E. VENIZELOS: It is a great pleasure for me to welcome to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs my peer, Miroslav Lajcak, the Deputy Prime Minister of the Slovak government and also Foreign Minister. He is a very distinguished personality that has a great career and background within the EU institutions, but also worldwide.
Greece and Slovakia are close; they are bound by friendly ties. We have exceptional relations. There were a few problems within the Eurozone which we jointly overcame, and indeed this is how we need to work, on the basis of solidarity; because after all the economic and financial crisis is not localized, it is actually pan-European.
Greece and Slovakia share the same positions on all major issues that are pertinent to European integration and the future of the EU. And indeed, obviously we agree on the priorities that I have presented to my colleagues, the priorities of the EU Presidency in the first half of the year 2014. And with the help of Slovakia we are going to proceed with undertaking initiatives.
Actually the first half of 2014 is the semester of the European elections. Moreover, we have discussed regional issues, and during the working dinner we are going to have together we will also touch upon global issues, European issues and issues that we have already discussed in the confines of the European Council and the UN General Assembly previously.
One last remark. We were moved by the recent humanitarian tragedy in Sicily and Lampedusa, indeed given that the European Union needs to undertake practical initiatives and actions based on the principles of solidarity and equal burden-sharing, so as to do justice to all member states and not just to burden some coastal countries such as Greece.
M. LAJCAK: Thank you, everybody. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to be able to pay this visit to Athens today. As a matter of fact, my visit is the first visit of the Slovak Prime Minister since 2006, which is not normal, given the friendly relationships that exist between our two countries.
Greece and Slovakia are two friendly countries. Our relationship is strong, healthy, based on rich history. This year, together we commemorate 1,150 years since the arrival in Thessaloniki of Cyril and Methodius, or rather in the great Moravia, where they brought religion and language to us. And this is just one of the proofs of how old our relationship is.
Nowadays, we are both members of the European Union and NATO, and our views on most important issues, such as EU cohesion policy or EU and NATO enlargement policies, are practically similar, so we are natural allies and partners also within these important organizations.
Slovakia is the country that is popular for your citizens. Currently, we have more than 1,000 students from Greece who are studying in our universities. Greece is traditionally among the top three tourist destinations of our citizens.
Let me say that we follow and strongly support and express our deep sympathy for your government’s efforts to carry out structural reforms and to meet difficult targets. We know how painful and how difficult it is for your population. We have been through this painful exercise ourselves. It is important and you have our full support in this, and it’s encouraging to hear positive news coming from Athens, from Greece, and we are absolutely convinced that you will do what you promised and committed yourselves to do.
As my colleague and friend Mr Venizelos said, we are happy that we managed to overcome the short period of some misunderstandings in our relations. This year proves we are where we belong, close to each other. We had a very successful visit of your President, now I am here and we are discussing many important issues, and again we share the same views on them.
Next year, the next six months, Greece will be presiding over the European Union. It will be a very important period; the period of the elections in the European Parliament, many important decisions will be made. We wish you full success.
We share and support the priorities as you have defined for yourselves, because your priorities are also our priorities, and we will also be watching your presidency very closely, because we are getting ready for our own presidency, which will come in 2016, and we want to study and to see how you conduct your presidency, because your presidencies are traditionally strong and successful. And I am also happy and I want to thank you for the opportunity to have one of our diplomats being part of your team during your presidency.
Thank you very much.
JOURNALIST: Given your great experience on issues which are pertinent to the Western Balkans, I would like your point of view on the progress report by the European Commission.
M. LAJCAK: The progress report for this year is in general fair and balanced and realistic. It reflects, again in general, the situation on the ground, and it also identifies the problems that need to be addressed.
So we can speak about it, but as I said, as a whole, in general we believe that they provide a realistic picture of the situation in the region. And they should see it as a source of motivation for the countries of the Western Balkans, because they describe exactly how they are seen by the European Union, by the European Commission.
JOURNALIST: As Mr Lajcak said before, Greece is making progress, but there are also some that still don’t want to grasp it.
So, Mr Venizelos, since you had a meeting with the Prime Minister, did you eventually agree on all points of the platform agreement?
E. VENIZELOS: The fact that the Prime Minister and I, as the heads of the collaborating parties in the government, approved the platform agreement today means that we are presenting to the Greek people the political framework for a comprehensive National Reconstruction Plan.
The Platform Agreement is not an agreement between the two parties. It is an agreement between the government and Greek society. The Platform Agreement is a challenge to all the political and social forces to come together to help the situation.
It is a Platform agreement that all of us in Greece have to make in order to emerge definitively from the crisis. And it is a shame, it is an historical injustice, it belittles the sacrifices and struggles of the Greek people that we do not have a minimum framework of national consensus. This framework has to be shaped.
Because it is the common fate of our land – all of us, united, protecting the weakest social forces and ensuring social and national cohesion, must overcome the crisis definitively and once again become an equal institutional member of the Eurozone and the European Union. Our country deserves this, Greek society deserves this, every Greek family deserves this.
Moreover, the Platform Agreement is also the framework for negotiation with the troika and our institutional partners. We are conscientious, we will honor and respect our obligations, but we cannot accept new burdens for the Greek people.
Now the challenge is the structural changes, the real economy, investments, growth, jobs and the remedying of injustices.
These are the political priorities at the present stage.
Thank you.
October 23, 2013