Ms. Xenogiannakopoulou: We came to Berlin within the framework of an agreement reached between Prime Minister Papandreou and Chancellor Merkel in March 2010 – about this time last year.
It was agreed at that time to develop an upgraded bilateral economic partnership between Greece and Germany. This was followed up when German Deputy Foreign Minister Born came to Greece. An agreement was reached at that time on extensive sector-by-sector actions involving more ministries. These actions were followed up, and I would like at this point to refer in particular to the assistance of Ambassador Mr. Rallis in monitoring this whole initiative.
Now that a year has gone by, with reaffirmation at the Merkel-Papandreou meeting in Brussels a few weeks ago, we had set this data is an opportunity to take stock of actions so far, to update our goals, add to them, and, naturally, set a framework and perspective for this cooperation.
At this point allow me to present our delegation: Deputy Regional Development and Competitiveness Minister Dinos Rovlias; Deputy Education Minister Yiannis Panaretos, responsible for research and technology issue, which is important for our discussion; Deputy Labour and Social Insurance Minister Vasilis Kegeroglou; Finance Ministry Secretary General Ilias Plaskovitis; Energy Ministry Secretary General Kostas Mathioudakis, who had to leave earlier; and Transport, Infrastructure and Networks Ministry Secretary General Haris Tsiokas.
As you can see our delegation covers a wide range of policies that have to do with spearheading the priorities of this cooperation.
Before I give the floor to my colleagues, so that each can talk about their sector, I would like to say couple words about how the whole discussion was organized, and to give you the tone of the general political framework. The discussion began with a meeting of all the members of the two delegations, and Mr. Ambassador will tell you who was there from the governmental side, from the Ministries, beyond Deputy Foreign Minister Born.
We confirmed our will to continue with this process, and I want to note something that was stated in the joint communiqué|: Germany’s acknowledgment of the efforts being made by the Greek Prime Minister, the Greek government and Greece as a whole towards financial adaptation and dealing with the crisis, and the whole effort taking place for competitiveness and development.
The German side stressed that it is a model partnership between member states of the European Union, and that Germany places particular emphasis on this relationship with Greece. The Germans believe that through this cooperation Germany is assisting Greece’s efforts regarding the Greek economy, investments and development.
Afterwards, there were bilateral meetings by subject area.
We had a meeting on European issues, and of course on current developments in North Africa, Libya – as you know the UN Security Council will meet today on the issue of Libya. In fact, we had an interesting experience: as a sign of friendship and trust, Deputy Foreign Minister Born invited me to participate – and I think this is a rare occurrence – in the closed crisis meeting of the German Foreign Ministry; their meeting on Japan. I must say, it was a very interesting experience.
When all the bilateral meetings had taken place, all of us gathered again and each colleague presented the main points of the individual meetings.
In closing, I would like to say something about the recent Eurozone summit meeting and the upcoming European Council meeting on 24 and 25 March. The fact that there was a decision in Brussels a week ago, that there was a positive decision, also contributed to the positive framework of today’s meeting. It is interesting, because it is clear from the German side as well – and this was also clear from the decision of the Eurozone 17 – that there was a decision to support the Eurozone, to support the euro. This sends a strong message to markets through the decisions that were taken, and here I am referring not only to the very positive decisions with regard to Greece (extension, interest rates), but also to the more general decisions that we had originally set as a target. We had made it clear, and the Prime Minister was clearly in favor of a package decision concerning the financing of the mechanism, the capability to intervene in the primary market, as well as what will show itself to be a very positive development in the future: the tax on stock market transactions.
So, the framework was positive following Brussels, and wider developments --
and I’ll close with this – indicate Greece’s importance as a country with a strategic role in the Mediterranean, a country that is useful and has economic stability, given that Greece showed at this difficult time the importance it has, whether this has to do with its broader role and ties in the region, or, naturally, its role in transporting, at an hour of need, thousands of people who wanted to leave, via Crete.
Complete text of the joint communiqué (in English)
March 18, 2011