Athens , 15 April 2010

Mr. Delavekouras: Good morning. I’ll start with Alternate Foreign Minister Dimitris Droutsas’ programme. At 12:00 today, Mr. Droutsas will brief the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense and Foreign Affairs regarding the recent visit to Turkey, Greek-Turkish relations and EU-Turkish relations.

At 11:00 on Friday, 16 April, Mr. Droutsas will meet at the Foreign Ministry with Swedish Deputy Foreign Minister Belfrage.

This hasn’t been finalized yet, but for next week a meeting is being set up with the Greek MEPs, and on Thursday and Friday, 22 and 23 April, Mr. Droutsas will participate in the proceedings of the Informal Meeting of NATO Foreign Ministers in Tallinn, Estonia.

On the first day of this Meeting, the proceedings will focus on the NATO’s new Strategic Concept and the reorganization of the Alliance’s headquarters, as well as the “open doors policy”. Also on Thursday, at the working dinner they will discuss anti-missile defence and nuclear policy.

On Friday, the Euro-Atlantic Council will meet on the subject of NATO-Russian relations, and there will also be a meeting with countries contributing to the ISAF forces, with the participation of the Foreign Minister of Afghanistan, and they will discuss, among other things, the education of security troops in the country.

On Friday, 16 April, Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis will leave for New York and Chicago to participate in events being held by the Greek American community and to promote economic diplomacy issues. He will meet with the Archbishop of America, Dimitrios, with Greek American agencies and with the UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Mr. Holms.

He will deliver an address at Columbia University on “Diplomacy: Challenges and prospects”, and he will meet with Democratic Senator Menendez and Illinois Senate candidate Giannoulias.

In Chicago, he will meet with Greek American and other entrepreneurs, and he will also meet with Metropolitan Iakovos. Mr. Kouvelis will return from the U.S. on 25 April.

I would like to mention another issue that it would be useful for you to promote via the media you work for. Our Embassy in South Africa, in Pretoria, has put a special section on its website regarding the World Cup that is going to take place in South Africa this summer. The web address for this site is www.mfa.gr/Pretoria.

This site provides useful information regarding transport, security, hotels and general information about the country so that anyone interested in attending the World Cup can find information. And there are useful telephone numbers – they  can find information and communicate with the Embassy.

It would be very useful if you could pass this information on to the sports journalists at your media so that we can spread the word.

Thank you very much. Your questions, please.

Ms. Melisova: I would like to ask whether the setting up of the high council for Greek-Turkish cooperation is moving ahead, in view of the upcoming visit to Athens of the Turkish Foreign Minster, and whether the priority areas for cooperation have begun being determined.

Mr. Delavekouras: Today, a letter from Alternate Foreign Minister Droutsas is going out to all of the Ministers who will be involved in the High Council on Cooperation. This letter essentially asks that contact points be designated at each Ministry that will be involved in specific working groups that will undertake the preparation of specific issues at each Ministry.

Next week there will be meetings of these working groups at the Foreign Ministry so that initial preparations can be made, and intensive preparations will follow so that by the end of May – when we estimate the Turkish Foreign Minister’s visit will take place – the ground will be prepared for us to have a useful meeting with results.

The thinking behind the visit is that the Ministers will come first, they will have meetings with their counterparts in Greece, and then Mr. Erdogan will come and the first meeting of the High Council on Cooperation will be held.

I would also like to take this opportunity to mention something else that was not mentioned in the statements made at Mr. Droutsas meeting with the Bulgarian Foreign Minister. It was agreed in principle at the working dinner that followed the statements that a meeting will also take place between Greece’s High Council on Cooperation and Bulgaria. This meeting is being scheduled for this summer; the end of June or early July – it hasn’t been determined yet.

An initial discussion has already take place between the two Ministers on the content of this High Council on Cooperation. There are a lot of issues we can discuss with Bulgaria, like infrastructure, road networks, energy networks, environmental issues, water resources management.

All of this will be made more specific, and we are moving towards the implementation of the joint initiative of the Prime Ministers of Greece and Bulgaria for a High Council on Cooperation to be held with Bulgaria within the summer.

Ms. Melisova: Will there be a trilateral meeting on the level of Prime Ministers?

Mr. Delavekouras: The Greek Prime Minister intends to invite his Turkish and Bulgarian counterparts for a trilateral meeting that will focus mainly on the Evros issue and the flooding we are confronting there. Beyond that, however, what I mentioned was a different process: a High Council on Cooperation that will be bilateral, between Greece and Bulgaria.

Mr. Vlavianos: Mr. Spokesman, articles have come out recently referring to our rushing, in a way, on our issues with Turkey. And whether we as a country judge that at this time we are in a position of power with respect to Turkey, precisely so that we can move this process ahead. Do you want to say something on that?

Mr. Delavekouras: Of course. The steps being taken are very cautious steps. From the moment it took office, the government has stated that it is Greece’s desire for a real effort towards rapprochement with Turkey to be made. That is in Greece’s interest.

There have been corresponding statements from the Turkish side on all levels of the political leadership of our neighbour.

The step being taken are very carefully prepared. There have been a number of meetings on the level of Prime Minister and Alternate Foreign Minister. These meetings are essentially aimed at laying the foundations for cooperation, broadening the scope of cooperation, for the two countries to seek new issues that they can work on together in order to create a foundation on which we will be able to move forward with the political rapprochement of the two countries.

Greece has no illusions. It is fully aware of the reality of the situation and is moving ahead realistically. There is no issue of optimism or hope or anything else. We are moving ahead in the sectors where we will find that there is a common foundation; where the two countries have common interests, and where the progress achieved will be mutually beneficial for both countries.

That is the basic supposition. We are not ignoring the problems, and we are certainly not ignoring the provocations on the part of Turkey. And it is a given that the real normalization of relations between the two countries cannot exist if there is no change in conduct on the part of Turkey. That is a basic precondition for us to be able to get the relations between the two countries to the place where we want them.

Greece wants good neighbourly relations with Turkey. That is a precondition. And it is a prerequisite for Turkey’s European perspective moving ahead. We are a country that speaks clearly on European issues, and we say that Turkey should have the prospect of full accession to the European Union. But this will have to take place with full respect for all of the prerequisites set by the European Union, including good neighbourly relations, respect for minority rights and religious freedoms, good cooperation on all the issues being confronted, such as illegal migration issues, issues we are facing in the Aegean.

Beyond that, an important decision was taken to hold a High Council on Cooperation. We are essentially talking about a different basis for the cooperation framework between the two countries. This cooperation is being upgraded and taken to the Ministerial level. The Ministers are being called upon to work together, the public administrations of the two countries to be in constant contact to seek new fields of cooperation so that we can take our relations forward. But always with realism, with cautious steps, and always guided by Greece’s interests.

As you said something about Greece’s power, Greece is a powerful country that is currently facing economic problems. The basic characteristics of Greece, or of Greek politics, haven’t been changed by this reality. We have to change what we have done wrong until today. We will change it. We will remedy it. But this doesn’t mean that Greece cannot look its collocutors in the eye in its international relations.

Mr. Pollatos: Can you tell us when the next round of exploratory contacts will take place, and whether the continental shelf is the sole issue? Will other issues be discussed, as Mr. Davutoglu wants? Has the agenda been finalized?

Mr. Delavekouras: The date for the meeting has not yet been finalized. The intention that has been announced is for the 43^rd round of exploratory contacts to be held before Mr. Erdogan’s visit to Athens. As soon as we have anything specific, we will announce it.

For Greece it is a given and it is clear that there is but one issue at the exploratory contacts: the issue of the delimitation of the continental shelf. There is no other issue.

Ms. Voudouri: FYROM Prime Minister Gruevski will be in Athens at the end of the month to participate in the Economist Conference. Do you foresee a bilateral meeting with the Greek Prime Minister? And are there any details with regard to how he will travel to Greece?

Mr. Delavekouras: To date, we do not have any information regarding Mr. Gruevski’s coming to Athens. No request has been submitted by Skopje, and nor do we have any such information. We know that Mr. Gruevski has been invited to the Economist Conference directly, by the company organizing the conference. But I have no additional information from Skopje on that.

Ms. Voudouri: The so-called “presidential elections” are being held on Sunday in the occupied section of Cyprus. Do you have any comment on that? Do you think that the result of these elections will be decisive for developments on the Cyprus issue from here on in?

Mr. Delavekouras: First of all, I want to say regarding these so-called “elections” themselves that we are talking about a process the legality of which is questionable and the result of which is questionable. We mustn’t forget that there is an occupation force in the occupied section of Cyprus, there are settlers.

Who will be sitting across from President Christofias the day after the so-called “elections” is very important for the development of the process. President Christofias has made great efforts in a very constructive spirit to move these negotiations forward. There has been some progress. Not the progress we would have liked to see, so that we could say we have really moved forward, but there has been some progress that cannot be ignored by whoever will be sitting across from President Christofias within the framework of the negotiations.

Who it will be is important. Statements that have been made indicate that a solution is not desired by some in the occupied section of Cyprus. And this will certainly hurt the negotiation process. But we will have to see how things develop.

Ms. Antoniou: During the Prime Minister’s recent visit to Nicosia, it was said, among other things, that Athens and Nicosia are coordinating their steps – let me put it that way – against moves being made in the European Union for the implementation on the regulation for direct trade with the occupied section of Cyprus. Whether there is anything on that.

And the second question: whether the competent Greek services took note of the effort to bring back the regulation, given that it had been uploaded onto the Commission’s website in December.

Mr. Delavekouras: There is the impression that the European Commission is using the changes brought about by the Lisbon Treaty to take certain steps with regard to the Regulation on direct trade. In reality, the Commission forwarded some 500 pending regulations to the European Parliament and is changing the decision-making process based on the Lisbon Treaty, and decisions are now made via the co-decision procedure.

There is an issue of good faith here. This particular Regulation is not just any regulation. It is a Regulation that bears on the vital interests of a member state. It is unthinkable for there not to be consultations with the interested member state before such an action is taken. This process is essentially starting now, within the framework of the European Parliament.

The Republic of Cyprus has already put forward some of its positions. We disagree with the legal basis of the Commission’s arguments. This effort will be carried out by the Republic of Cyprus, and Greece will be at its side constantly with all of the means at its disposal, both at the European Parliament and within the framework of the Council, as well as on a legal level. And that is where we will fight this battle. We need to be very careful, but the Commission, for its part, will have to do the obvious: cooperate with the member states.

The Commission cannot treat as a procedural matter a matter that it is well aware concerns the vital interests of a member state and certainly impacts the negotiation process.

Ms. Antoniou: Should another approach have been taken?

Mr. Delavekouras: This is a purely political matter. So it cannot be treated as a procedure: “I’m sending 500 regulations, and I’m sending this along with them.” This has substance. So you cannot talk about good faith when you do not proceed to what is obviously a necessary consultation with the interested member state, which is the Republic of Cyprus. This is obvious, and it should have been done.

Ms. Rigou: I would like to come back to the issue of the occupied section of Cyprus and the statements made by Mr. Eroglu regarding the talks. He referred repeatedly to the desire to start from scratch. He constantly addresses himself to the settlers and in fact said that Mr. Talat was the one who cried when Cyprus was divided, while he himself welcomed it.

What does this mean for the talks in practical terms? Might the process collapse in the end?

Mr. Delavekouras: I don’t want to make predictions right now, when we don’t know what we will really be confronting. But these statements are certainly completely negative and hurt the process. That is obvious. First of all, a major effort has been carried out and it has brought about some progress. This progress has to be maintained. We can never accept, in any case, that we are talking about starting from scratch. That is not a possibility.

Beyond that, in essence, the process may be irreversibly damaged if on the part of the Turkish Cypriot community there is a person who does not want a solution – that is obvious.

Ms. Rigou: The Turkish Cypriot side has repeatedly referred to Ankara’s participation in the whole process, and particularly Dervis Eroglu. How is our side cooperating to confront what is in essence a double front?

Mr. Delavekouras: First of all, let’s clear up what relations exist between Turkey and the occupied section of Cyprus, on the one hand, and Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. In the case of Turkey, we are talking about a country that has an occupying force and that strongly influences every move and every last thing that happens in occupied Cyprus. On the other hand, Greece and the Republic of Cyprus are two independent states who have brotherly relations and who cooperate. And Greece is always at the side of the Republic of Cyprus with all its power.

But the one does not bear comparison with the other. That is why we say that Turkey’s involvement is necessary. Turkey’s involvement is needed on a political level so as to open the way to a solution, because if there is not real political will on the part of Turkey for our reaching a solution, we will never reach a solution.

I repeat, I don’t want to get ahead of developments. Ankara’s role will certainly be decisive. For our part, we hope that we can have progress.

Mr. Kapoutsis: When did Greek diplomacy notice the intention of the Europeans to open the issue of direct trade with the occupied section of Cyprus?

Mr. Delavekouras: This is not a new issue. This issue has existed for a number of years now, and the Commission’s positions are well known. In the past, as well, the Commission – on a legal basis that, as I said, we completely disagree with – has tried to promote this issue. What we are saying is that at this time there is an issue of bad faith on the part of the Commission. Because you cannot try to do something like this without consultations with the interested member state.

That is the essence of the matter, and in the procedure that is starting now, we will do everything in our power for our positions to hold.

Mr. Kapoutsis: (off microphone) We have lost the game …

Mr. Delavekouras: We have lost nothing, thank you very much. First of all – in essence – legally, the positions of the Commission do not mean that they are accepted by all the member states or the legal services, under any circumstances. We disagree in substance. And our arguments are very strong.

Beyond that, the battle will be fought in both the European Parliament and in the Council. And with all our power we will try for the best result, and we can get that result. This is something that is just starting – I  don’t know how long it will last. This is not the first time we have been faced with this. We will face it as we have in the past, with the goal of success.

Ms. Ristovska: Do you have any information regarding a new meeting with Mr. Nimetz? Because information is circulating to the effect that they will meet this month in New York …

Mr. Delavekouras: No, we have no information on an upcoming meeting with the negotiator. He hasn’t called a meeting yet. What is important – and we have said this before – is that any effort needs to be very well prepared. There needs to be ongoing contact with the two sides, and when this effort is really made, there need to be results. What disappoints us is that we see a negative attitude from the FYROM side, as seen in their constant moves and statements.

The openings Greece is making – the positive language coming from Greece – are being met systematically in a negative spirit. The most recent example is FYROM’s upcoming Chairmanship at the Council of Europe. These provocations really confirm that it is absolutely necessary for the name issue to be resolved before we can talk about NATO membership and the opening of accession negotiations with the European Union.

Ms. Ristovska: I would also like to ask about the FYROM Chairmanship. What precisely did Greece do? In the announcement it said that it would make certain moves.

Mr. Delavekouras: We are in contact with all of our partners in the Council of Europe and with the Secretariat of the Council of Europe, because it is obvious that at this time the FYROM leadership is trying to misuse an international position it is taking up in an international organization – via the process of the rotating chairmanship – in order to promote its own positions. This is something that isn’t done in international relations. FYROM came in for criticism when it tried to do the same thing within the framework of the United Nations. That was unacceptable, and the same holds true now.

Thank you very much.