“Opera of the Summer” / “Opera Lata” (15th September 2012) – Participation of the Press Office with the film “Diolkos”

September 15th, 2012,
From 15.30  to 01.00
Park around the Ujazdowski Castle

Open-air music and film evening

Summer Opera is an interdisciplinary outdoor event, entirely devoted to ‘the joy of music’ in a broad perspective: to create music, to listen to it, to understand it, to appreciate it and to dance on it.
Summer Opera is the follow-up of last year’s “Awakening of the summer” which was organized by the network of national institutes for culture and embassies in Warsaw: “EUNIC Warszawa” and CCA Zamek Ujazdowski and which brought 3000 persons to the castle on a warm midsummer night.
This year, once again, the gracious environment of the Castle will transform into a lively European boulevard and the keyword is ‘Opera’. Opera’ in the sense of a spectacular synthesis of arts; combining various elements, often surprising and sometimes disturbing, but always fascinating. The main role in the Summer Opera will be played by cinematography. 3 screens will show documentaries devoted to musicians, music and instruments. There will be animation- and feature films as well as music videos from several European countries and even a silent film. Feel like doing it? There will be a voice-workshop, lessons in Irish dancing, you can make music on what needs to be recycled and – of course – the opera brings also a music workshop for children and parents. Workshops are dedicated to everyone: those talented and those who cannot sing or play.
An Opera is not an Opera without a choir and an orchestra! Therefore on stage: Małe Instrumenty (Poland), Alfredo Costa Monteiro (Portugal) and Anthony Chorale (The Netherlands) and in the late hours: DJ Disco DJ Partizanti (Poland) and DJ PM Misha (Portugal).
For the hungry and thirsty the opera will serve Hungarian, Portuguese and Czech delights and more, more, more!
The opera brings thunder and lightning, but in case the weather is not in harmony with the opera, we will go inside. 
Workshops are open for everyone. No registration needed.
Detailed information on the websites of the organizers and on facebook.

Organizers:

EUNIC Warszawa (European Union National Institutes for Culture): Embassy of Greece – Press Office, Delegation Wallonie-Brussels (Embassy of Belgium), Embassy of Ireland, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Austrian Cultural Forum, Czech Center, Danish Cultural Institute, Instituto Camões, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Goethe Institute, Bulgarian Cultural Institute, Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, Romanian Cultural Institute, the Hungarian Cultural Institute in Warsaw
and:
Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle / KINO.LAB
Admission Free

The Press Office of the Greek Embassy invites you to the screening of the film “Diolkos”, at 18.30 in KINO.LAB.

A movie for the Diolkos of Corinth

1.500 years since the construction and use of the Corinthian Diolkos, the Technical Chamber of Greece in collaboration with the Society for the Study of Ancient Greek Technology, created a movie presenting one of the greatest innovations of technical civilization of Ancient Greece.
The 22 min. film, created with the use of 3D animations, represents one of the most important technological monuments of Greek civilization, Diolkos: an overland route for the transfer of ships between the Saronic and Corinthian gulfs along the Isthmus (Corinth), when there was no strait. The film offers many other technical details, but also extensive scenes of marine life in antiquity: gaming, visit at the Temple of Poseidon, fun time in a pub, the construction of Hydraulis (hydraulic, water music instrument) and an emotional confrontation.

Learn Greek Abroad On-Line

The teaching of Greek abroad will soon go online with a new e-learning programme being developed by the Centre of Intercultural and Migration Studies at the University of Crete.
The Centre is establishing a pilot Greek Diaspora school network that aims to eventually operate on an independent basis.
Greek teachers from schools abroad will visit Crete in July to participate in the creation of the project as partners. The teachers will participate in a two-week training programme at the University, following a 10-hour teleseminar briefing on Greek-language teaching methodology that they will undergo before their arrival. The programme is sponsored by the Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs.
(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)

Cycling in Athens

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   Environment, Town Planning and Public Works Minister George Souflias revealed ( in Greek) on Monday (15.6) a plan concerning the construction of a bicycle road network in Athens, stretching over a distance of 26.6 kilometres – from the northern suburbs of the city (Kifissia) to the coastal area of Faliro- cutting across archaeological sites. The Ministry in collaboration with the National Technical University of Athens will conduct a pilot study scheduled to be concluded within a period of 8 months, after which the construction of the road network will begin.  The project is expected to cost €7 million and will be included in the National Strategic Reference Framework (ESPA) 2007-13. 

FRONTEX Guards the EU Borders

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   Interior Minister Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Merchant Marine, Aegean and Island Policy Minister Anastasis Papaligouras recently signed a declaration for the supply of equipment with the European agency  Frontex – an EU body created to coordinate the operational cooperation between member-states in the field of border security – to curb illegal immigration into Europe. The effective handling of illegal migration is a particular concern to the EU and, of course, to Greece, whose national borders are also Schengen area borders in their entirety and EU external limits for the most part. The need for action becomes more urging since, lately, increased illegal migrant flows have been observed at the country’s eastern – land and maritime – borders. Greece participates actively in shaping a common European Surveillance System (EUROSUR) for all external land and maritime borders, in building the European Patrol Network, as well as in promoting the creation of a European Coast Guard, which was a Greek initiative. Frontex executive director Ikka Laitinen said that Greece was doing what it should but was faced with an exceptionally difficult task that had to be carried out in a difficult area and a difficult environment. Athens News Agency: Greece signs deal with Frontex; Hellenic Migration Policy Institute: www.imepo.gr & Statistical Data on Immigrants in Greece; Migrants in Greece: www.migrantsingreece.org; European Commission: Towards a Common Immigration Policy & A maritime Policy for the EU 

Hellenic Railways

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)   By 2014, the national railway network will have undergone major infrastructural changes, Hatzidakis announced at a joint press conference with the European Commissioner for Regional Policy Danuta Hubner, on September 9 in Athens. Electrical railway tracks as well as environmentalally-friendly urban transport and the tram line’s extension will be some of the suggested projects to be implemented through the National Strategic Reference Framework (2007-2013), worth €20 billion.

Studying Greek Politics / A New Webside

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  The Greek Politics Specialist Group (GPSG) of the UK’s Political Studies Association (PSA) has just launched its new website at: www.gpsg.org.uk  The GPSG is an independent, international, non-profit network of political and social scientists with an interest in Greece. The Group has a strong record of promoting the study of Greek government and politics through events and grants.  The GPSG will be organising panels at the 59th annual conference of the PSA (Manchester, April 2009) and will be proposing a panel on institutional reform at the 2009 international conference at Yale University (“The Challenge of Reform in Greece, 1974-2009: Assessment and Prospects”).  The Greek Politics Specialist Group website: Current Projects; Working Papers & Thematic Bibliographies; PSA Conference Panels

Citizen Service Centres (KEP) Network in Greece

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    The Ministry of Interior is sparing no effort in reinforcing and enhancing the Citizen Service Centres (KEP) network. According to Deputy Minister Christos Zois, the aim is to make the centres a virtual one-stop-shop, while providing valuable assistance to citizens and reducing the “red tape” of public administration. The service is appreciated by citizens and successive opinion polls bear witness to this effect. Approximately 60,000 citizens visit KEPs daily, which offer advanced multi-channel systems, helping citizens carry out their affairs with the various departments in the public domain through this seamless suite of integrated channels. Non Greek-speaking foreign nationals who live in Greece may call the multi-lingual call centre 24/7 at “1564,” or visit www.kep.gov.gr to obtain specific information pertaining to their case. Last year, KEPs received the “Good Practice Label 2007” at the EU eGovernment Conference in Lisbon, www.epractice.eu/cases/csckep

Greece – Spain: Ties that Bind

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)    Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis and his visiting Spanish counterpart Jose Luis Zapatero yesterday called for the creation of a common European Union coast guard to curb illegal immigration but stressed that the EU should not become a fortress against would-be migrants. “Dealing with illegal immigration is not an issue that concerns only the coastal member-states of the European Union, given that illegal migrants can move freely throughout the EU,” Karamanlis pointed out, while outlining a drive to create a European system for monitoring borders and a European patrol network. Furthermore, the two leaders agreed that a very effective way to minimize immigration flows is to increase aid towards migrants’ countries of origin in order to boost development. Other issues on the agenda included the creation of a Mediterranean Union, climate change, rising prices in Europe, renewable energy issues and bilateral economic relations. Kathimerini daily: Spain and Greece unite on migrants; Athens News Agency: Karamanlis, Zapatero discuss migration, energy issues; Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Bilateral Relations Greece-Spain 

EU Economy & the Greek Experience

(GREEK NEWS AGENDA)  “The Greek experience from the EU policy of economic and social cohesion and the Greek dimension in the EU process of developing the Structural Funds” is a paper written by Nikos Frangakis and A.D. Papagiannidis, both experts of the Greek Centre for European Studies and Research (www.ekeme.gr). This paper was presented on February 1st, 2008, in Budapest, at the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, in the framework of the EU-CONSENT Network of Excellence. According to the experts, the experience from the operation of the Structural Funds and the overall cohesion policy has been one of the major aspects of Greece’ participation to the EU for the better part of three decades and it also served as a visible factor in the very process of the EU developing its structural policies.  The Greek Experience from the EU Policy of Economic and Social Cohesion  by Nikos Frangakis and A.D. Papagiannidis, Greek Centre of European Studies and Research.