E. VENIZELOS: The EU-Africa Summit is an excellent opportunity for Europe as a whole to point up its policy on Africa as a major priority. Because, developmentally speaking, Africa is the continent of the future. Greece is accepted as a friendly country by all the countries of Africa. So we have great economic potential.
And the aim of the bilateral meetings I am having on the margins of the Summit Meeting, with very many countries – on the level of their presidents, prime ministers or foreign ministers – is to take this opportunity for us to encourage the business presence, Greek exports; to encourage their cooperation in the dynamic sectors of the Greek economy. The initial indications I have are very positive.
On the margins of the Summit Meeting, I had the opportunity to meet with and talk briefly to the UN Secretary General about two major issues that concern us: the Cyprus issue, of course, but there is also the Nimetz initiative regarding the name issue. Greece’s positions are clear and firm, and the Secretary General very much appreciates this.
I also had the opportunity to meet and exchange some friendly thoughts with a number of delegation heads, including President Hollande, who formed his new government yesterday, appointed a new Prime Minister, and thus there is a new beginning in France, which is very critical to European equilibrium.
JOURNALIST: Mr. President, if I may, regarding another issue. Do you have any comment on what happened with Mr. Baltakos?
E. VENIZELOS: Pasok has issued a statement regarding Mr. Baltakos, expressing my personal views as well. I said a few days ago, when asked, that it is an old problem. This government is a government of cooperation that meets a national need. The government is governed by a policy framework, by a policy agreement between the two parties. Pasok and the forces of the democratic bloc in general are the progressive pole. The progressive pole must be strengthened in order for there to be the necessary equilibrium and the necessary guarantees within the government. All pockets ideologically or practically adjacent to the extreme right – with old, negative stereotypes – must be hit, and, even more so, it is unthinkable that there should be any contact with Nazis, racists, xenophobes; with those who organize acts of violence and function as a criminal organization. And I naturally state once again, officially, our institutional respect for the principle of the separation of powers, for the judges and prosecutors, whom no one – absolutely no one – has the right to insult.
JOURNALIST: Do you think Mr. Baltakos should resign?
E. VENIZELOS: We’ve been over this. The announcement says it. It’s the least he should do.
JOURNALIST: Regarding the economy?
E. VENIZELOS: With regard to the economy – the state of the Greek economy and the positive messages by the informal ECOFIN and Eurogroup meetings in Athens – I want to say that here, in Brussels, there is a clear sense that Greece has entered a new phase. I saw this today and yesterday in all my meetings. It is the general admission of international political opinion, which is naturally impacted by and impacts markets, and of the international private sector. We now have in our hands a very important opportunity to make the turn all together, in unity.
And it is a pity – when the Greek people, through their sacrifices, have given us this opportunity – that we should not capitalize on this opportunity. And that we should occupy ourselves with matters of secondary importance. Either because this is imposed on us by the opposition or is the result of tension and fatigue within the political parties. Because, naturally, when you have shouldered all this weight, when you lift a huge weight, tolerance is taken to its limits. And this impacts reactions, it impacts the climate, the atmosphere. But we have to leave aside matters of secondary importance and look to our historical goal, our national objective. Because my perspective at least – and it was never a party perspective – is always a national, historical perspective, and I ask the Greek people to come together on what is nationally imperative and self-evident.
April 2, 2014