Foreign Ministry handing-over ceremony (25 June 2013)
D. AVRAMOPOULOS: First of all, we apologize for the slight delay. Many of you got here a lot earlier, but, as always, we had a very interesting and useful discussion with the Deputy Prime Minister and the new Foreign Minister, whom I would like to welcome to our Ministry and wish, above all, every success in his new duties.
A good deal is said on such occasions – often more than is necessary, or less than the occasion calls for. What I would like to say to you – as the one leaving the Foreign Ministry, where for a full year we truly shared great moments – is to express my gratitude to the personnel of the Greek Foreign Ministry, all the branches, who with dedication and self-denial, with ideas, initiatives, fulfilled their institutional role and proved in practice to be supporters and aides during a period that may have lasted only a year, but leaves behind a good legacy.
The most important thing may be that the Foreign Ministry regained its rightful institutional role. We politicians, even governments, come and go. But what remains is the institutional durability and continuity of the state. And because this state has been through a great deal in recent decades, it was very important that a major change took place, and, first of all, party cadres and personal friends disappeared from the antechambers and halls of the Ministry.
That, in my opinion, is one important result that came to vindicate this decision, because Greek diplomats, administrative staff and all the branches responded to this new climate – as I said, this new beginning – fulfilling, above all, their mission.
I won’t refer to specific issues. I discussed them with the Deputy Prime Minister and new Foreign Minister, and of course, as of now, I state that for all the intervening time, the coming days, we will be in contact should their be a need for further clarification. But without wanting to interpret Mr. Venizelos based on his scientific training and political career, he too is a fan of institutions, to put it very simply, and thus this Ministry will continue to provide its useful, historically significant services at a very difficult time for our homeland.
This government that begins its term today has before it a difficult task. It is a government with a four-year horizon – including the past year – and it has before it great problems to resolve. This requires cohesion, cooperation and consensus. This is perhaps the first time we are experiencing this degree of practical consensus in Greece, and this exudes and conveys the deeper meaning of democracy, which is the political art of synthesis.
The fact that two parties are collaborating, co-existing, sharing a perception of the importance of their mission is something of particular import, and it opens a new chapter in the political history of this land. But here in this space is where what is at stake is the ongoing defence of national interests, the safeguarding the country’s independence, and this is part of the Foreign Ministry’s ideology. That is why I said earlier that it is particularly important that this Ministry and its personnel be utilized even more, not just by this government, but by all the governments in the future.
In cooperating throughout this time, we have achieved a lot. First of all, we blocked all the efforts made, based on the fiscal state of affairs in the country, to have the Foreign Ministry go through a more austere adaptation. We managed to keep the higher degree of dignity in the exercising of duties by everyone both here in Greece and abroad. And here I would like to assure you that, as a member of this government, I will do the same in the future. But beyond that, the problems are there, the issues are pending, and we all know what they are.
I am certain that, under the guidance of the new head of Greek diplomacy – the Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister – even further important steps will be taken in the direction I just described to you.
So, in this spirit, and publicly expressing my gratitude to everyone, to my associates the Deputy Ministers, Mr. Kourkoulas and Mr. Tsiaras, who really proved to be not just exceptional associates, but worthy public men, as well as to the Secretaries General -- the previous one, Ambassador Kaskarelis, the current one, Mr. Mitsialis, Mr. Kalogeropoulos, Mr. Mihalos, who have all this time done their best to move ahead with the issues we had taken on.
Mr. Deputy Prime Minister and Mr. Foreign Minister and my dear friend, be assured that all the issues that will concern you have undergone excellent preparation by the Foreign Ministry. We are prepared for the Presidency, we shaped an environment of security and stability in the region, we upgraded our country’s geopolitical and geostrategic role. We rehabilitated the country’s international image. And all this was done because behind the decisions are the wonderful people of the Foreign Ministry. Worthy diplomats, administrative staff and all the branches, whom I would like to ask you to continue to show trust and love.
So it is in this spirit that the change of guard is taking place here today at the Foreign Ministry. Together with my welcome and wishes for every success, my warm thanks to all of you.
Thank you.
E. VENIZELOS: My warm thanks to my dear friend Dimitris Avramopoulos for the very warm reception, his words of praise. But most of all I thank him for the exceptional work he did this past year here at the Foreign Ministry of the Hellenic Republic, in an environment very familiar to him, due to his background in the diplomatic service.
For Dimitris Avramopoulos’s political course – rich, dense in experiences – was a guarantee of success at the Foreign Ministry. And the experience he gained during the Papademos government, at the Defence Ministry, will allow him, returning to another familiar environment – the Ministry of Defence – to continue to exercise his duties from where he left off, heading the second, equally important pillar of foreign policy and the country’s security and defence policy, which is the Ministry of National Defence.
But because today is important not just for the Foreign Ministry, but – allow me to say – more generally for the country, society, the citizens and their concerns, I consider it necessary to put forward some thoughts regarding the political framework that governs the agreement of the two parties and our decision to meet an urgent national obligation. And to move ahead steadily in the coming three years, until the end of this parliamentary period – perhaps the most important such period for our country in recent decades.
We decided to move ahead, and the two parties are moving ahead steadily and with determination with the implementation of a National Reconstruction Plan that takes our country definitively out of the crisis, in the midst of an exceptionally difficult international and European environment.
Neither the international crisis nor the European crisis has come to an end, and in implementing this difficult policy, the only feasible policy – there is no “plan B” and there never was one – we are safeguarding our country, not just with regard to the Greek crisis, but also against the resurgent European and international crisis.
Delegations from both parties are already looking at the updating of the platform agreement that, apart from the general political goals, goes into detail in every sector. The new administration – and with my personal participation in the capacity of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister – now allows institutionally for the full coordination of the government’s work on a daily basis.
The tough, very tough sacrifices of the Greek people are paying off. Greece now has the smallest structural fiscal deficit of all the countries in the Eurozone. And this enables us to say to our institutional partners, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, that the people and the national economy cannot bear additional measures; measures that fuel the recession and unemployment.
So we have two fundamental national goals: Growth and employment. Support for enterprises and investments, the programmes for curbing and reducing unemployment, protection of all the vulnerable social groups, the gradual redressing of injustices. These are our top priorities.
Well-prepared reforms, with the greatest possible consensus and the necessary resolve, are a vital necessity for the economy and society. With the first reform being that of Public Administration and the broader state.
Equally important is the comprehensive tax reform through a National Taxation System that takes into account the overall burden on and staying power of every household. A system that is simple, fair, anti-bureaucratic, with a clear growth and social orientation.
Our homeland also needs a radical and responsible renewal of the political system via the revision of the Constitution. The government majority of the two parties is undertaking the initiative to move ahead as fast as possible with the relevant process, with the greatest possible political and social consensus.
In this context, ladies and gentlemen, I took on, as I said earlier, not only the duties of Deputy Prime Minister, but also those of Minister for Foreign Affairs. The assumption of these duties is not just a great honor, but also an act of national responsibility.
It is no accident that this is common practice for European coalition governments: The head of the second government partner takes on the duties of Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister.
The Foreign Ministry is, in recent years, my the third “frontline outpost” in the defence of national sovereignty, after serving at the Ministries of Defence and Finance.
Unfortunately, the economic crisis impacts critical parameters of our national power, with the exception of conviction and will. Our monetary, fiscal and financial sovereignty has unfortunately been limited. Whether because we believe in European integration and participate in it, relinquishing competencies, or in order to rescue major economic and social gains that concern the core of our national existence.
Our national independence and pride are of even greater importance under crisis conditions, which the Greek people very often see as an insult or humiliation. A humiliation that the Greek people do not accept.
That is why our foreign policy, as has been the case to date, continues to be a foreign policy of principles, based on respect for international law and good neighbourly relations in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean. Under that prism, Greece fully maintains all of its national sovereign rights, without exception.
Assuming the duties of Foreign Minister today, I send a national brotherly greeting to the Cypriot people, who are undergoing a great ordeal. But they feel as their first and greatest issue not the economic crisis, but the political problem of Cyprus; the problem of the invasion and occupation of a large section of the territory of an EU member state, with the longstanding demand for a just and viable solution within the framework of the relevant UN resolutions.
I send a national, brotherly greeting to Greeks abroad, global Hellenism.
Greece participates actively in the whole process of formulating the economic governance of the European Union and of the Eurozone in particular, asserting its institutional equality in spite of the harsh constraints of the Adaptation Programme.
We are preparing, or, as Mr. Avramopoulos very rightly said, have already prepared, for the upcoming Greek EU Presidency, with coincides with a very critical six-month period for European developments.
Despite the fact that the existing permanent Presidencies of the European Council, certain Council bodies and the Eurogroup have limited the importance of the rotating Presidency, it is nevertheless very important.
I am aware, ladies and gentlemen, of the high quality of the diplomatic and other personnel of the Foreign Ministry and your willingness to serve the nation far beyond your official obligations.
I am counting on the high professional quality, experience, long tradition and patriotic convictions of the ministry personnel who know how to carry out the decisions of the competent Constitutional organs of the Hellenic Republic in the best possible manner.
I am truly dismayed about the departure of my colleague Mr. Tsiaras from the Foreign Ministry. He did outstanding work in his area of responsibility. I am counting on close cooperation with the Deputy Ministers, Dimitris Kourkoulas, whom I have known for a long time, and my colleague in Parliament, Akis Gerontopoulos.
I am sorry that the sudden change in the political scene and the cabinet reshuffle resulted in the interruption of the very successful term of my dear friend Dimitris Avramopoulos here at the Foreign Ministry. And, as I said, I am consoled by the fact that he will be continuing at the Ministry of National Defence.
I am also pleased that in his new capacity we will have close, daily collaboration, and I am equally pleased because I will be collaborating officially and personally with all of you here at the Foreign Ministry.
Thank you.
June 25, 2013