Athens
, 17 June 2009
Mr. Delavekouras: Hello, my name is Gregory Delavekouras. I have taken up the post of Foreign Ministry spokesman. I would like to start today by expressing deep condolences at the death of the police officer who was murdered in the unacceptable terrorist attack that took place this morning.
I will now move on to the programme for the coming days.
Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis met today, at 10:30, at the Foreign Minister, with the President of the Central Board of Jewish Communities in Greece and the President of the Jewish Community of Thessaloniki, and as we speak she is meeting with the U.S. Ambassador to Athens, Mr. Speckhard.
At 13:00, Ms. Bakoyannis will meet with the EU member state Ambassadors accredited to Greece. This meeting is being organized by the Czech EU Presidency and is taking place at the Czech Ambassador’s residence here in Athens. And at 20:00, she will speak at a memorial event for the Greek victims of the Holocaust, 66 years after the deportations to Auschwitz, in March 1943. This event will take place at Zappeion.
On Thursday and Friday, the Minister – along with Deputy Foreign Minister Valinakis – will accompany the Prime Minister to the European Council in Brussels. The European Council will focus on the ongoing financial crisis, institutional issues – such as the appointment of a President of the Commission and ratification of the Lisbon Treaty – climate change and sustainable development, illegal migration and external relations issues.
The Foreign Ministers’ dinner will look at the situation in Afghanistan and Pakistan, as well as the future of European security.
At 12:00 on Monday, 22 June, Ms. Bakoyannis will meet at the Foreign Ministry with her Vietnamese counterpart Mr. Pham Gia Kheim, and at 13:00 they will make statements to the media.
On Tuesday, 23 June, at a time still to be determined, Ms. Bakoyannis will meet at the Foreign Ministry with her counterpart from the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh al-Nuhayyan.
On Friday, 26 June, the Minister will participate – in her capacity as Chairperson of the OSCE – in the G-8 meeting in Trieste on the regional dimension of Pakistan and Afghanistan. This meeting, which will consist of a working dinner on Friday the 26th and a morning session on Saturday the 27th, will be attended by the G-8 Foreign Ministers and the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
As you know, on 27 and 28 June we will have the two major meetings of the NATO-Russia Council (NRC) and the OSCE. Starting with the NRC, note that this is the basic mechanism for promoting NATO’s relations with Russia. It is a forum within which the allied states and the Russian Federation collaborate towards building consensus, cooperation and a common decision-making process on a wide range of issues concerning security in the Eurasian region.
On the matter of the OSCE Ministerial, I would like to note a few organizational issues regarding media representatives, just to give you a picture of how we will operate on those days, and we will also say a few words about what is at stake in this meeting.
All of the participating states will be represented in Corfu. Over 50 Ministers have already confirmed that they will be represented on the ministerial level. So far, all of the Foreign Ministers of the EU, NATO and the Russian Federation have confirmed their participation. The Secretaries General of NATO, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Collective Security Treaty Organization have also been called upon to attend, and Mr. Solana and Commissioner Ferrero-Waldner will participate on behalf of the European Union.
All of the Ministers are expected in Corfu on the 27th, and will depart on the 28th, based on the programme.
In terms of media issues, we are expecting some 300 media representatives from all of the members of the OSCE. You are already aware that there is a list of hotels where you can make reservations for your stay. We will provide for your transport from the city of Corfu to the venue – the Corfu Imperial – where the Meeting is taking place.
On your arrival in Corfu, you will receive the badge that will give you access to the venue, a schedule for the shuttle buses, and the programme of all the media events that will be open, so that you can plan your schedule.
On Saturday evening, we will have a reception for journalists at the adjacent Eva Palace hotel, which is about a 2-minute walk from the Corfu Imperial. The whole Information Department will be there, at your disposal for anything you need. We are at your disposal as of now to answer any questions you might have.
I want to say a few words about the Meeting itself. A year or so ago, this Meeting would have been inconceivable. Even six months ago, it may have been inconceivable. When President Medvedev presented his proposals, they were accepted, with reservations, by many of our partners in the European Union, the OSCE and NATO.
Greece took over the OSCE Chairmanship on 1 January, and when Foreign Minister Bakoyannis presented our priorities, she talked about our will to bring the countries playing a pivotal role in security to the same table, on equal terms, so that we might finally hold a real discussion confronting the security issues on our continent.
It was not at all easy to get where we are today. Even within the European Union, there were many who had reservations, and whose positions are well known.
In spite of this, and taking a risk, the Greek Chairmanship moved ahead with the organization of this meeting, and we can already claim our first success: that the meeting is taking place and everyone is coming. Everyone is coming to sit at the same table so we can start the dialogue.
At this time, the framework for the discussion is being formulated. Our ambassadors in all of the member states are in contact with the Foreign Ministries. They are getting input from all these countries so that we can prepare as well as possible for this dialogue; a dialogue that will certainly take time. Today, the first step is being taken; the initiation of the Corfu Process.
Suffice it to say that the process that was completed at the Helsinki Summit Meeting lasted three years and involved over 2,000 meetings. We are at the outset, and we know it. But we believe that we are laying a very good foundation today.
That’s all I wanted to say.
I will continue with the programmes of the Deputy Foreign Ministers. Deputy Foreign Minister Valinakis met this morning, at 11:30, with Rabbi Andrew Baker, who is the Personal Representative of the OSCE Chairmanship on Combating Anti-Semitism.
On Monday and Tuesday, 22 and 23 June, Mr. Valinakis will be in Stockholm, where he will meet with the Swedish State Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Mr. Frank Belfrage, and European Affairs Minister Ms. Cecilia Malmstrom, ahead of Sweden’s taking on the EU Presidency. Among other things, they will discuss the Presidency’s priorities and issues of particular interest to Greece.
On Saturday and Sunday, 27 and 28 June, Mr. Valinakis will participate with the Minister in the OSCE Ministerial in Corfu.
On Thursday, 18 June, at 12:00, Deputy Foreign Minister Kassimis will speak in a public debate on “European Union-Australia: A strategic synergy”. That will take place at the Grande Bretagne hotel.
On Sunday and Monday, 21 and 22 June, Mr. Kassimis will visit Alexandria, Egypt, where he will attend the Mass being said by the Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, Theodore II, and the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece, Hieronymus.
From Tuesday to Saturday, 24 to 27 June, Mr. Kassimis will accompany the President of the Republic, Mr. Karolos Papoulias, on his state visit to Syria.
At 10:00 on Thursday, 25 June, Deputy Foreign Minster Varvitsiotis will speak at the Greek-Chinese Business Forum being organized by the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
On the same day, at 11:00, Mr. Varvitsiotis will take part in the proceedings of the Greek-Chinese Joint Interministerial Committee, at the Foreign Ministry.
Finally, from Thursday to Saturday, 2 to 4 July, Mr. Varvitsiotis will accompany the President of the Republic on his state visit to Serbia.
Before I finish, I would like to thank George Koumoutsakos for all the help, experience and support he gave me as Foreign Ministry spokesman.
Thank you.
Your questions, please.
Ms. Spanou: The findings of the administrative inquiry disclosed yesterday conflict with the findings of the preliminary inquiry that came out earlier and was also made public, in an unprecedented move by the Ministry.
Specifically, in the administrative inquiry, no blame is laid on the Ambassador to Uruguay for the classification of his dispatch, and there is also no reference to any blame on the part of the Director of the Minister’s Diplomatic Cabinet, Mr. Halastanis, who was also apprised of the situation 24 hours before he informed the Minister. What changed in the meantime to bring about this discrepancy?
Mr. Delavekouras: Beyond the relevant announcement issued yesterday by the Foreign Ministry, I have nothing to add on this matter.
Mr. Sourmelidis: Nevertheless, Mr. Spokesman, let’s pose the questions so that you can be aware of them. I, too, would like to ask you whether Mr. Kogevinas spoke in his defence and how he did so: under oath, as a witness, or as a defendant?
Mr. Delavekouras: I’m not going to go into this matter. It is an administrative matter. An administrative inquiry has been carried out and a relevant announcement has been issues with the findings of that inquiry. There is nothing for me to add on this. Whatever there is to be announced has already been included in the announcement you have seen.
Mr. Sourmelidis: (off microphone) … I mean beyond what the findings say, but about the case itself. Whether Mr. Diktakis reported anything regarding the Karavelas case before of after the dispatch in any other manner.
Mr. Delavekouras: Look, as the Foreign Ministry spokesman, I will not go into the substance of this matter. There was a preliminary inquiry and there are the findings of the sworn administrative inquiry, about which an announcement has been issued.
This is a Foreign Ministry administrative procedure that has been carried out and completed. I have nothing to add, and from this podium I will not go into the substance of the case. I don’t carry out preliminary inquiries or sworn administrative inquiries.
Journalist: (off microphone)
Mr. Delavekouras: I am taking note of your questions. It is just that a Foreign Ministry announcement has already been issued on this matter.
Mr. Meletis: Please, if you could incorporate into the briefing all of the findings of Mr. Agathoklis and the other Secretaries General over the past three or four years and all of the decisions of the administrative inquiries that have been carried out at the Foreign Ministry, within the framework of the transparency that the Minister proclaimed, within the context of which the two texts we have seen recently were made public.
Mr. Pollatos: Yesterday’s findings from Mr. Kambanis mention certain objective difficulties in the dispatch delivery system. Can you tell us what Mr. Agathoklis’ proposals are on this, and precisely what difficulties we are talking about?
To make myself clear, from here on in will the ‘top secret’ dispatches go to 50 addressees, to 60, or just to the Minister’s office, and will they be handled in the manner we saw in this last case? Can you explain that to us?
Mr. Delavekouras: The General Director of the 6th (ΣΤ’) Directorate has made some recommendations. When a specific plan has been drawn up, it will be implemented, but I don’t think it will be announced.
Ms. Kourbella: Mr. Spokesman, the European Summit in Brussels will begin tomorrow. What concrete results do we expect from this discussion on the issue of immigration. It is always a very interesting and very topical issue.
Mr. Delavekouras: As you know, the Foreign Minister put this issue forward at the General Affairs Council. It is thanks to a coordinated initiative of Greece, Italy, Malta, and Cyprus that the issue had been discussed in the previous weeks and we had already succeeded in including it as a point on the agenda of the meeting of heads of state and government, and this is in itself an achievement because, as you can imagine, not all our partners share our concerns about developments on this issue.
Journalist: (off microphone)...
Mr. Delavekouras: Illegal migration in general, addressing the issue of illegal migration in the European Union.
On Friday, the Prime Minister is expected to request the adoption of more concrete measures, which will be reflected in the European Council conclusions.
The Foreign Minister has already stated from Luxembourg, where she attended the General Affairs Council, that we want our partners to demonstrate their solidarity on this mainly European issue. We are asking for this solidarity to be demonstrated in practice, and we think that a more equitable burden-sharing is necessary between member states for a more humane and more effective management of migratory flows.
We also want a more substantial discussion on the issue of the readmission of illegal migrants, that is, agreements between the European Union and third countries – either the migrants’ countries of origin or transit countries.
We also want FRONTEX, the European agency responsible for managing the EU’s External Borders, to have a reinforced role, through strengthened joint operations and greater participation in these operations by all the partners, as well as the creation of specialized agencies in particularly problematic regions, with a view to improving operational capabilities.
Mr. Meletis: Mr. Spokesman, given that a readmission agreement between the European Union and a third country might take up to six, seven, or eight years to be implemented, I wanted to ask whether the Greek government will try to achieve the inclusion in the Council conclusions of a reference to the obligation of third countries – not least, candidate countries – to implement and abide by readmission agreements with EU member states.
Mr. Delavekouras: Greece's firm demand has been for Turkey to fully implement its bilateral readmission agreement with Greece, which has been in place since 2001, but is being implemented inadequately by Turkey.
This is also the Community position, in the sense that the need for Turkey to implement this existing agreement is being discussed in the EU-Turkey Association Council.
Beyond that, Commissioner Barrot raised, as you know, the issue of the conclusion of a readmission agreement between the European Union and Turkey in a recent letter.
Mr. Meletis: I’m sorry, I am asking whether we are pursuing the inclusion of a reference in the conclusions. First of all, an explicit and clear reference to the need for a readmission agreement between the European Union and Turkey, rather than countries in general. And secondly, on the level of bilateral agreement implementation, whether it can be institutionalized.
Mr. Delavekouras: We want and we seek the adoption of a text that will be as specific and as clear as possible. At the moment, there are ongoing negotiations on a text. We are seeking specific references. Specific as to what will be provided for, what the next steps will be, what the result will be in the Council conclusions.
Journalist: Given that negotiations with Turkey on a readmission agreement began in 2003 and the prospects are still completely unclear, could an interim provision be included? That is, until this agreement – mentioned earlier by my colleague – is signed, could there be an interim provision between the European Union and Turkey; because this is a urgent issue.
Mr. Delavekouras: What we are discussing with regard to the EU-Turkey readmission agreement did not come up yesterday, it has been with us a very long time and it is already inextricably linked with Turkey's accession negotiations with the European Union.
Since 2006, Greece has blocked chapter 24 – that is the chapter on justice, freedom and security because Turkey needs to take specific steps on its cooperation with the European Union on this issue. It is a well-known issue and Turkey must take some steps. And it is not only Greece talking about it, it is the whole European Union.
This issue is also raised in EU-Turkey Association Councils.
Journalist: (off microphone)
Mr. Delavekouras: Yes, our objective is the signing of an agreement, but both parties need to sign it, not just the European Union.
Mr. Fourlis: I wanted to ask why Greece’s blocking of chapter 24 was so low key? I think you said that Greece has blocked it since 2006, right?
Mr. Delavekouras: Greece – like all other member states – is raising issues of concern within the framework of negotiations.
Mr. Fourlis: I noted it down that way and I think you used these exact words.
Mr. Delavekouras: Just a moment. The accession process is a negotiation on all the issues that come under the relations with Turkey and the European acquis. Every country brings up issues that are of interest to it, and Greece has brought up this issue in this particular chapter. Given that there is no progress on the issue of an EU-Turkey readmission agreement, chapter 24 cannot be opened.
Mr. Fourlis: Right. I noticed that Greece quietly blocked it together with other countries – if I understand well – very quietly and I understand that it is only the Foreign Ministry and the government that are bringing it to the forefront, saying that there is such an issue.
Because we assume – given that the government says that it had noticed it a long time ago, and the Prime Minister repeatedly mentioned a Coastguard and other relevant ideas on illegal migration to his counterparts, we do not understand why this linkage was not made more clearly much earlier and why Greece did not make a more pressing demand in the past?
Mr. Delavekouras: Greece has been raising this issue systematically on all levels for many years now.
Journalist: (off microphone)
Mr. Delavekouras: And of course, in Association Councils.
Not quietly: this issue is very high on the current affairs agenda at the moment. But that does not cancel out the fact that it is among the top priorities for discussion as part of the abovementioned chapter.
Out of all the chapters that we have been negotiating with Turkey, every country has its priorities, it puts forward different issues, but that does not mean that it should permanently be the top priority, nor does it rule it out.
Mr. Pollatos: Mr. Spokesman, within the framework of international efforts aimed at tackling illegal migration, Turkey proposed joint Greek-Turkish search and rescue operations in the Aegean. They recently took up their previous proposal to assume responsibility; to provide assistance and to apprehend refugees found to the east of the 25th Meridian. Are you discussing that?
Mr. Delavekouras: There is no such issue.
Mr. Barrakat: Could you give us the number of legal migrants living in Greece and give us an indication as to the number of illegal migrants? If you don’t have the number, could you perhaps give it to us later. And also tell us whether Greece is receiving financial support from the European Union. Is this why European states are not interested in the issue of migration and Greece is not satisfied with this? Thank you.
Mr. Delavekouras: With regard to the number of migrants, you should contact the Ministry of Interior.
This is one of the topics to be discussed at the European Summit: burden-sharing. We think that the problem of illegal migration is a European problem and should be addressed as such.
The fact that Greece's geographical position makes it a point of first entry does not mean that Greece should cover the costs and assume the handling of this issue on its own.
There is potential for hosting migrants, burden-sharing, taking part in FRONTEX operations with human and other resources. All these issues require increased community cooperation.
Ms. Spanou: Given the impression of the Greek Diplomatic Service left by the findings of the two inquiries and given the statements of some government officials accusing the Union of Diplomatic Officials of lies, sectional expediency, etc., I wanted to ask whether you believe that the Greek Diplomatic Service still has the stature to handle our national matters efficiently.
Mr. Delavekouras: The Greek Diplomatic Service’s stature has not been compromised, nor is there an issue such as the one you’ve described. The Union of Diplomatic Officials will have another meeting with the Foreign Minister today as part of their regular contacts. There is no issue here.
Mr. Fourlis: My question is also on the same matter. Whether there is a problem, nevertheless, in the Minister’s cooperation with the Diplomatic Service and the diplomats of the Foreign Ministry. Because there have been repeated reports that there is a problem – at least at the level of psychological relations and trust between the Minister and the Diplomatic Service – and we noticed that in the first days of the preliminary Sworn Administrative Inquiry there was clearly an upheaval in the ranks of diplomatic officials in the Foreign Ministry.
Mr. Delavekouras: There is no problem in the Minister’s cooperation with diplomats or amongst the diplomats themselves. I repeat: There is simply no problem of cooperation. We are moving ahead normally, we are doing our job.
Mr. Filis: I have a question regarding the upcoming Erdogan visit to Athens. There will be a meeting with the Prime Minister at the Maximos Mansion. Could you brief us on the agenda for this meeting? And also, in case the issue of the Muslim minority in Thrace is brought up, what is your position on this issue?
Mr. Delavekouras: Information regarding this meeting will be given by the government spokesman. I haven’t got anything to announce at the moment.
Mr. Fourlis: I would like to ask whether we have information as to how Mr. Davutoglu will come to Corfu. Whether he will come by car or air, whether such an issue has been raised. I would also like to ask about Mr. Davutoglu and Mr. Erdogan, whether either of them has raised the issue of a visit to Thrace.
Mr. Delavekouras: I have read relevant reports over the past few days, but this information has not been confirmed by anyone.
Consequently, there is no such issue.
Mr. Pollatos: How is Mr. Milososki going to get to Corfu?
Mr. Delavekouras: The Civil Aviation Authority has been instructed to grant the Skopje Foreign Minister’s aircraft an exceptional landing permission, so that he can take part in the OSCE Foreign Ministers’ Meeting. As an exception to our existing policy, which remains unchanged.
Mr. Meletis: What do you mean by “exception”?
Mr. Delavekouras: Exception means exception. It means it is an exception to the rule that denies permission.
Mr. Meletis: Will this exceptional procedure be used again for other international obligations – for instance, the new Acropolis Museum or the Paralympics or any other opportunity to allow Skopje officials to come to Athens or to Greece, or will the rule apply?
Mr. Delavekouras: The rule applies.
Mr. Meletis: Then why do you have an exception now?
Mr. Delavekouras: This is an exception.
Mr. Meletis: Why?
Mr. Delavekouras: This is a very important meeting of great interest to international public opinion, and that is why this time an exception is being made – granting permission for Mr. Milososki’s aircraft to land. An exception that does not at all alter our policy on this particular issue.
Mr. Pollatos: Is there a scheduled one-on-one meeting between Mr. Milososki and Ms. Bakoyannis on the sidelines of the OSCE meeting?
Mr. Delavekouras: There is no scheduled meeting. The Foreign Minister will have bilateral meetings in Corfu. Meetings will not be announced yet – they will be announced next week, because the times are still being worked out for most of them. Are there any other questions?
Thank you very much.