Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
05ATHENS355
2005-02-02 16:14:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Athens
Cable title:  

AMBASSADOR'S BALKANS LUNCH HIGHLIGHTS GREECE'S

Tags:  PREL PGOV GR AMB 
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This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 000355 

SIPDIS

FOR EUR/SE AND EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV GR AMB
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S BALKANS LUNCH HIGHLIGHTS GREECE'S
DESIRE FOR LEADERSHIP ROLE


Classified By: AMB. CHARLES P. RIES FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 ATHENS 000355

SIPDIS

FOR EUR/SE AND EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/02/2015
TAGS: PREL PGOV GR AMB
SUBJECT: AMBASSADOR'S BALKANS LUNCH HIGHLIGHTS GREECE'S
DESIRE FOR LEADERSHIP ROLE


Classified By: AMB. CHARLES P. RIES FOR REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: At a February 1 lunch hosted by Ambassador
to discuss Balkans issues, Greek MFA Balkans Director
Mallias, recently returned from a visit to Washington,
advocated for the EU to involve itself more in Kosovo --
ideally, administering the territory until final status
negotiations are complete. He agreed that Serbia needed to
do more on ICTY cooperation, and said that delivering war
crimes indictees should be linked to explicit rewards, such
as PfP membership. Asked about Greece's vaunted Balkan
Reconstruction Fund, Mallias answered that the GoG was moving
ahead, having already allocated 90 of the total 500 million
euros, but that Greece needed to be more careful in
accounting for expenditures. Other participants urged U.S.
engagement in the Balkans and worried that USG preoccupation
with Iraq would reduce U.S. commitment to the region. The
lunch, also attended by opposition leader Papandreou's
foreign policy advisor, highlighted the extent to which
Balkans policy is not a partisan issue here: both big parties
support a leadership role for Greece in the region and
broadly similar approaches. END SUMMARY.


2. (U) Greek invitees to Ambassador's February 1 Balkan
issues lunch included: Ambassador Alexandros Mallias, Head
of the MFA's Balkans Directorate; Panayiotis Kammenos, Vice
Chairman of the Parliament Foreign Relations Committee;
Professor Costas Yfantis, Associate Professor of
International Relations, University of Athens, and Director
of the MFA's Center of Analysis and Policy Planning; Dimitris
Droutsas, foreign policy advisor to opposition PASOK leader
George Papandreou; and Vassilis Costis, Deputy Head of the
MFA's Balkans Directorate.

Kosovo Status, Haradinaj, U.S. engagement


3. (C) Reflecting remarks he made during his recent visit
to Washington, Ambassador Mallias said it made the most sense
for the EU to administer Kosovo until final status is
achieved. Asked if the EU was willing to engage in this way,
Mallias admitted that it would be a difficult task, noting
that European Commission officials had argued to him that the
EC had no experience with "administering colonies."

Nevertheless, Mallias maintained that the EU had to be more
involved in Kosovo to make clear the benefits of an EU
perspective and to better monitor progress.


4. (C) Mallias had praise for PM Haradinaj, with whom he
talked in the past week, saying that Haradinaj wanted to move
ahead on matters affecting Kosovar Serbs, such as the
rebuilding of Orthodox churches damaged in the March 2004
violence. Asked about Haradinaj's possible indictment for
war crimes, Mallias answered that it was just a matter of
time, as ICTY prosecutor Carla del Ponte had signaled her
intention to go ahead.


5. (C) Parliament Foreign Affairs Vice Chair Kammenos
argued that nothing in Kosovo would change without first
establishing security for all inhabitants and ridding the
area of organized criminal gangs, including those that
traffic in humans. In this regard, he made a strong pitch
for the U.S. to remain engaged in Kosovo (and in the Balkan
region generally): only the U.S. can provide the security
that is needed; the EU still cannot. Picking up on this
theme, Professor Yfantis commented that some Greeks believed
the U.S. was no longer interested in the Balkans because of
its preoccupation with Iraq. Ambassador answered that the
Balkans remained an area of strategic interest for
Washington.

Serbia


6. (C) Ambassador noted that the news out of Serbia was
fairly bleak, particularly regarding cooperation with ICTY
and on Kosovo. Mallias agreed with this assessment, saying
that the country "had lost five years" on its path toward
trans-Atlantic integration, but that there had been some
recent good news, such as the intended surrender of indicted
war criminal General Lazarevic to ICTY. Mallias argued in
favor of telling the Serbs explicitly that cooperation on
delivering the other Serb indictees to ICTY would bring clear
benefits, such as moving ahead with Serb membership in NATO's
Partnership for Peace.

Albanian Elections


7. (C) Mallias agreed with Ambassador's comment that the
2005 general elections in Albania represent an important
litmus test of that country's progress, and mentioned that
Greece remains concerned about electoral developments,
particularly as they relate to Greek minority areas in the
south of the country. (Note: On February 2 Mallias' deputy,
Vassilis Costis, called us to say the GoG would weigh in with
the Albanians to urge that there be no changes to electoral
districts in the months before the elections. Costis said
that Greek minority contacts in Albania have voiced their
fears to the GoG about being gerrymandered, and asked if the
USG would raise this issue with the Albanians as well. End
Note.)

Balkan Reconstruction Fund


8. (C) Asked the status of Greece's 500 million euro Balkan
Reconstruction Fund (BRF),Mallias said that some 20 percent
had already been allocated, all in the form of co-financing
of private investments. He added that few if any of the
direct government-to-government grants have been allocated.
While reiterating his government's commitment to the Fund,
Mallias cited his government's present budget crisis as
putting a crimp on disbursements. He also mentioned that his
government had to be extremely careful in accounting for BRF
money, noting that the GoG had not been able to determine how
USD 200 million was spent in Albania in 1997-1999.
Understanding the difficulty of funding appropriate projects
and establishing large-scale aid missions, the Ambassador
offered to arrange meetings with appropriate USG personnel
who could offer assistance to Greece in this regard. Mallias
agreed that this could be useful. For his part, Dimitris
Droutsas, foreign policy advisor to opposition PASOK leader
Papandreou, pointed out that the Fund was initiated under
PASOK and welcomed the GoG's continued commitment to it.

Greece's SEECP Chairmanship


9. (C) Mallias related that during its upcoming SEECP
Chairmanship, Greece would focus on making the SEECP more
effective by holding closed-door, ministers-only meetings,
rather than the large, showy, highly-publicized SEECP
meetings of the past. Greece wanted there to be serious
discussion of the main Balkans issues, such as Kosovo's
status, and believed this could best be achieved in this
manner. Also, Greece would initiate a "harmonization of
textbooks" project to put an end to Balkan schoolchildren
learning that "our country's territory is far too small,
while our neighbor's is far too big."


10. (C) COMMENT: Mallias' comments suggest that Greece,
both the government and opposition, realizes this is an
important year for Balkan developments -- Kosovo status
review, Serbia at the crossroads, Albanian elections -- and
wants to see the EU play a far greater role in the region.
At the same time, we didn't sense much optimism on the Greek
side that they would succeed in convincing EU partners to
take on still more of the responsibilities. END COMMENT.