Dear Mr President, I am very happy to be in France on one of my first official visits as Prime Minister of Greece.
France is a strong country, an important country, a constant friend of Greece, not only now, not only during the years of crisis, in the last decade. The Greek people have not forgotten how our friend France has supported us. Yet our relationship goes back centuries. We are reminded of it by this coming 2021, which marks the two hundred years since the beginning of the Greek Revolution, during which the support of France was decisive as well. Our common past, therefore, shows us the way of the future.
I am here, at a critical juncture for my home country. After a long, ten-year crisis, our country is back on a path of growth and now assuming its self-reliant place in a Europe that was – and remains – its natural geographical, economic, political, social, but also cultural home.
President Macron and I have known each other for many years, from when he was Minister of Finance and I still Chief of the Opposition. That is why I have high expectations regarding our cooperation through our new roles. We will have the opportunity to discuss the new architecture of the European Union, the great challenges facing the Eurozone, the bold reforms that need to be made, the single budget that we support and all those tools that should be used to bring even greater growth and prosperity to the people of Europe. Growth that will make the EU an even stronger player in the global scale.
We need to discuss – borrowing President Macron’s terms – about a Europe that protects its citizens, a Europe that effectively guards its borders. A Europe of solidarity in tackling the refugee problem, which doesn’t place the burden only on the countries on its external borders, but shares responsibility by demonstrating genuine European solidarity. A Europe that also cooperates in dealing with natural disasters, as I was pleased to hear President Macron mentioning.
We will thus discuss how we can work towards realizing the idea first put forward by President Macron, of a European civil protection mechanism. It is currently in its early stage. Europe supported us in the great fires we had in Euboea. This mechanism must obtain permanent characteristics so that European solidarity can be demonstrated in times when the European states need it the most.
A Europe that is developing joint actions in the field of defense, but also making environmental and climate change issues a top, non-negotiable priority. It will be the great challenge of the next European Commission. It will be a challenge that cannot be addressed solely through declarations. I would like to take this opportunity to welcome President Macron’s global role in the Paris climate agreements, and to challenge each other to set even more ambitious goals to make Europe a truly green continent, a leader in innovation in the matters of energy transition.
We will also be discuss our bilateral cooperation, our economic cooperation. As I said before, the new government is working to bring Greece to a position of making a big leap forward. And in this big development leap we want French businesses, French entrepreneurship to be involved, and I want to invite French companies here in Paris to invest in our country, to become involved in the many, new opportunities that unfold before us.
I am optimistic about our meeting. President Macron and I have many things in common. But the most powerful bond that unites us is the strong foundation of our friendship, the friendship of the two peoples, the friendship between Greece and France in the past. These are the strongest guarantees for building an even stronger partnership now and in the future.
Dear Mr President, once more I would like to thank you very much for this warm welcome.
