Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis meets with his Finnish counterpart, Tytti Tuppurainen (Brussels, 10 September 2019)

Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis meets with his Finnish counterpart, Tytti Tuppurainen (Brussels, 10 September 2019)The Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs for European Affairs, Miltiadis Varvitsiotis, today met with his Finnish counterpart, Tytti Tuppurainen, in the context of the Finnish Presidency’s preparations for the negotiations on the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) 2021-2027.

During the meeting there was presentation of the Greece’s positions on the new MFF and of what the country is pursuing in terms of European funding, with special reference to the Common Agricultural Policy and the Cohesion Policies. Mr. Varvitsiotis underscored that Greece is shaping the MMF with its European partners and is pursuing a better policy mix that will contribute to the country’s further growth and to strengthening of investments.

Concluding, the Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs stressed that the Greek government will negotiate in this direction in order to achieve the maximum benefit from the European budget.

After the meeting, the Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs made the following statement:

“We presented our positions to the Finnish Presidency on the next Multiannual Financial Framework of the European Union – in other words, the European budget for 2021-2027. Greece is pursuing a great deal in these negotiations. It wants to maintain agricultural subsidies at the current levels and, due the major recession we have suffered, get more from the Cohesion Policies. These aren’t easy negotiations, and we have to bring arguments to the table. All Greek citizens can be sure of one thing: The Greek government will fight to secure the maximum advantages from the new European budget, which unfortunately – due to the Brexit – will be smaller.”