The Greek Deputy Foreign Minister, Kyriakos Gerontopoulos, announced on Thursday that in autumn the Parliament’s plenum will discuss and vote on the bill concerning the new Council of Hellenes Abroad (SAE).
Gerontopoulos pointed out that the Greek government is trying to revive SAE. He claimed that the bill won’t be discussed in Parliament’s summer sessions as it is an important issue that must be approved by the majority of the parties and not only by the coalition government. Furthermore, he stated that he has been in contact will all parties to listen to their opinion and proposals.
The Deputy Foreign Minister noted that the presidium of the new SAE will also include Cyprus’ representatives and that its general assembly will be composed by 107 members. He said the new SAE will have a more assertive character and it will be self-funded.
Gerontopoulos referred to the concerns expressed by some opposition parties. “There are different opinions concerning the participation of natural persons. This was the main problem in discussions with some of the parties,” he said.
He stressed the government’s belief that the Greeks of the Diaspora who are not organized in associations or federations must also be represented in SAE.
He finally announced that three hospitality programs for young expatriates, which were disrupted in previous years, will restart this summer in Greece. Two of them concern students up to 17 years-old while the third one concerns the training of Greek language teachers from countries of the former Soviet Union.
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