Britain’s minister for European affairs, Peter Hain, gave his Greek hosts two gifts during his two-day visit to Greece: praise for the effort to wipe out the November 17 terrorist gang, whose last victim was the British defense attache in Athens, and London’s commitment that Cyprus will join the EU in the next wave of enlargement irrespective of whether the island’s division has ended.

“I had the opportunity to congratulate George Papandreou on the excellent work by the Greek government and police in the effort to eliminate the November 17 organization,” Hain said yesterday after a meeting with the Greek foreign minister. Their talks focused on the Greek presidency of the EU in the first half of 2003.

Hain met also with six Scotland Yard officers who are in Greece. He expressed satisfaction at the cooperation between the two countries, stressing that the British contribution had consisted of “technical assistance and expert advice.”

Asked whether the breakthrough against November 17 could be seen as the end of terrorism in Greece, Hain said: “I cannot say something like that. However, this is great progress and a strong message to terrorists that they have been located, that the ability of November 17 to act, in the way we saw until today, is now a thing of the past and its days are numbered. This is a serious message for the whole world, for Greece’s international image, which had suffered serious damage from the activities of November 17.”

Regarding Cyprus, Hain said that the island would join the EU, according to the decision taken at Helsinki in 1999. But he stressed that “it is very, very important that we succeed in achieving a peace settlement before Copenhagen, if possible, because the united Cyprus coming in is very much better than the divided Cyprus coming in with all the problems.”