Secretary General for European Affairs Panagiotis Pavlopoulos at the EU General Affairs Council (Brussels, 11 December 2018)

Secretary General for European Affairs Panagiotis Pavlopoulos represented Greece at the EU General Affairs Council which took place today in Brussels in light of the European Council on Thursday, 13 December and Friday, 14 December.

Referring to the European Commission's proposal for the new Multi-Year Fiscal Framework 2021-2027, Mr Pavlopoulos stressed:

“We are against any reduction in long-term policies of the Union, which are protected by the Agreements, in other words the Cohesion Policy, the Common Agricultural Policy, and the Common Fisheries Policy. The new political priorities, such as the European pillar of social rights which must finally be implemented, the turning of our attention to young people, the common mechanism for civil protection, research, innovation, and digital economy, migration, security and defence, centre around the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy, with a goal of a strong, democratic, and social Europe that is attractive to its citizens. This consequently represents a step backwards which must be corrected, reduction in funding by 10% for the Cohesion Policy and by 15% for the Common Agricultural Policy. Reducing these two specific funds is the wrong choice, for the wrong reason, at the wrong time. Re-nationalising partial funding represents backtracking to Euroscepticism.”

At another point in his speech, the Secretary General for European Affairs stressed that the political decisions for the new Multi-Year Fiscal Framework must be made before the European elections of May 2019. He stated, characteristically: “Greece's position, therefore, with regard to the timetable, is quite clear: We must not leave Europe pending, especially now that the black clouds of far-right nationalism are on its horizon.”

Mr. Pavlopoulos underscored the Greek stance on continued funding for the Common Agricultural Policy and the Political Cohesion Policy, at least on the level of the current Multi-Year Fiscal Framework in actual values, the doubling of funds for tackling youth unemployment at the European Social Fund Plus compared to the existing Youth Employment Initiative, the establishment of a special €5.9 billion fund for the Child Guarantee to tackle childhood poverty.

More specifically, with regard to Greece, the Secretary General for European Affairs stressed that the European budget ignores the economic crisis, as if it did not exist. And this because the period 2010-2013, during which Greece lost 25% of its GDP, affects neither the current nor the new Multi-Year Fiscal Framework. Specifically: “It's as if the economic crisis passed Greece by. A magical picture. The current Multi-Year Fiscal Framework, with the pre-crisis GDP data. In the new Multi-Year Fiscal Framework, with the lowest capping of the GDP. For this reason, we seek “correction in capping” [note: The annual recovery limit is reduced from 2.35% of the GDP to 1.55%] in order to account for the effects of the crisis. To account in other words for the plunge in the GDP and the largest output gap in Europe for the period 2014-2016.” By increasing capping, the cohesion funds that Greece will receive are greatly increased.

With regard to the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), Mr Pavlopoulos stressed that the current levels of funding must at least be safeguarded for both its pillars in order for attainment of its goals to be possible. Direct strengthening of the 1st pillar must continue to constitute a safety net of the agricultural income and stabilisation of income differentials with other sectors of the economy. The Secretary General of European Affairs requested withdrawal of the increase in national co-funding from 20% to 30% in the 2nd pillar of the agricultural investments since it represents a step of partial re-nationalisation of the CAP.