Journalist: Let’s welcome the new Foreign Minister, Mr. Lambrinidis. Mr. Minister, good morning and welcome.
Mr. Lambrinidis: Good morning, thank you.
Journalist: I wish you success in your new duties.
Mr. Lambrinidis: Thank you very much.
Journalist: I want to start by asking how you found the climate in your first meetings. I’m asking because the Greeks who are abroad, as well as Greek politicians who go abroad from time to time – yesterday, for example, from Mr. Tsipras we got that the climate is one of disdain for our country’s image; a very negative climate.
Mr. Lambrinidis: This is true, in part. And that’s why I started my tour of European capitals right away. Yesterday and the day before I was in Austria and Germany, two countries that are supporting Greece with loans, but where public opinion is fairly negative. And at this stage – and in the immediate future – my aim is to try to change this climate.
Journalist: What’s the main argument you hear?
Mr. Lambrinidis: Look, the major problem that exists in public opinion in these countries is that they think, first, that they are lending us money they will never see again. Second, that they themselves have suffered a lot in recent years from wage cuts, pension cuts or freezes, while we didn’t do that. And now they are being asked to pay more even though they have already suffered. And there is great concern as to the extent to which Greece can currently implement all the measures, given mainly the great political tensions they see. That’s what they’re saying.
What I explain to them in no uncertain terms is that it is in everyone’s interest for tensions to calm and for there to now be great emphasis – now that everyone is thanking and congratulating Greece on moving ahead decisively with the changes that have to be made. They also put great emphasis on the issue of growth, which everyone acknowledges as being important. But look, the problem they have is to a degree exclusive to them.
The longer the sense that Greeks are sinners is cultivated in their public opinion – regardless of the fact that in recent years we failed in our responsibility to follow the rules that apply for everyone – the more difficult it will be for them to take the necessary measures to help the country, because a negative attitude has been cultivated in their public opinion. They themselves understand that their job is being made harder, in addition to the fact that things are being made more difficult for us, because if a negative climate is sensed here, it creates insecurity.
I think these talks and meetings were very successful, especially because I focussed not only on meetings with my counterparts – which meetings obviously took place – but also on meetings with major think tanks, with diplomats, with journalists; that is, with people who actively shape public opinion, who influence their politicians – people who we need to approach, and that’s what I did.
Journalist: Mr. Minister, in this climate, many of our fellow citizens are concerned that we might be backing down on our national issues; we might lose something on our national issues. Because when a country is weak, there is greater danger. And I want to ask whether you are feeling pressure – as of your first days as Minister – with regard to our pending national issues.
Mr. Lambrinidis: I will answer you frankly that I feel no pressure whatsoever. I also want to assure you that none of our national issues is in danger or will be jeopardized due to the fact that Greece is currently in a difficult economic situation.
In fact, when I was in Montenegro recently for a meeting of Balkan heads of state and government, Greece’s statement on the perspective of the Balkans for EU accession – with strict prerequisites for everyone, of course – was very positively received.
Far from relinquishing, if you will, national rights, we are in fact, at this difficult stage, finding every possible way to return to a leading role. No one can take this role away from us. They want us to have it. Don’t have any concerns on that count.
Journalist: Are we preparing for The Hague. I read that the draft of the Greek-Turkish agreement on application to The Hague, regarding the delimitation of the continental shelf, is almost ready.
Mr. Lambrinidis: Yes, and I saw a newspaper article today on that. But, as you know, we are having the exploratory contacts, talks, and those have not ended yet. The purpose of these – as has been stated – is the joint resolution of the continental shelf issue. And if we can’t resolve it jointly, we will jointly refer it to The Hague. That is the stated aim, and in no case are we at a point where I can say that we are going there or we’re not going there.
Journalist: What will you do with the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Mr. Minister?
Mr. Lambrinidis: With the EEZ?
Journalist: Yes, with the EEZ.
Mr. Lambrinidis: Like it is for every country, the EEZ is – based on International Law and the Law of the Sea – a right that Greece can exercise whenever and in whatever manner it deems appropriate. That’s what we are going to do. The Prime Minister has stated this in Parliament, my predecessor said it, I am saying it straight out.
Journalist: I detect some hesitance on your part. That’s why I’m asking.
Mr. Lambrinidis: None whatsoever.
Journalist: You’ve only been at the Ministry for a few days, but the government hasn’t moved for the past year and a half. And as Ankara is trying to show the Kastelorizo group of islands as isolated islands on the Turkish continental shelf to call into question their legal right to a continental shelf and EEZ, there is …
Mr. Lambrinidis: Ankara can try lots of things, and based on its aspirations, it can state them wherever it desires. On all of this, in every case, it has received the instantaneous Greek reply of what we believe. There is no question or issue with regard to any of these matters. Our sovereign rights are a given, and, as I said, we are exercising them.
What’s more, Greek foreign policy has continuity. It doesn’t change with ministers. It doesn’t change with different governments. It may be adapted, but it doesn’t change. Regarding the issue of the EEZ and the point in time and manner in which we need to handle this issue, I remind you that New Democracy was in office for five years before Pasok came to power, and it decided how things should be handled while they were in power. So I think its very important not to …
Journalist: You mean they didn’t do anything.
Mr. Lambrinidis: I mean that all of these national rights are handled according to the right timing and the right way to declare them. And I mean that particularly as regards foreign policy issues, we always need – as Greeks – to sustain our self-confidence as a country that is extremely important in the region and more widely. We haven’t lost this. In fact, we are promoting this and a sense of consensus.
I put particular emphasis on this while I was abroad these past couple of days. We are well aware of the disappointment of many of our collocutors in Europe at the inability of Greece to show some consensus on the midterm programme. Nevertheless, my emphasis was on the points of consensus, and among those is the fact that none of us …
Journalist: Mr. Minister, you put it very well as regards the image our country needs to project abroad, but Juncker said otherwise with regard to our sovereignty. And I also want to say that in my opinion, maybe the time has come to try to have Europe guarantee our borders as European, so we won’t need arms programmes they don’t have in their countries.
Mr. Lambrinidis: Our country’s borders are European, Mr. Hatzinikolaou.
Journalist: Yes, but they aren’t guaranteed by Europe as to defence.
Mr. Lambrinidis: That depends on what you mean. In a special article, the new Lisbon Treaty provides for the immediate assistance of everyone should the EU’s external borders be threatened. So, I think that on this point as well – everything that we have achieved in the European negotiations up until now and on the implementation of this, if ever needed in the future – we look to these things very carefully and effectively.
Journalist: One last question. I imagine that among other things, you have heard allegations of corruption in Greece, and I imagine these will be even more intense following the statements from the Prime Minister himself on this. He was accused by the opposition, in fact, of in a way darkening the country’s image by saying these things abroad. Is it perhaps time to start reminding our partners in the EU that the biggest scandals in Greece involved them, their own companies?
They talk about corruption in Greece. I read the German press, and I think it’s an outrage that they don’t mention that the biggest scandal involved a German company. And the second biggest – with the submarines – also involves a German company.
Mr. Lambrinidis: All of these issues – not just Greek corruption, but European corruption as well – are always raised, but here at home I think it is important not to be distracted from our goal.
We all know this in our country, and, naturally, when we know it and our newspapers write about it every day, we shouldn’t assume that they don’t read the Greek press abroad, because I think that is what is being suggested. That is, every day Greek newspapers talk about our corruption, but we think that if we don’t refer to the necessary changes we have to make in our country to rid ourselves of this phenomenon, no one in Europe will know. Of course they know.
So, the responsibility is ours, and the great struggle is ours. We can’t have a country that is facing such problems, not just because it is deeply offensive to our own citizens and unfair for them to have to deal with such conduct from state or other employees. But also because at some point right now, when our growth is based to a large extent on foreign investments, it is exceedingly important for us to be able to stop the corruption, because when someone comes to invest – someone who isn’t corrupt and wants to bring growth and thousands of jobs to our country – they have to be able to do it without being confronted by Greek ill fortune.
This and everything involved with corruption is one element. These are issues that are mentioned and analyzed in the obligations we have undertaken to our partners. But in my opinion it’s a shame that this appears as something being imposed on our country from abroad.
Don’t forget that in the 2009 elections, it was a basic demand from everyone that this situation change. And again in 2004, when we had elections, it was a key issue for the Greek people.
This is something we have to do at long last, and it needs national consensus, national strength. And I think that the consensus exists from, I hope, almost all the parties, so that we can move ahead.
It’s for our own good, not the good of any foreigner.
Journalist: Thank you Mr. Minister.
Mr. Lambrinidis: Thank you, Mr. Hatzinikolaou. Goodbye.
July 8, 2011