This was a fascinating little event. The proper person to greet the Pope would be the senior hierarch having jurisdiction over the country. By this action, the Roman Cardinals seem to have given credence to the EP's claim that "barbarian lands" like America belong to the jurisdiction of the EP, and not to any other Patriarch, including the Patriarch of Rome! :-)
The rationale that the representative of the EP should greet the Pope since he is second in honor doesn't make any sense at all -- if this were true, the EP's representative would greet the Pope every time he enters almost any country, since the EP has some presence almost everywhere. This would then reinforce the idea that the Pope has universal jurisdiction as pontiff and that the EP has a nearly universal jurisdiction as a greeter!
I view the actions of the Cardinals as a very nice and kind, if befuddled, gesture, and Iakovos absolutely did the right thing in responding in kind with graciousness and saying "thank-you very much" and going on to greet the Pope.
"The rationale that the representative of the EP should greet the Pope since he is second in honor doesn't make any sense at all -- if this were true, the EP's representative would greet the Pope every time he enters almost any country, since the EP has some presence almost everywhere. This would then reinforce the idea that the Pope has universal jurisdiction as pontiff and that the EP has a nearly universal jurisdiction as a greeter!"
Oh, I don't know, maybe the EP's rep should always greet the Pope outside his own diocese (the Pope's) or perhaps outside the European West. After all, the Roman bishops and cardinals are sort of like the Pope's employees whereas the rep of the EP is just that, the rep of the EP. Now of course that would mean that the EP should be greeted by the Pope's men wherever he goes, rather like the Chairman of Board's rep greeting the vice chairman. Its all too complicated, and a bit too silly, frankly.
I think the real reason +Iakovos greeted the Pope was that the Vatican and the cardinals viewed him as the senior churchman in "Catholic" America and probably had nothing to do with the EP at all.