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Ellnvikn Proedreia


Agapntoi filoi,
	Brnka tnv parakatw a3iolognsn tns Ellnvikns Proedrias
stnv EOK, apo to Reuter. Apotelei mia diaforetikn eikova
apo to kati allo, aviknto, megalo pou parousiazetai apo tnv
kubervnsn. Av kai stnv ousia eivai 0etiko gia tnv
Ellnvikn Proedreia, dnmiourgei arketes apories sxetika
me tnv Ellnvikn Proedreia,n/kai tous kuklous apo opou to ar0ro
pronl0e. Dev upnrxe upografn dnmosiografou.

Nikos Balkavas

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Subject: Greece's EU Presidency Not the Predicted Disaster
Date: Thu, 30 Jun 94 6:30:02 PDT
Expires: Thu, 7 Jul 94 6:30:02 PDT

	 ATHENS, Greece (Reuter) - Despite some rude words for the
Germans and a snub for the Italians, Greece's six months at the
helm of the European Union was not the disaster many predicted.
	 ``We were braced for catastrophe but our worst fears never
materialized,'' said a senior EU diplomat in Athens. ``Despite
some bumps, I think many of us came away feeling this proved
Greece is more wedded to the Union than ever.''
	 Athens' crippled public sector, dragged down by huge
deficits and its two-year feud with the neighboring former
Yugoslav republic of Macedonia, prompted many EU partners to
look at the impending Greek presidency with apprehension.
	 The reappearance of an old anti-EU bogeyman, Socialist
leader Andreas Papandreou, as prime minister following October
elections added to their fears.
	 Papandreou, 75, did little to ease concerns before the Greek
presidency started January 1, overturning the privatization and
economic austerity programs of the defeated conservatives.
	 His abrasive European affairs minister, Theodoros Pangalos,
kicked off the presidency by insulting the Germans, calling them
``giants with bestial force and the brains of a child.''
	 Maintaining his bad-boy image to the end, Pangalos snubbed
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, whose Cabinet includes
ministers from a neo-fascist party, by avoiding a handshake with
him in front of television cameras at last weekend's EU summit
in Corfu.
	 The low point came in February when Papandreou announced a
trade embargo on Macedonia, prompting the rare spectacle of an
EU president being dragged before the European Court.
	 But many EU diplomats in Athens felt the overall impression
of the presidency was one of a small country working within its
limits to advance EU programs and a country now fully committed
to EU membership.
	 Papandreou and his PASOK party, previously prone to
denouncing the EU, no longer seemed so hostile.
	 ``There is no comparison possible between the attitudes of
the PASOK of 10 years ago and the PASOK responsible for the EU
presidency today,'' Belgian Foreign Minister Willy Claes said at
the Corfu summit.
	 Cynics sneer that the socialist change is rooted in the $4
billion in net EU transfers that Greece receives each year
rather than any new-found European spirit.
	 Papandreou also needs to make new friends now that old pals
in the ex-Soviet Union, fallen communist regimes in the Balkans
and radical Middle East groups are out of power or favor.
	 The one big achievement of Greece's presidency was the
successful negotiations, overseen by Pangalos and completed on
schedule, to enlarge the EU with Austria, Sweden, Norway and
Finland.
	 ``At the outset a lot of politicians and people in the media
said we would never succeed in the enlargement negotiations but
we did,'' said Yannis Roubatis, a newly elected PASOK deputy in
the European Parliament.
	 Austrian Chancellor Franz Vranitzky concurred in Corfu:
``For Austria the Greek presidency is a success story as, I
think, it is for many other EU states.''
	 EU diplomats in Athens also said they had good reports from
their Brussels delegations on efforts to start preparations for
a 1996 conference which will review all EU institutions.
	 But Greece's highest marks were for what it did not do.
	 ``The greatest fear was that Greece would link its national
issues -- the dispute with Skopje (Macedonia), Cyprus and the
Greek minority in Albania -- to the business of the EU,'' said
Theodore Kouloumbis of the Hellenic Foundation for European and
Foreign Policy, a private Athens-based think-tank.
	 ``This would have paralyzed all EU business,'' he said.
``But Greece didn't link such issues and this allowed important
work to go ahead on enlargement, Russia's partnership pact, the
1996 inter-governmental conference and financing infrastructure
networks.''
	 Several EU diplomats felt that a burning issue at the start
of the EU presidency -- should any small EU state be allowed to
handle the important job of president --  was now immaterial.
	 ``With enlargement to 16 states, structures, institutions
and traditions will be reviewed and some perhaps changed from
top to bottom at the 1996 conference,'' said an EU diplomat.
	 For some the question was less whether a small country can
run the presidency than whether a country with virtually no
prime minister can run the presidency.
	 Papandreou was rarely seen during Greece's presidency and
was largely absent at Corfu, staying at his hotel during the
final frantic round of talks to try to agree on a new European
Commission president.
	 British Prime Minister John Major spared the Greeks any of
the blame by imposing a lone veto of the candidate backed by the
other 11 partners.
	 Britain's ``No'' denied Greece a final feather in its cap
and left the German presidency a messy problem.
	 But it also left some Greeks feeling vindicated over the
earlier predictions of doom.
	 ``The question that one should ask now is whether Britain
has decided if it is part of Europe. We have decided we are,''
Roubatis said.