The incoming president of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker is on an official visit to Greece on his first trip abroad since being elected to head the EC. He met at noon with Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras to discuss a number of issues including the portfolio that Greece’s Commissioner might get next month. He also praised Greek efforts to improve public finances and insisted that he played a key role in keeping the country in the eurozone.

On his role in the keeping Greece in the Eurozone:

“I really fought like a lion, I would say,” Juncker said refering to his fight to keep Greece in the EU. “There was a great battle to counter those who wanted to remove Greece from the euro.”  He says he feels vindicated for the part he played.

On Greek debt:

Greece’s prime minister underlined that Greece is meeting all its targets and has put the recession behind to enter a new era of competitiveness. “Such a crisis should not be repeated. We should not return to deficits, we should turn hope into a visible prospect for all. Greece, as far as fiscal adjustment is concerned, has achieved something which is unprecedented on an international level: it managed to have primary surpluses after 21 years and one year earlier than it was anticipated. As regards reforms, it went up 111 places in the international rankings and returned to the international markets a year earlier than expected.”

Mr. Juncker played down the prospect of eurozone countries writing off part of the Greek debt so that it could be sustainable. Asked about whether Greek debt can be sustainable without a “haircut”, Mr. Juncker said, “When it comes to Greece the question you’re mentioning is not part of my meditation.” He said that the priority for Europe should be job-creation and growth. He expressed the belief that Greece is meeting targets and noted that the country avoided the kind of consequences suffered by Argentina.

On comparing Greece to Argentina:

Mr. Juncker’s view is that Greece’s efforts to put its public finances in order could have been a good model for the recently defaulted Argentina to follow, however he also added that “if Greece was not in the EU the consequences on the lives of citizens would have been dramatic and Greece would have become Argentina.”

Mr. Samaras also compared Greece to Argentina. by noting that “Greece has avoided what Argentina was unable to avoid and this happened when some were suggesting us to follow the example of disorderly default. This was possible because Greece remained under the European umbrella thanks to Mr. Juncker’s help as the president of the Eurogroup. Mistakes have been made on the way, but we have learned from them and we overcome them. Many predicted the worst for Greece and Europe but they were proven wrong. Staying under the umbrella of the eurozone was what saved Greece.”

On his friendship with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras:

Mr. Juncker noted that he came to Greece for personal reasons. “In the past few years, I had the opportunity to forge brotherly ties with the Greek prime minister and I had friendly relations with the foreign minister as well. I came to Greece not being yet the European Commission president. I was elected the next European Commission president and I came here to thank the Greek prime minister for his support,” he underlined.

On the portfolio of the next Greece EC Comissioner:

Mr. Juncker confirmed that the portfolio that Greece’s new commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, might get was discussed however no agreement was reached regarding this. On his part, Mr. Samaras said that he has confident in Mr. Juncker’s experience and is sure that the decision will be a satisfactory one for Greece.

On November 1, Mr. Juncker is poised to succeed Jose Manuel Barroso as European Commissioner.