WHEN the Tanaiste Mr Spring meets the Greek Foreign Minister, Mr Theodoros Pangalos, next Friday, his main efforts are likely to be directed at encouraging the Greeks to lift their veto on Meda, the Mediterranean Economic Development Aid programme being blocked by Athens because of proposals to include Turkey.
Meda involves 13 Mediterranean countries, but Greece is try ding to devise a formula so that all of them, except Turkey, receive the funds.
The two Greek priorities are the continuing territorial claims being made in the Aegean by Ankara, and Greek hopes that the Irish presidency will see a new initiative on Cyprus.
The Cypriots have been promised that talks on the accession of Cyprus will open when the IGC concludes. They hope to become full members, along with Malta, by 1999 or 2000. There is intense speculation now that an Irish diplomat will be appointed as the EU's special negotiator on Cyprus.
Cyprus is still the key to Greek relations with Turkey, according to Professor Yannis Valinakis of the University of Athens, who said recently. "Progress in Cyprus would greatly facilitate Greek Turkish relations and contribute to the relaxation of regional tensions." In recent days, the tension between Greece and Turkey has eased in the Aegean, with both sides agreeing to suspend naval manoeuvres this summer to avoid any clashes.
Mr Pangolas says Athens wants to suspend manoeuvres to avoid any incident with Turkey, and the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ms Tansu Ciller, says. "Our government believes that measures like this create an atmosphere conducive to solving the problems between Turkey and Greece."
But Greek Turkish relations are at their lowest ebb since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, and Athens and Ankara recognise the tension could be damaging to tourism in both Greece and Turkey.
In Athens, Mr Spring will be meeting a more confident Mr Pangalos, whose position has been firmly consolidated since the Prime Minister, Mr Costas Simitis, won a tough internal party battle to become president of the ruling Panhellenic Socialist Movement (Pasok).
The prime minister's two key allies in the party battle were Mr Pangalos and the Development Minister, Dr Vasso Papandreou, who can now expect promotion in a cabinet shuffle, possibly ahead of Mr Spring's arrival. Both are experienced negotiators when it comes to European affairs Ms Papandreou is a former social affairs commissioner, and Mr Pangalos was a tough negotiator as European affairs minister.
In recent weeks, Mr Pangalos has taken a tough stand against the multiplying Turkish claims. The Aegean neighbours came to the brink of open hostilities in January after a Turkish landing party took possession of the tiny islet of Imia. The claims have persisted since, with the Greeks demanding Ankara go to the International Court and the Turks demanding that Athens should agree to negotiations on the Turkish claims.
The Turks added to their claims at the beginning of the summer, when Ankara indicated it regarded the small island of Gavdos off the south coast of Crete and 400 km south west of the Turkish coast as disputed territory or a "grey area".
Last month, the Turkish daily Millyet identified three more "orphan islands" in the Dodecanese to join the growing list of islands regarded by the Turkish government as grey areas Earmakonisi, Kalolimnos and Agathonisi.
The report said the Turkish Foreign Ministry would openly question Greek sovereignty on the islands if Greece exercised its right under the Law of the Sea Treaty to extend its territorial waters from six to 12 miles.
It is the view of Mr Simitis that Turkey openly disputes all legal documents and international treaties concerning Greek titles in the Aegean islands. This creates another source of for the region's stability. He beleives Turkey is openly disputing the Lausanne Treaty which settled the borders between Turkey an Greece in 192.
At a Pasok party meeting in Patras, Mr Pangalos, known for his colourful turn of phrase, accused Turkey of Nazi like tactics in the Aegean and compared Turkey's claims to the islands with Hitler's claims to Czechoslovakia and Poland.
Gavdos has been part of the modern Greek state since Crete was incorporated into it in 1913. Any question mark over the status of Gavdos raises the spectre of Turkish claims to all Ottoman possessions prior to the outbreak of the first World War claims that could be devastating throughout the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. But Turkey's claims to Imia and its attitude to the status of the Dodecanese islands of Farmakonisi, Kalolimnos and Agathonisi are equally absurd.
The Dodecanese were taken by Italy in 1912. Under the Treaty of Sevres in 1920, the Dodecanese were ceded to Greece along with Smyrna and part of the Anatolian hinterland, but the treaty was never ratified, and with the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 the islands were placed under Italian sovereignty.
The Italian administration attempted a forcible Latinisation of the the people, and spoken Greek and Greek Orthodox observances were banned in public from 1920. But the Italians were in no doubt that the islands were part of Greece.
In 1932, Italy and Turkey signed two agreements on the delimitation of the maritime frontier between the Dodecanese and the Turkish coast.
The first agreement, on January 4th, sets down the exact maritime frontier between the Turkish coast and the island of Kastellorizo in the south east Dodecanese. The second agreement, on December 28th, 1932, marked the maritime frontier between the Turkish coast and the rest of the Dodecanese. Both sides immediately implemented the agreements and abided by their provisions.
The Germans troops who surrendered to the Greeks on the island of Symi on May 8th, 1945, were the last Germans to lay down their arms. As one commentator noted, in their surrender, even the Nazis recognised the Dodecanese as Greek. Under the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947, the islands were formally transferred to Greek sovereignty.
Official maps of the Italian government in 1936, the official Turkish air and maritime navigation maps in 1953, and more recently maps from the US air force in 1994, the US Defence Mapping Agency, the Russian navy, the Turkish Foreign Ministry, the Turkish Geographical Service, and the EU's Corine environmental programme all show Turkey's acceptance of the 1932 agreements under which Imia, Farmakonisi, Kalolimnos and Agathonisi are marked clearly as Italian, and later Greek, territory.
Athens has been disappointed with the EU's failure to support Greece against the Turkish claims. Mr Pangalos has argued that the release of EU aid to Turkey would encourage Turkish "expansionism". Mr Simitis points out that Greece is the only European country facing an open threat against its territory not only in the Aegean but its entire borderline.
With the future of Ms filler's coalition pact with Mr Necmettin Erbakan and his Islamic Welfare Party now precarious and dependent on the far right ultra nationalist Grand Unity Party, she is in no position as foreign minister to climb down in the Aegean. Despite her concessions on manoeuvres this week, we could, in the words of Mr Pangalos last month, be facing a long hot summer in the Aegean, and Mr Spring may make no progress on changing minds in Athens about Meda.