In an interview with journalist Afonsos Vitalis on ‘Proto Programma’ radio, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis talked about the new Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, which will be discussed this afternoon in an extraordinary meeting of the EU General Affairs Council.
“We are debating a community budget that is significantly smaller, especially following the UK’s withdrawal, and it does not meet the aspirations of European citizens for more Europe,” Mr. Varvitsiotis stated shortly before departing for Brussels.
“There are countries that are considered pure ‘contributors’, who don’t want their contribution to go over 1% of GNI,” he explained. “We are going with an ambitious agenda. Our country, which suffered the loss of a massive 25% of its GDP, is pursuing more funding than in the previous budget in order to cover the disinvestment gap. The initial proposals on Cohesion indicate that we are doing a little better, but we are also pursuing funding in other sectors, such as security and migration,” he added.
February 17, 2020