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262. Economic Survey of Greece, 2005
- Publication Date:
- 07-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
- Abstract:
- Recent and prospective growth performance is good. The Greek economy has continued to grow vigorously, buoyed especially by low nominal and real interest rates and an expansionary fiscal policy stance, largely reflecting public works in preparation for the Olympic Games in 2004. The outlook is for some slowing activity in the near term, triggered by fiscal consolidation, but a subsequent pick-up in growth thereafter. However, inflation is likely to remain above the euro-area average, to a certain extent eroding Greece's international competitiveness. Fiscal consolidation is the main priority. The fiscal audit, performed by the new government in close collaboration with Eurostat has revealed a very loose fiscal policy since the late 1990s, culminating in a general government deficit of 6% of GDP in 2004. The government debt-to-GDP ratio has remained stubbornly above 100%, despite uninterrupted strong growth during the past eleven years. Reining in government deficits is of vital importance both to meet the fiscal objectives of EMU, and to prepare for demographically-related budget pressures that will start emerging in a decade's time. Moreover, sustained high public debt makes Greece relatively more vulnerable to changes in interest rates and market sentiment, while it's servicing threatens to crowd out public spending in areas important for Greece's ambitions to reach income levels elsewhere in the EU.
- Topic:
- Development, Economics, and Government
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Greece
263. The New Turkish Economy and EU Accession Talks
- Author:
- Meral Varis
- Publication Date:
- 11-2005
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
- Abstract:
- Now that negotiations toward full Turkish membership in the European Union (EU) have begun, what are the prospects for the Turkish economy? In particular, could Turkey attract significant global investment and take off economically as happened in Spain, Portugal, and Greece in the 1980s and Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic in the 1990s when those countries negotiated for EU accession?
- Topic:
- International Relations and Economics
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Turkey, Middle East, Greece, Poland, Hungary, Spain, and Portugal
264. Pan-Albanianism: How Big A Threat To Balkan Stability?
- Publication Date:
- 02-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- International Crisis Group
- Abstract:
- Pan-Albanianism is seen by many observers as a serious threat to Balkan stability. A century of shifting borders has left ethnic Albanians scattered across Kosovo, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and Greece. The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), the National Liberation Army (NLA) in Macedonia, and other groups have all waged campaigns of violence in support of enhanced rights for ethnic Albanians. Where is the ceiling to their ambitions?
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Central Asia, Greece, Kosovo, Serbia, Balkans, Macedonia, Albania, and Montenegro
265. CERI: Religion and Politics in Greece: The Greek Church's 'Conservative Modernization' in the 1990s
- Author:
- Anastassios Anastassiadis
- Publication Date:
- 01-2004
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Internationales (CERI)
- Abstract:
- This article addresses the sensitive question of Church-State relations in Greece. Recent studies have suggested that the Greek Church's discourse was plainly incompatible with modern conceptions of liberal democracy. Populism and nationalism have been the two theoretical concepts used in relation with the Church. Discourse analysis based on public declarations of Church officials has been the main methodological tool. The Greek identity cards' crisis of the nineties has been its testing ground. Through an analysis of this "crisis" this article intends to show that these methods can offer only very limited perspectives of understanding the process for two main reasons. First, they show little interest for sociological analysis and especially for the internal functioning of the Church. Second, discourses are one outcome of the actors' strategies but have to be deciphered and not taken for granted. Analysts disregard one of the main presuppositions of semantics theory: discourses are produced within a specific socio-historical context and according to certain prefabricated schemes. This dual pattern of production allows for continuity as well as for change. Thus, this article also argues that a Church's conservative discourse may be closely related to the efforts of certain actors within this institution to renovate it. While refuting the "clash of civilizations" thesis, this article finally intends to suggest that the renewed interest for religion in general and orthodoxy in particular due to this thesis should be put to use by researchers in order to acquire new and more comprehensive socio-historical accounts of the Greek Church.
- Topic:
- Democratization, Development, and Religion
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Greece
266. Cyprus after the Failure of the Annan-Plan
- Author:
- Jan Asmussen
- Publication Date:
- 06-2004
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- European Centre for Minority Issues (ECMI)
- Abstract:
- On 24 April 2004 Greek and Turkish Cypriots decided in separate simultaneous referenda on whether or not Cyprus would join the European Union on 1 May 2004. While 64.91% of Turkish Cypriots accepted the Annan Plan, an overwhelming majority of 75.83% of Greek Cypriots rejected the UN blueprint. The extent of the Greek Cypriot “Oxi”(No) brought an end to a large scale effort by the United Nations Secretary-General to broker a final deal for a solution of the “oldest item continuously on the peacemaking agenda”.1 Apart from the UN, the United States (Special envoy: Thomas Weston), the United Kingdom (Special envoy: (Sir David Hannay) and the European Union have constantly observed and tried to facilitate the process. Consequently, there has been a great deal of disappointment among those engaged in finding a solution. The most outspoken comment came from EU Enlargement Commissioner, Günter Verheugen who on 21 April declared that he felt “cheated” by the Greek Cypriot Government. Kofi Annan’s latest report clearly puts most of the blame for the failure on the Greek Cypriot leader, Tassos Papadopoulos, and his government and stresses that “if the Greek Cypriots are ready to share power and prosperity with the Turkish Cypriots in a federal structure based on political equality, this needs to be demonstrated, not just in word, but in action.”3 Apparently, the international community never took the possibility of such an outcome into consideration. As a result, both the EU and the UN concentrated on pressuring the Turkish Cypriot side and Turkey to accept the UN Plan. At the same time no efforts were made to secure a more positive attitude by the Greek Cypriot leadership. Today the international community is in a stage of shock and has clearly not developed an alternative plan to cope with the new situation.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, United Nations, Minorities, European Union, Leadership, Ethnicity, Diversity, and Peace
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus
267. Ministerial Elites in Greece, 1843-2001: A Synthesis of Old Sources and New Data
- Author:
- Dimitri A. Sotiropoulos and Dimitris Bourikos
- Publication Date:
- 05-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University
- Abstract:
- The study of Greek political elites used to be concentrated on parliamentary deputies. Ministerial elites were rarely studied. In this paper, we take a long-term view of the Greek ministerial elites, studying their socio-political profile from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. We find that this profile does not change so much with regime change, but instead follows political developments at certain time points within specific regime periods. At these points, new political leaders were ushered into power. Examples were Eleftherios Venizelos in 1911 and Andreas Papandreou in 1981. Changes in personnel were not accompanied by changes in geographical origin or professional outlook, which took much longer to effect. In the nineteenth century mainly landowners and state officials dominated cabinets. After the beginning of the twentieth century, however, liberal professions, particularly lawyers, were overrepresented among ministers. This pattern continued throughout the twentieth century. Both the predominance of lawyers and the changes in the profile of ministers over time are attributed to the type of state built in modern Greece, a clientelist, overcentralized and legalistic state which only recently has started its transformation, requiring a different, more modern type of politician.
- Topic:
- Government, Nationalism, and Politics
- Political Geography:
- Europe and Greece
268. Prespa Economic Task Force Report: Barriers and Incentives to Cross-Border Economic Development
- Publication Date:
- 01-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- EastWest Institute
- Abstract:
- Building upon the positive co-operation undertaken to date, mainly concerning the protection and management of the Prespa Lakes region and the Prespa Park following the trilateral Declaration by the Prime Ministers: Mr. Costas Simitis, Mr. Ljubc o Georgievski and Mr. Ilir Meta, of 2 February , 2000, and in the spirit of the joint message delivered on 29 September 2000 by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs Mr Aleksandar Dimitrov, Mr Paskal Milo and Mr George Papandreou at the Otesevo Conference a s well as the conclusions of the afore-mentioned conference (co-organised by the EastWest Institute, the Council of the Europe and the OSCE) an d the conclusions of the trilateral cross-border co-operation meeting, Korca – Kozani – Bitola, adopted in Kozani, September, 2001, EastWest Institute in close collaboration with its partners, (the Regional Enterprise Support Centre (RESC) in Bitola (former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), the Centre for Inter - Balkan Cooperation (CIBC) in Kozani (Greece) and the Regional Development Agency (RDA ) in Korce (Albania), launched a process for the creation of the Prespa Economic Task Force.
- Topic:
- International Cooperation, International Trade and Finance, and Political Economy
- Political Geography:
- Eastern Europe, Greece, Balkans, Macedonia, Albania, Maryland, and Kozani
269. Illegal Immigration, Human Trafficking, and Organized Crime
- Author:
- Raimo Väyrynen
- Publication Date:
- 10-2003
- Content Type:
- Working Paper
- Institution:
- United Nations University
- Abstract:
- It is important to make a careful distinction between illegal immigration, human smuggling, and human trafficking which are nested, but yet different concepts. This distinction is relevant because these different categories of the illegal movement of people across borders have quite different legal and political consequences. Human smuggling and trafficking have become a world-wide industry that 'employs' every year millions of people and leads to the annual turnover of billions of dollars. Many of the routes and enclaves used by the smugglers have become institutionalized; for instance, from Mexico and Central America to the United States, from West Asia through Greece and Turkey to Western Europe, and within East and Southeast Asia. More often than not flourishing smuggling routes are made possible by weak legislation, lax border controls, corrupted police officers, and the power of the organized crime. Naturally, poverty and warfare contribute to the rising tide of migration, both legal and illegal.
- Topic:
- Environment and Human Welfare
- Political Geography:
- United States, Europe, Turkey, East Asia, Greece, Asia, Latin America, Central America, North America, Mexico, Southeast Asia, Western Europe, and West Asia
270. The Greek Presidency's Programme for the military aspects of ESDP
- Author:
- Claire Piana, Jamie Woodbridge, and Dermot Doyle
- Publication Date:
- 09-2002
- Content Type:
- Policy Brief
- Institution:
- International Security Information Service
- Abstract:
- Following the Edinburgh agreement of 1992,Denmark waived its right to act as Presidency in all cases involving the elaboration and implementation of decisions having defence implications. Thus Greece now acts on behalf of Denmark on such issues Speaking to the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament (EP) on 11September, the Defence Minister Yiannos Papantoniou introduced the Greek Programme for the military aspects of ESDP.
- Topic:
- Security and Defense Policy
- Political Geography:
- Europe, Greece, and Denmark