On Monday, Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis attended an extraordinary meeting of the EU General Affairs Council on preparation of this Thursday’s special meeting of the European Council, which will be attended by the Greek Prime Minister.
The competent Ministers held an in-depth discussion on the drawing up of the new Multiannual Financial Framework for 2021-2027, starting with the proposal submitted by the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, at the end of last week.
The Greek side, via Alternate Minister Varvitsiotis, while acknowledging an improvement over the Finnish presidency’s plan – particularly with regard to the Just Transition Fund, which was endowed with additional fiscal means – nevertheless expressed its strong dissatisfaction at the fact that a low level of funding is still being proposed for two historic Union policies: the Cohesion Policy and the Common Agricultural Policy.
“The proposed reductions do not satisfy us,” Mr. Varvitsiotis stressed, adding that the countries that have suffered the consequences of the economic crisis cannot get back on their feet without adequate European funding. This is “a paradox we cannot support,” he stated, recalling that, in spite of the nascent optimism, the Greek economy was hit harder than other European economies during the crisis, losing 25% of its GDP.
More specifically, Mr. Varvitsiotis noted the negative repercussions for Greece of maintaining the fiscal corrections, implementing the capping-reverse safety net regulations for the countries that saw a dramatic fall in GDP, and the automatic release of funds based on the n+2 rule, rather than n+3.
Finally, the Alternate Minister called on the partners to work together to mitigate their disagreements over the amount and method of allocation of European funds by Thursday’s Summit Meeting. Mr. Varvitsiotis concluded by emphasising that “at the bottom line, there are not many different voices, but just two directions: towards a larger Europe or towards a Europe that looks fearfully upon its future as an accounting problem.
February 18, 2020