Statement by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras at the 4th Summit of Southern European Union Countries.
I would like to thank Paulo [Gentiloni], the Italian Prime Minister for today’s Summit which I believe highlights the importance our initiative is gradually acquiring, the initiative of the southern European countries have taken, in a very critical period, in a very critical time for the future of the European Union and the Eurozone. And it is our common conviction that we have taken very important steps to meet international and regional challenges.
Ιt is our common belief that the future of Europe can be auspicious only if we take necessary and courageous steps towards the essential changes and reforms that Europe needs.
Europe will be able to offer its citizens a prosperous future, only if it changes. And we will change not only if we take courageous initiatives but also if we do not repeat the same mistakes, the same erroneous policies.
We agreed that 2018 can be a milestone year for the end of the crisis in Europe, but also a substantive debate to take protective measures so that the crisis, the economic crisis, will not be repeated. The issue is not only to exit the crisis but also to prevent the possible emergence of new ones.
However, I think it is rather significant that the crisis ends where it first appeared, where it started, in the South. And I would refer particularly to something that concerns Greece, it ends substantially and symbolically where it started with the exit of Greece from the fiscal adjustment programs in August 2018.
So now it is time to start discussing about Europe and our common future, not by using the language of the crisis but the language of our common principles and values, with a vision for the next day, for young people, for the future of Europe. Speaking the language of democracy, solidarity and unity, because if something is missing today in Europe, it is not the rules of fiscal adjustment and the application of these rules. If something is missing, it is the common rules on solidarity and convergence, social and economic. We have to form them and we must apply them. That is why I believe that the deepening of the Eurozone is necessary based on greater democracy and greater social cohesion axes.
No monetary union can survive without any convergence rules, with permanent large internal deviations and with opposite directions.
We, also, discussed today – how could this be missing from our conversation – about the refugee and immigration issues. After all, the flows arrive from the borders of EU and we are countries at the borders, south and east. So it is obvious that what is tested is Europe’s ability to manage a global challenge, but also the EU’s own cohesion.
The countries of the South must therefore strive to work towards the implementation of an effective common European immigration policy. With regard to effective border management, but solidarity as well. Mainly in the countries that receive the largest flow.
Finally, we discussed international and regional developments, developments in which the EU must influence in support of international law, peace, security and crisis resolution on all the major fronts, especially in our region, especially in the Mediterranean.
From our side, we stressed in particular the importance of a fair and viable solution to the Cyprus issue, so as Nicos [Anastasiades], and the need for the Aegean Sea to be a sea of peace and cooperation. The European security is, actually, increasingly based on the Aegean and certainly needs to be an area of peace and cooperation without threats where international law will be respected by all our neighbors.
With these thoughts, I would like thank once again Paolo, and wish our next meeting to be sooner and constitute a milestone for the necessary changes, the great debate that has begun in Europe on the necessary changes for the future of Europe. Because, as Paolo said, the countries of the European South have a special weight, I would say, can play a decisive role in these changes. Not only because of the cultural tradition and the pro-European approach, but also because they can play a decisive role in the prospect of unity, but also in the prospect of the great breakthroughs needed and courageous changes that, Europe, our common home needs.
