Pangalos says he’s the man for EU job
Theodoros Pangalos, a former foreign minister widely credited with helping achieve the last round of enlargement while Greece held the EU presidency in 1994, expressed bitterness yesterday at not being nominated by Prime Minister Costas Simitis to represent Greece at the intergovernmental conference on the EU’s future in 2004. As Foreign Minister George Papandreou had proposed Pangalos, it is a sign of how displeased with his former close aide Simitis has become, mainly because of Pangalos’s outspoken ways. Simitis has named PASOK Europarliament member Giorgos Katiforis to represent Greece, with J. P. Ioakeimides as his deputy. Paraskevas Avgerinos (PASOK) and Marietta Yiannakou (New Democracy) will represent the Greek Parliament. «Representing a country at the conference that will determine the nature of the EU in the next years is a very important task,» Pangalos said in Brussels. He noted that he had the necessary experience and contacts. He said Parliament should have chosen the representative. Specifically, of those who stayed with a rehab program for over a year, 73.44 percent were rehabilitated, while of those who spent fewer than 90 days at a center, only 11.84 percent were rehabilitated.
