Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Giorgos Katrougalos today participated in a meeting of the EU General Affairs Council (GAC) and observed the preparatory meeting of Socialists & Democrats (S&D) European Affairs Ministers.
In the General Affairs Council, our country and Portugal, with the support of Italy, promoted the need for the implementation of the new Social Rights Pillar to be incorporated into the European Semester process for monitoring member-state economies.
Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras raised the issue for the first time at the December 2017 European Council, proposing the establishment of binding indicators for poverty, unemployment and inequality in the European Semester, along with provisions for new EU own resources of a redistributional nature, such as taxation of international stock transactions and internet giants.
Addressing the Council, Mr. Katrougalos stressed that the deepening of the single market is undermined by the imbalance between the social and economic dimensions of European integration, which is the root cause of the EU’s existential legitimacy crisis.
On the margins of the Council, Mr. Katrougalos had a bilateral meeting with his UK counterpart, Lord Callanan, during which he presented our country’s positions on the Brexit. Speaking at the relevant open session, Mr. Katrougalos welcomed the recent decision on the transitional period in the relations between the United Kingdom and the European Union, highlighting the need for similarly transparent and effective solutions in the effort towards the new partnership between the two sides. He also underscored Greece’s interest in issues such as tourism, shipping, air travel, protected designation of origin (PDO) and protected geographical indication (PGI) for agricultural products.
March 20, 2018