A Greek delegation comprised of H.E. Mr. Christos Zois, Deputy Minister of Interior of the Hellenic Republic, and Ms. Piji Protopsaltis, Deputy Director of the EPLO, visited Beirut on 1-2 November 2007. They participated in the official ceremony organized at the Grand Serail by the Ministry of Administrative Reform of Lebanon for the signature of the Memorandum of Understanding between the Ministry of Interior of the Hellenic Republic and the Ministry of Administrative Reform of Lebanon. H.E. Mr. Zois and H.E. Mr. Jean Oghassabian, Minister of Administrative Reform of Lebanon, signed the respective Memorandum of Understanding in the afternoon of November 1st, in the presence of H.E. the Ambassador of Greece Mr. Panos Kalogeropoulos and the media.
During this visit, the Greek delegation was received by H.E. the Prime Minister of Lebanon Mr. Fouad Siniora before attending the ceremony that sealed the will of the two parties to give a new dimension to the coordination and enhancement of their deep-rooted friendly relations, and allowed the development of new dimensions of bilateral cooperation in the field of public administration. The European Public Law Organizations will be the operator of this cooperation through the program “ALEXIOS: Administrative Reform in Lebanon” co-financed by the department of International Development Cooperation (YDAS) of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has been running in Lebanon since 2004.
The elaboration of an implementation plan and proposals for additional actions of cooperation that can be undertaken by both Parties, once the Memorandum of Understanding has entered into force, will follow shortly in order to consolidate the various aspects of the aforementioned collaboration.
The meeting led to very fruitful conclusions and it was qualified by the media and the participants as absolutely successful.
