against terrorism, in view of Chrysohoidis' forthcoming visit to the U.S., where he will sign a bilateral agreement for cooperation on the issue.

[02] Archbishop resumes combative stance toward government's 'religion-free' identity cards

Athens, 21/08/2000 (ANA)

Church leaders will be meeting on Monday to decide on the proposed collection of signatures on the identity card issue, but according to Alexandroupolis Metropolitan Anthimos this process could be postponed if there is a meeting between the Archbishop and Prime Minister Costas Simitis first.

Meanwhile, according to the Athens daily newspaper "Eleftherotypia", Thebes Metropolitan Ieronymos said the Church was sliding into worldliness, while Deputy Press Minister Telemachos Hytiris described the 'referendum' being organized by the Church as "quaint and leading nowhere."

The divisive issue of abolishing the category from new ID cards surfaced in June when the government announced that religious affiliation, among others, classified as a citizen's personal data. The Autocephalus Orthodox Church of Greece, conversely, vehemently criticized the decision and has called for a referendum in the predominately Orthodox Christian country of around 11 million.

[03] Park is just a 'sop' to clear the way for environment-damaging construction for Olympics, NGOs say

Athens, 21/08/2000 (ANA)

The whole scheme, the groups claim, is a bid by the ministry to show environmental sensitivity and that Olympic projects are compatible with protecting nature.

According to conservationists, the "Schinias National Park" project is just an environmental "facade" attempting to conceal a major construction project that will result in irreversible damage to the region's environment. In addition, they say, it allows uses that are incompatible with the protection of ecologically important regions and which create a bad precedent for every national park in Greece.

The announcement points out that the environment ministry had frozen a procedure began in 1992 to declare the area a national park in order to avoid problems in building Olympic installations, and refused to include the area in the European Union's "Natura 2000" list, which would again have blocked such large construction projects.

[04] Illegal naturalizations probe centers on N. Greece municipality

Athens, 21/08/2000 (ANA)

The adulterated certificate was traced to the Philippoi municipality near the port city of Kavala, northern Greece, and to a specific clerk in the registry office, the municipality's mayor, Costas Zahopoulos, verified past week.

According to an initial review of confiscated records from the municipality, dozens of illegal naturalizations of foreign nationals - mainly from former Soviet republics - have occurred over the past three years under the pretext that the individuals were repatriated Greek Pontians that qualified for such documents.

Four such bogus documents with the same clerk's signature were also discovered in the residence of another Kavala-area man, police said.

Neither the name of the municipal employee or the individual who held the bogus certificate on Paros were announced as an ongoing investigation is continuing.

[05] Palestinian NGOs attend EU MEDA program

NICOSIA, 21/08/2000 (ANA-CNA)

The 19 Palestinians, who left on Saturday, were supposed to be joined by Israeli NGO members, who cancelled their trip here at the last minute, a decision that disappointed both the organizers and the participants. The program includes workshops for Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in Israel and the Palestinian Autonomous Territories, under the coordination of Israelis and Palestinians, and workshops for Israelis and Palestinians coordinated by Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots in Cyprus.

It is backed by the Dutch non-governmental organization Communication Middle East (COME), which has also secured the funds from the EU.

Speaking to CNA Marios Michaelides, one of the coordinators, said a group of Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots has already been to Israel and the Palestinian Autonomous Territories and this is the second of five scheduled exchanges.

He explained that even though some problems were created because of the last minute decision of the Israelis not to attend, work focused on the examination of the problems NGOs face in cooperating with each other. He added that "sometimes problems are raised by the governments".

The Palestinian participants told CNA the workshop was very useful and they felt they benefited a lot, but expressed their disappointment with the decision of the Israelis not to participate. A member of the Palestinian Center for Peace and Democracy, Mr. Said, stressed the importance of NGOs in a peace process, noting that "they can have a better understanding of the problems because they look at them from a humanitarian point of view, not only from the political and economic scope."

"NGOs have a crucial role to play because they are grass-root," he said and added that "because they do not have bureaucratic structures like government institutions they can act quickly".

Referring to Cyprus, Said said he felt "there is no place for conflict in this little beautiful island" and added that "peace should be the king and queen here".

Atef Sad, chief editor of the monthly Trade Unions Magazine, stressed that "although the politicians are those who make decisions they will have to pay attention to the efforts of the NGOs" and expressed the view that even though NGO work cannot produce results in the short term its work will be visible in the long term.

"NGOs can influence people," he said and pointed out that some 1.400 such organizations already exist in the Palestinian Autonomous Territories working at different levels and in various fields.

He stressed the role of NGOs in efforts to build a new democratic civic society and expressed the conviction that "NGOs have played and can play a very vital role in making peace and democracy".

Suzan, a journalist at the Palestinian Satellite Channel, said that "even though the Israelis were absent we still learnt much and we need to learn more. It was a good experience."

On his part Douwe J van der Sluis of COME told CNA he was happy to see people cooperating, even though, as he pointed out, "there are always problems and differences to be overcome".

He said that after an application by COME for funds, the EU offered 100.000 euros for this project.

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