Prime Minister Samaras meets Italian Prime Minister

The main topics of discussion will be development, employment and immigration

Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras will meet today the Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi who took over the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Mr. Renzi in consultation with the President of France, Mr. Hollande, asked for a more flexible Financial Stability Pact for countries who implement structural reforms during the previous EU Summit.

His request was blocked by Germany and the solution found was to “exhaust the existent flexibility of the Pact”, a solution that does not satisfy the southern countries of Europe that suffer from the austerity measures imposed by Germany.

During that week, though, Mr. Samaras in an interview with German Handelsplatt stated that the Pact does not rule out economic development.

At today’s meeting, however, both sides are expected to agree that EU should do more about economic growth and tackling the unemployment which plagues mainly the southern countries and to fund more big investment projects. Also, the two leaders are to discuss about the composition of the new European Commission.

Greece and Italy have another common issue to deal with, that of immigration, as both countries are more affected from immigrant waves that the rest of EU countries. Both of them want Europe’s help to address the issue.

Mr. Samaras believes that Mr Juncker’s intervention was very important, who during the first Summit chairing as the president of the European Commission, he said that “EU will have to decide that since it has common borders, it should be able to protect them”.

Moreover, Mr. Samaras and Mr. Renzi will discuss the developments in Russia and European Union sanctions that will probably affect the cost of energy.