E. VENIZELOS: As always, it is a great pleasure to welcome the President of the European Parliament, my dear friend and comrade, Martin Schulz.
Mr. Schulz, a front-line European political figure, is the European Socialist Party’s choice for the position of the Presidency of the new European Commission; the European Commission that we want to see result from the European Parliamentary elections in May.
In my capacity as President of Pasok, I am truly glad to have cosponsored the proposal for Martin Schulz’s candidacy for the position of the new President of the European Commission. If we want a new Europe, a progressive Europe, a Europe that listens to the voice of our societies, the voice of European citizens – and particularly the young unemployed – the new European Commission will have to be headed by Martin Schulz.
Our big problem all these years of the crisis was and is that we have before us a conservative Europe, a Europe that cannot take the necessary major initiatives to overcome the crisis.
Mr. Schulz and I had the opportunity to discuss a very important institutional initiative. The European Parliament has already decided to call the troika before the competent committee, and this will also happen in the presence of the Plenary, so that the troika can explain the manner in which it has handled the programmes of the countries that are in crisis, the countries of the European south, with the development of the Greek programme being the characteristic example, of course.
If our institutional partners had handled things differently, we would naturally also have much better results. And now, however, in spite of this, we are one step away from exiting the crisis, and we know how difficult this step is, how tough it is for the Greek people, but this is what has to happen, because now – thanks to the sacrifices of the Greek people – we have all the conditions for completing this difficult journey down what was and is a one-way street: There was not and is not a plan B.
I would like to hope that this active participation on the part of the European Parliament will continue. We cannot have the Eurozone, the Eurogroup and the troika operate outside the democratic, institutional framework of the European Union, without the direct participation of the European Parliament.
And, of course, the European Commission must be restored to its institutional role, because its role has been curtailed due to the formation and functioning of the troika.
The third point is Mr. Schulz’s preparedness, and this shows how important it is for a political figure such as him to be in the leadership of the European Commission; for very specific initiatives to be taken – mainly funding initiatives for strengthening Greece’s real economy and investments on all levels, through the existing community funds.
When I say investments, I don’t mean just large investments. I mean investments across the whole range of small and very small enterprises. And of course it is very important that the initiatives be continued for safeguarding social cohesion, for containing unemployment – and particularly youth unemployment – through the practical and direct utilization of the European Social Fund.
So the content of our discussion was specific, optimistic and demanding, and it is an exceptionally good prologue to what Martin Schulz has to say – addressing all the European societies, all the European peoples – as the European Socialist Party’s candidate for the presidency of the European Commission.
M. SCHULZ: Thank you very much. Evangelos, I thank you very much for your very friendly words, and mainly for your undivided personal support for the achievement of my goal, which is to be the social-democratic candidate for the position of President of the European Commission. I will do everything I can to win all European citizens’ trust in the European Union.
Incidentally, the European elections do not concern the Hellenic or German Parliaments. They concern the European Parliament, so we are determined to carry out a purely European campaign. And that’s why we have to talk about how we can find a new reformist platform to promote Europe in Greece as well.
What my colleague Mr. Venizelos said about the fact that the troika will appear before the European Parliament’s Economic Affairs Committee is great progress: it is the much-touted accountability imposed by the European Parliament.
Because we cannot have the troika appearing in so many states of the European Union as an anonymous force with which no one identifies – though it intervenes in people’s day-to-day lives – and not have it be accountable. This cannot be, and that is why we are insisting on the issue of accountability.
And my third observation, on which I will insist, I that what the peoples need, what day-to-day people need, is trust, and trust means not just trust between the sides, but also trust in ourselves. So today we see that, for perhaps the first time, the Greek stock exchange is on an upward trend.
The Greek people made great sacrifices, and these have to lead somewhere. So I believe that the investors are starting to show trust in the Greek economy again. That is why we have to take all the necessary measures to support this trend.
Of course, trust from outside does not suffice. The Greek people themselves must feel self-confidence, and the Greeks must see, specifically, that progress is being made in a very specific sector. I want speedy measures to be taken to confront youth unemployment in Greece.
I think that parents are willing to make sacrifices if they see that those sacrifices will benefit their children. Because one can’t ask the parents, you know, “Do you agree with our bailing out the banks?”, and for this to happen, but for it not to help their children’s future.
Thus, the funds that have been earmarked by the European Union for the funding of the structural funds and the regional fund, among others, have to be disbursed quickly to confront youth unemployment.
But the first and most important programme, if you will, that we are being called upon to implement in Greece and elsewhere is to deal effectively with the credit crunch being experience by SMEs.
My colleague Mr. Venizelos and I talked about all these issues, and I will be meeting directly with entrepreneurs from Greece, and whenever I have done this, I have ascertained that they all have wonderful ideas. They want to create jobs, but under one condition: that they have access to loans. That is why I believe that lending to enterprises is the first and most urgently needed measure that needs to be taken.
Thank you very much.
November 4, 2013