“Mr. Ambassador,
Esteemed Members of Parliament,
Esteemed members of the Francophone Business Forum and the Hellenic-French Chamber of Commerce,
I would like to welcome you to Athens, to this very important economic conference that forges and strengthens Greece’s traditionally excellent relations with France. Greek-French cooperation is always at a very high level. France’s important contribution to Greece’s course towards the European Economic Community is well known and acknowledged, as is our close cooperation in the EU and within the framework of all the major international organizations, including the International Organisation of La Francophonie, of which Greece has been a full member since 2006.
I am pleased because the slogan “Greece-France Alliance”, which passed from the defence sector in the 1970s to the culture sector today, is, through the recent, very successful initiative of the French Embassy in Athens, extending into the sector of the economy as well. In the economy sector we can do a great deal to strengthen French investments in Greece, to support Greek-French cooperation, the export activities of Greek enterprises in France, and the joint actions that can even further promote France’s economic relations with Greece.
I would like to thank each of you individually for your efforts and for your presence here today, which is the best proof of the strong will of enterprises, of societies, of our countries’ leaderships to strengthen and further deepen Greek-French friendship and economic cooperation.
Your Excellencies,
Greece is at a critical turning point. Five years of unprecedented efforts are being completed. We are in the last mile of the Marathon out of the crisis. We chose the difficult path of remaining in the eurozone, because this was the safest path for the country and, in the end, offered Greek men and women the potential to hope again that Greece will very soon claim not just the position it once held, but a much better, competitive position in Europe and in the global economy.
Greece has a comprehensive plan for exiting the Memorandum and the status of being under troika monitoring, because at the end of this year the European part of the plan is coming to completion. We put this plan to the vote, through a vote of confidence, in the Hellenic Parliament. The government’s goal is for this plan to constitute a comprehensive agreement with our partners, including the confirmation of the sustainability of the debt, before the election of the President of the Republic.
In this context, we said that we will also look at the agreed completion of the part of the programme that concerns the IMF, in cooperation with the IMF and our European partners. We stressed that the existing European support mechanisms that can be activated are sufficient. Greece has the right to enter into a new phase. a “post-programme” phase, keeping active the existing European support mechanisms.
Of course, Greece respects the eurozone rules in effect and the relevant terms, and, like all of the members of the eurozone, participates in the multilateral supervisory mechanisms within the framework of the European institutions and processes, but this has nothing to do with the troika.
My Dear Friends,
Greece is proceeding with a plan, security, with strategic stability on five axes, so that we can take the next steps toward a definitive exit from the crisis.
These five axes are:
1. Gradual release from the Memorandum, a return to European normalcy, the implementation of the national recovery plan without a troika, but within the institutional framework of the European Union and the Eurozone. With the final decision regarding our relations with the International Monetary Fund, with the final confirmation of the sustainability of the debt; sustainability that we have already secured.
2. The second axis is political and institutional stability. And this begins with the protection of institutions, with the election of the President of the Republic, with the necessary consensus.
3. The third axis is protection of social cohesion.
4. The fourth axis is the consolidation of Greece’s position in Europe and the world. The strengthening of the institutions of a country that, as our successful EU Presidency showed, remains a pillar of stability in a turbulent region.
5. The fifth axis is the rallying of the country’s creative forces around the national growth plan, which is an employment plan.
Your Excellencies,
Throughout this course, France has constantly stood by our side and is a real ally of Greece as we exit the crisis. France is a strategic partner, and the two countries are linked by longstanding ties of friendship. Today we are working intensively with the French government to further enhance and upgrade our bilateral economic and trade relations, so that these can be brought into line with the exceptional level of our political relations.
The February 2003 visit of the President of the French Republic, François Hollande, to Greece reaffirmed France’s full support for Greece’s efforts to jumpstart its economy, encouraging French companies to invest in our country. The French President’s visit saw the singing of a very important memorandum, by the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises and the corresponding French MEDEF, on the founding of a Business Council.
I myself had the opportunity, during my January 2014 visit to Paris, for a detailed discussion of, among other things, Greek-French economic relations, with my French counterpart and friend, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, and we put particular emphasis on ways in which we can strengthen the presence of French enterprises in Greece.
Indicative of the ever closer economic cooperation between the two countries is France’s participation, with €30 million, in the founding of the Greek Investment Fund (IfG). The sectors of construction, transport, health, renewable energy sources, green growth and environmental management, water resources and information technology (IT) provide inexhaustible potential for economic cooperation between French and Greek companies.
As Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, I assure you that we will continue to maintain high among our priorities our support for internationalized entrepreneurship and the promotion of economic and trade relations with our prominent partner and friend France.
Once again, I welcome you to Athens and wish you every success in the proceedings of your conference.”
October 23, 2014