Athens News Agency: News in English (PM), 97-06-17
NEWS IN ENGLISH
Athens, Greece, 17/06/1997 (ANA)
MAIN HEADLINES
- Greece rejects Turkey's Imia request
- Mount Athos treasures head to Thessaloniki
- OTE share set at Dr 6,600/6,400 in float
- Premier says EU summit decisions on employment a turning point
- Economy minister: 'no ease-up on economic policy'
- Kranidiotis in US for talks on Greek-Turkish relations
- Turkish experts report cites 30 points of dispute
- 2004 Olympic Games in Europe, says Samaranch
- Weather
- Foreign exchange
NEWS IN DETAIL
Greece rejects Turkey's Imia request
Greece said today that it had rejected a Turkish request for information on
Greek navigation around the Aegean islet of Imia.
Confirming reports of the Turkish request in the Athens daily 'Eleftheros
Typos', acting government spokesman Yiannis Nikolaou said the Turkish
government had requested the information but avoided calling the request a
formal demarche.
"Such acts are steadfastly rejected as this specific one was," he
said.
The islet of Imia was the focus of a tense stand-off between Greece and
Turkey early last year when Turkey disputed Greece's sovereignty.
Turning to the presence of Turkish battleships at ports in the Turkish-
occupied north of Cyprus, Nikolaou said any act that did not contribute to
the creation of a positive climate for a successful outcome to the talks
between Cypriot President Glafcos Clerides and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf
Denktash in New York early next month was to be condemned.
"The Cypriot government is undertaking every effort for the talks to
succeed while the Turkish Cypriot stance is to the contrary," he said.
Mount Athos treasures head to Thessaloniki
Priceless treasures from the Mt. Athos all male monastic community in
northern Greece were given a blessing and glittering send-off for their
journey to Thessaloniki, where they will be on display at the city's
Byzantine Museum as the premiere event of the Thessaloniki '97 Cultural
Capital of Europe celebrations.
About 2,000 artefacts from the autonomous monastic community will travel to
Thessaloniki for the exhibition, which will be opened Saturday by President
of the Republic Costis Stephanopoulos in the presence of the Cabinet,
headed by Prime Minister Costas Simitis, opposition party leaders and
numerous officials.
Artefacts have never before left the all-male monastic community, which
bars women from visiting.
European Commission President Jacques Santer, during a recent visit to the
monastic community, praised the spiritual tradition of Mt. Athos which he
said could be a model for the Europe of the future, adding that its
cultural heritage and history had contributed to the creation of a ''unique
type of society which is based on spiritual values''.
Culture Minister Evangelos Venizelos, speaking at the blessing at the
community's capital, Karyes, described the exhibition of Athos treasures as
''the biggest exhibition event ever in Greece and one of the most
significant internationally.
Representatives from 8 of the community's 20 monasteries did not attend the
ceremony in protest over the Schengen Agreement recently ratified by the
Greek parliament, although five of the protesting monasteries are sending
artefacts for the exhibition.
The Mt. Athos holy community called for re-consideration of Parliament's
ratification of Schengen.
OTE share set at Dr 6,600/6,400 in float
Hellenic Telecommunications Organisation (OTE), which is already listed on
the Athens bourse, will go on the market at 6,600 drachmas for institutional
investors and 6,400 drachmas for individual investors following a second
part-privatisation last week.
National Bank of Greece, Salomon Brothers and HSBC Investment Bank
announced on Monday that due to strong demand for the 45-million share
issue, which was three times oversold, the state would release an
additional 2,109,970 shares to investors.
Another 6,330,000 shares would be made available under option to the lead
managers, taking the issue to 53,439,970 shares.
Demand by domestic individual investors was 50 million shares and by
domestic institutionals 17.5 million.
Foreign investors sought 82 million shares, with 45 percent of demand
from the US, 23 percent from Britain, and 32 percent from elsewhere.
Domestic individual investors were allocated 35 percent of stock,
domestic institutions 17 percent, and foreign institutions 48 per
cent.
At an extraordinary shareholders meeting held on Saturday OTE's board
proposed a share capital increase of 23,737,436,250 drachmas.
The capital increase will take place between June 18 and July 18, with six
new shares on offer for every 80 old ones. A total of 31,649,915 new shares
will be released for existing shareholders at 750 drachmas per share.
Funds from the increase will be used to help finance OTE's 1997-2000
investment programme, budgeted at around 1.2 trillion drachmas.
It intends to spend about 612.5 billion drachmas, or more 50 per cent of
the total, on a phased conversion already underway of the analogue network
to digital.
The programme also includes spending on OTE's international telecoms
network and other international activities budgeted at 154 billion
drachmas.
Premier says EU summit decisions on employment a turning point
Prime Minister Costas Simitis said the decisions taken by the EU summit in
Amsterdam yesterday were an important intervention in the European Union's
(EU) policy on employment and the economy.
Mr. Simitis was referring to decisions concerning the inclusion of a
special chapter on employment and the convening of an extraordinary summit
in autumn to discuss the problem.
He attributed these decisions to the "wider majority formulated within the
framework of the EU", following political changes in France and Britain,
where the majority which prevailed after recent elections, have employment
as their focal point.
Mr. Simitis said the EU's 15 member-states decided to outline special
policies to fight unemployment by closer coordination, intensifying of
efforts in providing training for working people, the use of tax measures
and contributions, the creation of a special committee to monitor
developments in the labour market, the reconsideration of old programmes
through renewed funding by the European Investment Bank and the intensifying
of social dialogue.
He said that with these decisions the EU proved that it wants to preoccupy
itself with the problem of unemployment, adding that the Summit Council had
decided to assign ECOFIN with examining the process of political control
over the Central European Bank.
Mr. Simitis said the message was clear in that to date, the EU had
proceeded in the primary direction of stability which, however, was not
enough and an effort must also be made in the direction of development and
employment. He said developments were very sastisfactory, adding that an
important big step was made, but pointed out that "much work is still
required."
Economy minister: 'no ease-up on economic policy'
National Economy Minister Yiannos Papantoniou said there was no question of
easing up economic policy in any European country, adding that the
socialists accept that "economic stability and fiscal restructuring
constitute its foundations".
However, he stressed that these measures were not enough and for this
reason the 15 EU members took the historic decision yesterday of strengthening
employment policy and letting placing political features prevail in
exercising economic policy.
Referring to the decision to assign ECOFIN with submitting a proposal at
the next Summit Council on political control of the Central European Bank,
Mr. Papantoniou said that in all the countries of Europe the central banks
are independent but operate within the framework of parliamentary
institutions and democratic governments.
Mr. Papantoniou added that this cannot take place in the EU and for this
reason it was decided that ECOFIN will elaborate a special plan and submit
it to the Summit in Luxembourg.
Mr. Papantoniou explained that in the framework of employment policy there
is no question of reallocating funds in the EU budget.
Meanwhile, the ECOFIN Council said in a resolution issued yesterday that
the question of employment should remain high on the European Union's (EU)
political agenda.
"It is a priority to give a push towards keeping the issue of employment
steadfastly at the top of the European Union's political agenda," the
resolution said.
"The Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) and the Stability Pact will
strengthen the internal market and encourage an anti-inflationary
macroeconomic environment with low interest rates, which will strengthen
conditions for economic development and job opp ortunities,"itsaid.
Kranidiotis in US for talks on Greek-Turkish relations
Foreign Undersecretary Yiannos Kranidiotis will hold talks in Washington on
the Cyprus issue and Greek-Turkish relations with prominent Clinton
administration officials and members of the US Congress.
His scheduled contacts include his US counterpart Thomas Pickering, members
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Paul Sarbanes (D) and Richard
Lugar (R), and the chairman and members of the House of Representatives
Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Gilman and Lee Hamilton respectively. Mr.
Kranidiotis will also discuss Greek-Turkish relations with National
Security Council director of European Affairs Alexander Versbau.
Mr. Kranidiotis arrived in Washington from Atlanta, where he attended the
sessions of the Bildenberg Club.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the international TV network CNN yesterday,
Mr. Kranidiotis said that a settlement to the protracted Cyprus problem
constituted a prerequisite for the normalisation in Greek-Turkish
relations.
He also expressed the view that now existed an opportunity to resolve the
problem through the European Union's decision to include Cyprus in the next
phase of its enlargement, underlining that the US and the EU had the
responsibility of helping achieve a just and viable solution.
He said that the prevailing political instability in Turkey was a negative
factor in Greece's effort to find a reliable interlocutor on the Turkish
side.
Answering a question on NATO's planned enlargement, he said Greece believed
that enlargement should include Balkan countries in order to secure peace
and stability in this sensitive region.
Turkish experts report cites 30 points of dispute
The Turkish experts committee report on Greek-Turkish differences mentions
30 points of disagreement between the two countries, Turkish sources said
yesterday.
The report is part of an initiative by Dutch Foreign Minister Hans van
Mierlo, who is presiding over the European Union (EU) Foreign Ministers
Council, calling on Greece and Turkey to submit separate reports of
disputed issues as a means of working towa rds solutions.
In Turkish press reports, the sources critised the Greek committee report,
while a high-ranking Turkish Foreign Ministry official has allegedly stated
that Greece is hampering efforts towards resolving differences between the
two.
Sources also attributed the failure of a recent visit to Athens by Turkish
Undersecretary Onur Oymen and the "freezing" of meetings between Oymen and
Greece's Alternate Foreign Minister George Papandreou to a "Greek
manoeuvre".
2004 Olympic Games in Europe, says Samaranch
Africa and South America do not seem as likely candidates for hosting the
2004 Olympic Games, Chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC)
Juan Antonio Samaranch said on Saturday, hinting that the games would be
hosted by a European city.
"Africa and South America do not seem to me to be ready as yet," Mr.
Samaranch said while on a visit to Finland, for celebrations marking the
centennial since the birth of legendary Finnish runner Paavo Nurmi.
Mr. Samaranch declined to name the city favoured to host the 2004 Olympic
Games, saying that he doesn't even take part in the voting by the
Committee.
Athens is one of the bidding European cities, along with Rome and
Stockholm.
WEATHER
Sunny weather with some local clouds, moderate northerly winds and a slight
drop in temperatures is forecast for most parts of Greece today. Athens
will be sunny and cooler with temperatures between 21-33C. Thessaloniki
will also be sunny with few local clouds with temperatures from 19-
32C.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Friday's closing rates - buying
US dlr. 271.927 Pound sterling 443.305
Cyprus pd 527.486 French franc 46.584
Swiss franc 188.311 German mark 157.172
Italian lira (100) 15.993 Yen (100) 237.574
Canadian dlr. 196.515 Australian dlr. 204.491
Irish Punt 413.565 Belgian franc 7.619
Finnish mark 52.530 Dutch guilder 139.743
Danish kr. 41.303 Swedish kr. 35.083
Norwegian kr. 37.662 Austrian sch. 22.348
Spanish peseta 1.860 Port. Escudo 1.554
(M.P.)
|
