The fall agenda
With the Euro elections on Sunday and preparations for the Olympics virtually complete, Costas Karamanlis’s three-month-old government is closing a chapter of commitments – chief of which was Cyprus – that it had been saddled with from the very first week of its term in power. Of course, the Games will be the main preoccupation of many ministers and dozens of state bodies until their launch. But, from the middle of summer, the government will be able to concentrate on preparing its agenda for the fall, which will include a plan of action until 2006. Transparency laws that are already at draft stage and are to be approved in September will provide the framework for ethical governance including respect for regulations and public finances, which Karamanlis sees as the cornerstone of his policy. Meanwhile, juridical authorities are to arrange inspections to uncover instances of mismanagement during the previous PASOK government. By September, the government’s economic advisers will have prepared a scheme for tackling the slowdown anticipated after the peak of the Olympics. Along with new development and tax laws, and a swifter absorption of European Union funds – which will be channeled into regional development – the government hopes to renew investor interest in Greece. This will be backed by a broad spectrum of privatizations and the simplification of many bureaucratic procedures…
