SPEECH BY THE HON EDWARD FENECH ADAMI, PRIME MINISTER, AT THE DINNER IN HONOUR OF H.E. CONSTANTINOS SIMITIS , PRIME MINISTER OF THE HELLENIC REPUBLIC

It is an honour and a pleasure for me, on behalf of the people and Government of Malta, to extend to you, to Mrs Simitis and to the members of your delegation, our warmest welcome.

Your visit here today is thankfully less dramatic than the first known exchange between the inhabitants of Greece and Malta as recorded in the Odyssey. According to the poet Homer, Odysseus, his ship struck by a thunderbolt unleashed by an angry Zeus, drifted to the island of Ogyria, ruled by the amorous Calypso, which many have identified with Malta's sister island of Gozo. It is claimed that Calypso kept Odysseus captive for seven years, until, at the command of a forgiving Zeus, she helped him build another vessel and return to his faithful Penelope.

Since the legendary days of the Odyssey, other links have been forged between our two countries. This visit provides us with the opportunity to re-affirm the friendship between our two peoples and the co-operation between our governments, within a common framework of values and a shared context of material conditions.

The first, perhaps, of our common interests is the sea. Geography has made us neighbours, in the sense that between our two countries there lies the longest clear stretch of water in the Mediterranean.

Consequently, history has woven between our two peoples a mesh of intricate ties, with a traditional source in trade and seafaring. Suffice to say that we call the wind which blew St Paul to our shores the Grigal – precisely because it originates from Greece. It was the same wind which blew in 1990 as Presidents Bush Senior and Gorbachov sheltered in our harbour to declare an end to the Cold War, and to usher in a new era in international relations.

On both occasions, it was truly a wind of change which blew from Greece to our shores. Today, however, I feel that it is a refreshing breeze, rather than a grigal of tempestuous proportions, that you are bringing with you to Malta. It is the success story, with the dimensions of reality and not myth, of your already twenty-year long experience as members of the European Union.

I understand that, two weeks ago, you celebrated in Athens the twentieth anniversary of your country's accession to the European Union. On this occasion, the leaders of all political groups in the Greek Parliament acknowledged the benefits that your membership of the Union has brought to your people, as well as the national effort that had to be put in to achieve these benefits.

Your country's future development and growth within the Union also seems reinforced by a vision you defined a few weeks earlier in Thessaloniki, together with the President of the European Commission, Mr Romano Prodi, when you dwelt on the subject of "Greece and Europe: The Next Twenty Years".

Your Excellency,

In our own path towards accession, we are inspired by your efforts.

We recognise that the achievement of our objective requires an extended and thorough commitment at the national level. It requires in particular our wholehearted engagement towards the continuing process of industrial restructuring, the further opening up of our economy, the continuing improvement and modernisation of our administrative structures, the ever-increasing contact and interaction between our citizens and the citizens of the Union.

As in the case of Greece, we look on membership as an incentive, and a means of support, to implement the changes and restructuring that is required in our society, if we want to remain relevant and competitive in an increasingly globalised world.

In this context it is our hope and expectation that, like other candidate countries, we will increasingly be in a position to benefit from the programmes and instruments of pre-accession assistance elaborated by the Union, in anticipation of the time when, as members, we will benefit from the structural programmes of assistance intended for members themselves.

The achievement of our objective also requires that we identify very clearly those areas on which we need to negotiate some special or temporary arrangements in view of the particular circumstances prevailing in Malta. Our assessment is that these areas are few in number and will not stand in the way of Malta's adoption of all the essential elements of the Union's acquis. Nevertheless we continue to be as forceful and as thorough in our negotiations as the people of Malta expect and deserve.

Given this rigorous approach, we are fully confident that, when we take the results of our accession negotiations to the Maltese people in the promised referendum, we will receive their necessary endorsement and support.

I have no doubt that, as Malta moves closer to Europe, our bilateral relations will be enhanced and our co-operation will intensify. It will also allow us to support each other's policies, not least, in the Mediterranean and the Balkans.

In this regard, we are very pleased to note that Malta's bid for EU membership finds its greatest support within the Union from the Greek public.

Your Excellency

I wish to express our honour and satisfaction at having you here amongst us. During your visit, we will take the opportunity to share with you our aspirations and intensify our common understandings on Malta's progress towards EU membership, as well as to seek every avenue by which to enhance our bilateral relations. We also hope that you will have the occasion to savour our traditional warm welcome and hospitality.

May I now ask you to rise and drink to the health of the Prime Minister of the Hellenic Republic.