THESSALONIKI
About 800 Greeks living abroad meet in Thessaloniki, from 11-14 of December, within the framework of the 5th World Conference of the World Council of Greeks Abroad. This conference aspires to be a milestone in the history of SAE by drawing up a new course of high demands in the 21st century for the Greeks all over the world in view of the 2004 Olympic Games.
A change of SAE’s name will be discussed in the meeting, eight years after its founding, as the term emigrant is not appropriate anymore, given the fact that Greece has over four generations of immigrants in many continents.

One of the changes promoted will be to hold the world conferences every four years and the regional conferences every two years.

For the first time in the history of the institution, the observer status will be abolished and the Greeks in Albania and Turkey will be included in the electorate as regular members. Also, the large and historic communities of Sydney and Adelaide in Australia, which were excluded, will be allowed to participate in the conferences.