The need to create a European financial instrument that could fund flagship defence programmes of common European interest was stressed this morning by Kyriakos Mitsotakis at his meeting with European Commissioner for Budget, Anti-Fraud and Public Administration Piotr Serafin at the Maximou Mansion.

Mr. Ser Serafari, the President of the European Commission, will meet with the President of the European Commission, Mr. Piotr Serafari, at the European Parliament in Moscow.
During the meeting, the European Commission’s proposals for thenew Multiannual Financial Framework were discussed. The Prime Minister referred to the importance of strengthening competitiveness in the European economy as a whole, and stressed the importance of the Union and the Common Agricultural Policy.

Furthermore, Kyriakos Mitsotakis reiterated the need to create a European financial instrument that could finance flagship defence programmes of common European interest, such as those included in the EU 2030 Defence Preparedness Charter.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis stressed the progress made by the economy in our country in recent years and the opportunity to discuss “the hottest” issue of next year, which is none other than the new Multiannual Financial Framework with Greece’s positions.

The European budget

is an incomprehensible “black box”.

“I would like to congratulate you for the effort you have made to put forward very interesting ideas and proposals, especially regarding the simplification of the European budget, which, in my opinion, is for most European citizens a completely incomprehensible “black box”. I think it is better to add degrees of transparency in terms of communication,” the Prime Minister noted.

“For countries like Greece, we remain fully committed to the pillars of the Common Agricultural Policy and Cohesion Policy, which for our country are linked to our membership of the European Union. When we think about Europe and European funding, we always think about Cohesion and the Common Agricultural Policy.

Of course, we fully understand the need to have a separate pillar for investment in European competitiveness and that part of this allocation – something that needs to be discussed – should be done on a merit basis. However, it is also important to ensure that, in some way, all countries will benefit from this new Competitiveness Fund.”

Piotr Serafin said he was happy to be in Greece, a country with economic success and noted:
“Indeed, as you said, our delegation came to Athens to present the European Commission’s proposal for another long-term budget of almost €2 trillion for the period after 2027. We would also appreciate hearing your suggestions and any concerns you may have about this proposal.

We believe that in terms of Cohesion and agriculture that you mentioned, Prime Minister, we have managed to maintain sufficient resources for these policies that are so important for Greece, but not only for Greece. At the same time, however, we have emphasised what we believe we need to do in the current geopolitical context. We certainly need to invest more in competitiveness but also in our defense and security.

Of course, in terms of competitiveness, we are fully aware that we will not close the competitiveness gap with money alone. We should probably focus mainly on simplification and reducing the administrative burden, but money is also necessary.

Therefore, here, the focus will be on key strategic areas. The emphasis will be on start-ups, which may also introduce an element of geographical balance into this equation. And the emphasis will be not only on grants, but also on slightly more sophisticated financial instruments that are necessary to stimulate investment in Europe in innovation and support our competitiveness. That is why we have created this Competitiveness Fund, worth over €400 billion, and we hope that it will be appreciated by the Member States in the discussions ahead of us.

Then, on defence and security, our proposal is to increase spending in these areas by a factor of five. I read your article last. I fully agree with your view that defence is the ultimate public good and that we should focus on projects that cannot be implemented by a single Member State, and that is indeed the focus of our proposal.

Speaking of security, we cannot overlook external borders. And in this area we propose to triple the resources for external border protection and migration management. By the way, this tripling will also be reflected in the allocation of funds for Greece in this area.

However, it is obvious that we also need to discuss the ways and means of financing the EU budget. Perhaps it is a slightly more complicated discussion than the one about how to spend the money, but we need to have this discussion clearly. I also hope that here in Athens we will have the opportunity to hear your views and proposals on this issue as well.”

Watch the video