Government Vice-President and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos on Monday addressed an Economist conference on “Europe and the Arab World”, held under the auspices of Greece’s EU presidency.

In his opening remarks, Evangelos Venizelos told high ranking Arab and EU officials the following: “The Greece that is welcoming you today is a different Greece. It is the Greece that has started exiting the crisis after eight years of recession”.
“Greece is able now to present an impressive primary surplus, the biggest one in the EU,” he stressed and noted that the “country’s fiscal deficit is under the European threshold of 3% of GDP”, adding that “Greece, as a country, has so far shown all the elements of a long-term sustainability.”

He termed the conference a prelude to a significant political event, organized by the Greek presidency in cooperation with EU High Representative and European Commission Vice-President Catherine Ashton. According to Venizelos, this would be the ministerial summit of the EU and Arab League member-states, which will be held in Greece on June 10 and 11.
The summit’s main aim is to make the EU-Arab World relations more profound.

The Government Vice-President also referred to the enhancement of the so-called Southern Neighborhood, pointing out its importance and expressed the hope that “the Arab spring, which bore hopes, will be concluded as a true spring.” He underlined the interest for security especially energy security as well as political stability in the wider region.

“The cultural, historical, emotional and financial conditions for the deepening and strengthening of the relations between Greece and the Arab World, of the relation between Europe and the Arab World, are in place,” the Foreign Minister stated, underlining the Greek government’s commitment to that cause and expressing his confidence that the conference as well as June’s ministerial summit would contribute to the achievement of a common goal.