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Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English, 97-11-27Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next ArticleFrom: The Macedonian Press Agency at http://www.mpa.gr and http://www.hri.org/MPA.BRIEF GREEK NEWS BULLETIN BY MACEDONIAN PRESS AGENCYThessaloniki, November 27, 1997TITLES
NEWS IN DETAIL[01] PRIME MINISTER SIMITIS IS IN LONDONLondon 27 November (MPA)Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis will meet with his British counterpart Tony Blair in London today. Their talks will focus on the Greek-Turkish relations, Ankara’s relations with the EU, issues concerning the European Union enlargement and the Cyprus issue.Mr.Simitis is also scheduled to visit Paris on Sunday where he will meet with French president Jacques Chirac, prime minister Lionel Jospen and EU Commission president Jacques Santer. Prime minister Simitis is accompanied by foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos and deputy foreign minister Giorgos Papandreou. Yesterday, during an interview of Mr.Papandreou with the US television channel, CNN, Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash intervened with a telephone call and reiterated his known position that the Cyprus issue must be resolved before Cyprus’ accession into the EU. Mr.Papandreou responded that this against the interests of the Turkish Cypriots. Meanwhile, a source close to the Turkish National Security Council revealed that according to a decision made by the Council, the country’s accession into the EU will not be included in the daily agenda if there is no favourable decision in the Summit meeting of Luxembourg in December. This move is made within the framework of the efforts aimed at increasing the pressures for the lifting of the Greek veto concerning the acceptance of the jurisdiction of The Hague on the issue of Imia. [02] PANGALOS: CYPRUS IS ALMOST AN EU MEMBERLondon 27 November (MPA)Cyprus is almost a member of the European Union and there is a decision for the opening of accession negotiations on a specific date, stated Greek foreign minister Theodoros Pangalos in an interview broadcast by the new satellite program of the BBC.Mr.Pangalos, commenting on Greece’s veto power and if it would have been exercised it the case of Hungary due to the problem in Cyprus’ accession, responded that when the decision on the enlargement negotiations is made it should concern all candidate states regardless of whether there will be two accession speeds. Mr.Pangalos added that Greece believes that positive political messages should be received by the other two neighbouring countries as well, namely Bulgaria and Romania, that they too will become EU members. Mr.Pangalos’ interview focused on the issue of the EU enlargement on the occasion of the visit of British foreign secretary Robin Cook to Hungary. The Greek foreign minister, referring to possible obstacles to the enlargement process, said that no one wants to block the process but difficulties are likely to come up and the main one will be the economic cost related with the accession of new members. [03] KASOULIDES AND HANNEY WILL MEET IN LONDONLondon 27 November (MPA)Cypriot foreign minister Yiannakis Kasoulides will meet in London today with British special envoy to Cyprus Sir David Hanney.Mr.Kasoulides will brief him on the outcome of the visit to Cyprus by UN secretary-general special adviser Diego Cordovez. Also, the Cypriot foreign minister will meet with British Parliament members. [04] TWO STRONG EARTHQUAKES SHOOK ZAKYNTHOSZakynthos 27 November (MPA)The residents of the Ionian Sea island of Zakynthos panicked in the early morning hours today as a result of two earthquakes that occurred two hours apart from each other and came from the same epicenter with the recent strong earthquake that measured 6,6 on the Richter scale.The first tremor occurred at 4:27am and measured 5,2 on the Richter scale and two hours later came another stronger tremor of 5,3 on the Richter scale. [05] SANTER-YILMAZ MEETINGAnkara 27 November (MPA)Prime minister of Luxembourg Mr.Junker, who is also the president of the European Council, together with European Commission president Mr.Santer are in Istanbul for talks with the Turkish government in view of the European Union Summit meeting that will be held in Luxembourg in December.Mr.Junker and Mr.Santer will meet with Turkish prime minister Mesut Yilmaz and government ministers. Complete archives of the Macedonian Press Agency bulletins are available on the MPA Home Page at http://www.mpa.gr/ and on the U.S. mirror at http://www.hri.org/MPA/Macedonian Press Agency: Brief News in English Directory - Previous Article - Next Article |