Spanish Eyes in Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis is scheduled to meet with Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodriguez Zapatero today, who is on an official visit to Greece. Talks are expected to focus on the creation of a Mediterranean Union. First proposed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the union would bring together European Union states and countries washed by the Mediterranean Sea, including Turkey. Other topics on the agenda include the future of the EU and regional cooperation as well as bilateral ties. Zapatero, accompanied by his wife Sonsoles Espinosa, visited the site of the Parthenon yesterday. Kathimerini daily: A Mediterranean Union… Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Greece-Spain bilateral relations;  Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Greek Mediterranean Policy; The Bridge magazine, Sarkozy’s Mediterranean, A dream or an implementable agenda?

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Greece: Energy Matters

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    Development Minister Christos Folias in an interview with Reuters April 16 said, that Greece has agreed to join Russian-backed South Stream gas pipeline which will take Siberian gas to southern Europe through Greece. The pipeline is a joint project by Gazprom and Italian ENI. Serbia, Bulgaria and Hungary recently joint the South Stream project. Countering views seen this project as a competitor to the long-stalled Nabucco pipeline, the Minister said: “I don’t want to see them as athletes competing against each other. I would say they are complementing each other and are offering Europe multiple energy providers, which is good.”  

Turkey Unveiled in the Greek Bridge Magazine

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   The Bridge magazine (www.bridge-mag.com) reports on European integration, Southeast Europe and the East Mediterranean.  The current issue now online (Issue 7), titled “Turkey Unveiled” presents an overall image of Turkey touching upon its political, economic and cultural aspects. Contributions include Conservatism Globalism vs Defensive Nationalism (Ziya Önis, Koç University), From Domestic Crisis  to Regional Challenge (Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, University of Athens), Out of the box: Turkish media going global (Esra Arsan, Bilgi University), Performance and prospects of Turkish economy (Inan Demir, Finansbank).