Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos communicated today, Wednesday, 22 January 2014, with the Executive Director of Greenpeace Hellas, Nikos Charalambidis, who assured him that the three environmental organizations – Greenpeace, Oceanica, and the WWF – had been briefed by the Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), in The Hague, who assured them that nothing will be dumped in the Mediterranean during the process of the neutralization of Syria’s chemical weapons. Moreover, he informed them that the process of hydrolysis at sea had been chosen, because there isn’t the technical capability for it to be carried out on land.
Mr. Venizelos was informed -- regarding the same issue – by the German Foreign Minister, during the latter’s recent visit to Athens, that the goal is to transport the product of the hydrolysis and complete its destruction in Germany.
In Montreux, Mr. Venizelos discussed the matter yet again with his Italian counterpart, with whom he agreed on the sending of a letter to the director of the OPCW.
In this context, Mr. Venizelos also asked the EU High Representative to act in the name of the Council to ensure that there be no doubt on the part of the UN or the OPCW as to the security and protection of the Mediterranean environment during the process of the transporting and destruction of Syrian chemical weapons.
January 22, 2014