E. VENIZELOS: Mr. Ambassador of the French Republic, Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, I thank the Hellenic-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry for their kind invitation, I thank the President of the Chamber for his substantial introduction, fueling our debate and communication, and I thank everyone for being here this evening.
Allow me to refer in particular to the Ambassador’s presence, which is indicative of the close, friendly, allied, partnership ties that unite the two countries, Greece and the French Republic. I had the opportunity to visit Paris a few days ago, last week, and to have substantial practical talks with my counterpart, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, with Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici, and with the Secretary of the Socialist Party, Harlem Désir.
Mainly, however, I had – for the first time – the opportunity for a direct and long meeting with the French Senate’s Committees on Foreign and European Affairs. The members of the Committees and I had a long discussion of the situation in Greece, in Europe, the equilibrium in Europe, and Deputy Foreign Minister Kourkoulas had the same experience with the French National Assembly. So we have very close institutional communication, which we renew continuously, as we meet frequently on the ministerial level in Brussels, within the framework of the European Union and NATO and elsewhere, in the context of international meetings like the recent conference in Montreux, where I saw my French counterpart again, as we dealt with the Syrian issue, the profound humanitarian and, of course, military and political crisis.
My speech has the title announced by Mr. Hatzopoulos; a self-evident title. Because, for the first time in a number of years, I would say Greece is getting positive treatment in the press, now that we have assumed the rotating, six-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union. This is our fifth EU Presidency since we joined the European Communities in 1981. We are exercising the Presidency because it is an obligation, and not because we pursued it as a good opportunity to show the ordinary face of an equal member state, rather than the face of a country that is asking for assistance, that is negotiating over the loan and its obligations, that is deep in a crisis that has been ongoing since at least 2008.
I have responded many times to the question of how it is possible for a country in crisis, the laboratory for the crisis, to represent the European Union. In reality, the future of both European integration and the Eurozone is being decided in Greece. And the successful completion of the adjustment programme of the Greek economy, of Greece in general, is a pan-European wager on which depends the credibility and viability of Europe in a world that, when we look at it closely, forces us to realize that Europe – not just the European Union, but the European continent as a whole – is shrinking as a global player and has very serious problems to face; fiscal, development, demographic problems.
This is why these six months are critical in many ways, because we obviously won’t forget our national priorities and our national needs – which are vital needs – as we carry out the Presidency. We will handle the Presidency in an effective manner, within the institutional framework of the European Union, in cooperation with the permanent Presidencies, which, in any case, are now decisive, and in close cooperation with the Commission, the European Parliament, with the national Parliaments of the member states, with the Secretariat General of the Council, with the European External Action Service, which plays an important role under the High Representative of the European Union, and we will promote many important issues, such as economic governance and, mainly, the banking union, which are issues that are opening a very intense debate between Europe and the U.S.
But naturally, while we will do all of that, we will be preparing for the major event of these six months, which is the European elections. In Greece, of course, we will also be holding local and regional elections. The major pan-European event is the European elections, which are a test for all the governments, all the parliaments, all of our societies, as we are faced with the new phenomena of Euroscepticism and the fatigue felt by societies, and mainly young citizens, who identify Europe with austerity, with the crisis and, in any case, with a model that is one-sided, unequally weighted, with mainly Germany doing the decision-making. And that is why the role of the French Republic – in this case the role of the Greek-French Chamber of Commerce, of all the bilateral Chambers, but mainly the Greek-French Chamber – is so important, because the internal equilibrium in Europe is based on the equilibrium on the Berlin-Paris axis. And when this axis is shaken and unable to play an equal role in decision-making, this impacts all of us, and in particular it impacts the European South, which is the major issue of these six months, the major issue of the narrative that we must present for Europe.
The narrative for Europe is normally a matter for the European political parties. Each one has the right to state its view, the Popular, the Socialist, etc. But the critical issue is whether this notion of the European political south – as opposed to the geographical south – will be consolidated. When I refer to the European political south, I mean mainly some fresher ideas. Because we need countries, we need governments, parties, intellectuals, ideas; specific proposals for an alternative narrative for Europe.
The European political south, the alternative proposal for Europe, cannot come together if France does not play a decisive role, if internal European power correlations are not restored and if the axis between Berlin and Paris does not truly function; the axis on economic and development policy issues. Because on issues of foreign policy and security and defence policy, the French role is also very important; the role of a permanent member of the UN Security Council. And the same holds true for the UK’s role. But you can see that the most important element of national power in our day is the economy and the ability to play a role in shaping monetary, financial and, in the end, economic policy. In the end, this impacts societies’ self-awareness as to their role in Europe.
So these six months are critical, not because we hold the Presidency, but because the Presidency happened to coincide with the test of the European elections and, thus, the need for us to say something new about Europe, to re-politicize the debate, to talk again about the essential things, to talk about a Europe that projects certain values – and not rhetorical values. Values with a growth-related, economic, social impact, values that stimulate employment, that stimulate innovation, inventiveness have added value, impacting the GDP, in the end, of the European Union and the Union’s global share. It isn’t easy.
So these six months are critical because, in a very short time – by the end of April – we need to complete many European processes with the current European Parliament, which will then break up. It is critical because immediately following the European elections, the deliberations will start on filling the positions in the European Union’s institutional organs and on the choice of key figures who will play a decisive role in the coming years for Europe and all the countries. And, of course, these six months are the six months during which, on a national level, we are being called upon to confirm our course, to respect and safeguard the sacrifices of the Greek people. We are being called upon to link the fiscal achievements with the international perception of Greece, as well as with the perception Greeks themselves have of Greece.
Because we are telling them that we have achieved an unprecedented fiscal adjustment, a fiscal adjustment from primary deficit to surplus of some €25 billion in 3.5 years; that is, 13 points of GDP. This has never happened before. An adjustment that enables Greece to have the best primary surplus – in structural terms – in the whole world; better than Singapore’s.
A fiscal adjustment that now enables Greece to show a fiscal deficit clearly under the limit of 3% set by the Maastricht treaty and the Stability Pact. We are at just over 2% -- at 2.1% -- which is impressive, but on the other hand, in order to achieve this we imposed some €75 billion in sacrifices on the Greek people. We have undergone a cumulative recession of over 25% since 2008, and we have unemployment that, as you know, is at brutal levels, not only for the population as a whole, but in particular for young people up to 24 years of age, for whom employment is over 60%.
There is a wall at the entrance to the job market. How do you explain that we saved them from something much worse by making a difficult choice, at a huge political and moral cost? How do you explain that it is important to lose 25% of GDP in order to avoid losing 75% of GDP? Because that too could have happened – easily. Through a disorderly default – not just economic, but also social and institutional; a political and democratic bankruptcy of the country. So these six months are very useful, and they are very useful because our political partners need to understand what the international private sector has understood quickly and with vision; a private sector that sees the change and is investing in the change in Greece, in both the financial sphere and the sphere of the real economy.
That is why France’s role is decisive. Because France has a huge opening to be a much stronger player in Greece as a foreign direct investor. Just as it is an opportunity for a return to the financial sector, via the recapitalization and rebuilding of the Greek banking system, in which the French presence was very, very strong. Just as the French banks’ participation in the reduction of the Greek public debt, through private sector involvement (PSI), was very strong. They were perhaps the only banks who didn’t rush to dump the bonds of the Greek public sector, and they paid a high cost through this process. And I really want to express my recognition of this fact.
So the critical issue – to summarize a huge debate – is for it to be seen that the crux of the whole issue is the confirmation of the long-term sustainability of the Greek public debt, now that we have reduced the Greek public debt to nearly zero and we have certainly reduced the current account balance deficit to zero, if not as competitiveness deficit, at least as the balance of payments. It is now very important that we impart momentum to the real economy.
So the principal thing is for there to be a stop to this unfair, stereotypical debate over whether Greece can, can’t, wants to, doesn’t want to. Greece can and wants – and it has shown this, and the Greek citizens showed it with their toil and blood; citizens who, despite the objections, despite the difficulties, despite the insecurity, made a choice two years ago, in the elections in May and June 2012. They expressly chose a strategy, aware of the consequences. And in any case, to be fair, there are reactions, there are worries, there are difficulties in every household, in every enterprise, for all the people.
But the social reaction, if one considers the size of the problem, the magnitude of the effort and sacrifices, is very rational and, I would say, very limited on the level of individual citizens. And I think this points up the maturity of the Greek people in the face of demagogues, populist Sirens who have nothing to say, because the critical choice, the critical dilemma in these elections will again be the choice between an existing difficult plan, which is ending and taking us somewhere, and an unknown, vague, non-existent alternative plan that will take us back again – not back to zero, but to less than zero, negating all the sacrifices and achievements that are now tangible.
So we don’t need a political negotiation or political favors. We need a serious political discussion on a professional basis that will accept and confirm what is obvious, based on the numbers: that there was a point to the plan.
Otherwise, there it has to be admitted that there were planning problems, which are burdening our partners, not us. There were in fact such problems and huge mistakes, and the cost of Europe’s solidarity is very high, and the solidarity is enormous as a loan. But the social and political cost is also very high. That being said, there was a result, and now we have to redress injustices and correct mistakes that we couldn’t avoid because we were the weak party in an exceedingly difficult negotiation, under the constant threat of harsh developments for our country. Only someone who has experienced this – as Mr. Zanias and I have experienced it, at the hard core of the crisis – can understand what we are saying as a narrative. It isn’t a narrative. It’s a national struggle, of which you experience the critical moments, and you can’t share them with others because these tough negotiations involve a lot of classified data.
So now the obvious must be confirmed politically, institutionally: that we have reached a point where Greece can return to normalcy, because the whole debate on the completion of the programme is a discussion that has this point of departure. It starts from the sustainability of the debt – this connects with everything else. And so this is something feasible. This will mean a great deal in terms of atmosphere, in terms of optimism, the conduct of the investment world, how consumers behave, how the market functions on all levels, from the simplest and most day-to-day to the highest international and investment levels.
This is the goal now, and we are not asking for anything more than the implementation of the already existing support mechanisms of all the member states that are in normal circumstances. We don’t want to leave any joint European supervision, and nor are we unable to understand the difficulties. What could be more obvious?
But after everything its people have done, after the effort that was made, Greece deserves unreserved praise, internationally, and mainly it deserves to hear what the market is waiting to hear: That we can really enter the final length of the course out of the crisis and the Memorandum, where the Memorandum symbolizes an emergency, special circumstances, and not what is happening now within a multilateral European supervision that concerns all the countries. That is why these six months are useful: six months that we can use to leverage the turning of a new page. The private sector, our partners, foreign enterprises established in Greece all have a critical role to play, and that is why I think it is a wonderful opportunity, with the start of the Hellenic Presidency and these six months, that we had this chance to communicate, thanks to the kind invitation of the leadership of the Hellenic-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Thank you very much.
January 29, 2014