The Greek Service of the BBC is preparing a major series of programmes on Greek accession to the EEC, which will be broadcast for twenty consecutive weeks beginning in February.
The series will have two objectives in mind – first, to present a clear exposition of the various aspects of Greek accession, where necessary correcting factual misconceptions about membership which have gained currency in the Greek media and, secondly, to give informed and balanced comment on how membership is likely to affect various aspects of Greek life.
The need for the series is apparent from the constantly-heard demand in Greece for a “full debate” on what EEC membership will bring. Our information is that, although some professional groups have acquired a high degree of awareness of how accession will affect them, the general public has not been well served in this respect by the media, which have presented a partial and, in some cases, a highly emotive and Inaccurate picture of membership.
The BBC intends to broadcast the series “Greece and the EEC” for twenty consecutive weeks from February, on both Friday nights and in a different transmission repeated on Saturday nights. We shall also offer the series in script form for free use by selected newspapers and periodicals in Athens and by a wider range of provincial newspapers. We are also looking into the possibility of publication in book form later in the year.
THE FORMAT OF THE SERIES
Each programme will be fifteen minutes long and will fall naturally into two parts – an exposition of the particular aspect or problem of Greek accession and an assessment of its likely implications. The first part of the programme will be mainly the work of one of the three BBC producer» assigned to the series; the second part will consist of interviews with EEC spokesmen, Greek politicians and businessmen or Greek-speaking academics. A list of the speakers we shall be calling on is given below.
THE PROGRAMMES
- The Greek reason for membership; an introduction, setting out the aim of the series, and telling in feature form the history of Greece’s relations with the EEC and the present government’s motives in seeking full membership.
- The entry terms after the negotiations
- The transitional period
- Agriculture – the main advantages
- Agriculture – the problem areas; including dairy produce and the hill fanning
- Greece and Mediterranean Farming; including recent measures taken at the behest of the Italians and French, the problems of Spanish and Portuguese accession and the EEC’s agreements with other Mediterranean producers
- Big Industry and the investment problem
- Small industries with particular attention to accounting procedures
- Energy
- Textiles
- Shipping
- The Labour market after accession
- Regional policy; Including the issues yet to be negotiated in Brussels
- Greece’s budgetary contributions
- Capital movements and the need for a full money market
- The Political Institutions; including the role of the Council of Ministers, the Permanent Representatives, and the Greek Commissioner and EEC staff Greek parties in the European Parliament
- Greek parties in the European Parliament
- Defence and Foreign Policy a discussion programme
- Final discussion on how the Greek economy will be affected
- Final discussion on how Greek politics will be affected.
THE SPEAKERS
The reporters of the series will be Nicholas Lingris, Demetrius Petychakis and Vasilis Kapetanyannis.
By the beginning of the series, we shall have taped interviews with Constantine Mite owlets, Minister of Coordination, Adamantios Pepelassis, Governor of the Agricultural Bank of Greece, John Pezmasoglou, leader of the KODISO party and negotiator of the Greek Association Treaty with &he EEC, and Andreas Papandreou, Leader of the Opposition and of PASOK. We hope later to record an interview with Constantine Kontogeorgis, Minister for EEC Affairs.
During the course of the series we shall be calling on the following academics in Britain/Professor Spraos, of University College London, Loukas Tsoukalis and Anthony Courakis of Oxford University, George Psacharopoulos, George Kirtsos and Harris Stamatopoulos of the London School of Economics, Panos Tsakaloyannis and George Yannopoulos of Reading University, Yannis Papathanasiou of Queen Mary College, London University, Michael Pateras, researcher for the Association of
Greek Industrialists and Messrs Petrocheilos and Gramenos, who write on capital and investment affairs.
David Perman