Deputy Foreign Minister Dimitris Kourkoulas attended a working luncheon on Wednesday, 20 March 2013, with the heads of the EU member-state Embassies in Athens. The luncheon was hosted by the Irish Embassy in Athens.
Discussion at the luncheon focused on issues concerning the handling of the economic crisis in the eurozone and the promotion of institutional changes (banking union), issues relevant to development, employment, and the promotion of legislation and initiatives (single market mechanisms), as well as issues having to do with asylum, migration, readmission, and movement within the EU member states.
There was also a discussion of EU enlargement policy – in the context of which Mr. Kourkoulas stressed Greece’s longstanding pro-enlargement policy – as well as European neighbourhood policy, the eastern dimension and the southern neighbourhood.
Finally, Mr. Kourkoulas briefed the EU Ambassadors on the preparations for the Greek EU Presidency in the first half of 2014.
March 20, 2013