Minister of Defense Yiannos Papantoniou in a letter addressed to the Prime Minister proposes reforms in the armed forces. In addition, he submits his own proposals for the governing Socialist Party of PASOK agenda in view of the dialogue within the party aimed at drawing up its policy for the period 2004-2008.

According to the Athens newspaper “Ethnos”, the main reform suggested for the armed forces is the proposal for the employment of an additional 13.700 professional infantrymen. The goal of this proposal is to cut military service to be less than 12 months.

Mr. Papantoniou in his letter to the Prime Minister mentions that the defense spending cuts release a total of 2.7 billion euros, a sum that can be used to strengthen the development and social policy in 2004.