Leading up to the European Parliament elections in June 2024, Metsola intends to tour all EU Member States, urging citizens to participate in the voting process. Roberta METSOLA, President of the European Parliament, and Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, speak to the press after at the end of their meeting during her official visit to Athens. This transcription is a result of an automatic process. Please check against delivery.

EU - Greece (T)

press conference

official visit

METSOLA, Roberta (EPP, MT, EP President)

Athens

Greece

MITSOTAKIS, Kyriakos (EL)

president's agenda

Joint press statement by Roberta METSOLA, EP President and Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister

https://api.multimedia.europarl.europa.eu/documents/20125/74931373/1708333157412_I252985Chapters%5BSD-EN%5D.srt

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, Madame President, Dear Roberta, Ladies and gentlemen, I had today the great pleasure to have the president of the European Parliament visit Athens within the framework of her first official visit in our country under this capacity. And, of course, we had the opportunity to discuss about all issues pertaining to Europe since our cooperation is always close and constructive.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, Besides, it's only four months to the upcoming European elections that will take place in our country on June 9th. This is a milestone since we are going to have the powers that will shape the challenges for Europe in the next five years. Geopolitical, financial challenges, technological challenges, before which Europe must have its own answes. So this is why it becomes really important to build a strategic autonomy in Europe and to forge a common course of the member states.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, A key to this democratic process, as we had the opportunity to discuss with Madam President, is obviously the participation of citizens in this procedure. And I'm really glad that towards this direction with the first law of our second term, we have established the vote by letter, by correspondence. So, in this way, Greeks of outside our borders will be able to take part in the electoral process, if they can not go to the election departments. And we have an electronic platform which is easy. This is a choice of responsibility, encouraging citizens' expression, enhancing representativity, institutions, together with the dialogue on our common problems. A dialogue that needs to be undertaken with responsibility and beyond micro-partisan intentions that might lead to take impressions and myths.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, And I insist on that since Greece in the past few years has been and the centre of deformation. Some cases such as the case of Maria, which was a story of traffickers, or complaints about the rule of law, which is stronger than ever in our country. These are actions that have annoyed us. And the Supreme Court itself has been obliged to answer and we have certain forces in our country that have joined forces. So with the counter European slogans and they appear to be defending the European values and justice.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, I reiterated once again, and we had the opportunity to discuss it with Madam President. I think that the main judge, for the rule of law is the European Commission that does have the objectivity and is unbiased in order to be able to check the reliability of each member state. And truth be told, there are other risks and dangers for Europe. These are to be condemned by means of the European citizens' votes in the upcoming elections. Against these voices we talk about the the expansion of rights and enhancement of pluralism.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, The latest sample which has been the institutionalisation of equality in civil marriage. We had a consensus, that has been supported by five parties. The same sex marriage law, which is a reform of equity and justice. This reinforces the position of our country in the heart of Europe, being attached to the principles of democracy. These are values that have been acknowledged by our partners, and it is not a chance that, following the positive European Commission report of the year on the rule of law, economist recently classified our country amongst the 20 top countries vis-a-vis the quality of our democracy. So people should not be concerned. Democracy is alive and kicking and is making progress in its birthplace.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, Welcome, Madam President. Of course, we also talked about the migration issue, so the need to have and adopt a common European stance. This is a stance of solidarity with the fair and just allocation of responsibilities. And this is a direction that has been favoured by the agreement between the Council. The Migration Pact, something for which Madam President has also worked a lot.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, This is a critical issue for a country, which is in a region of multiple crises. It's already two years since the Russian invasion to Ukraine, four months following the terrorist attack by Hamas to Israel, the attention of us all is turned to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza that, has reached climax. And I have shared with the President my concern as to the spread of instability in the Red sea, where we have Houthis' attacks, putting at risk our own vessels. And I say our vessels.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, Since Greece has the largest fleets, and this is why Greece has been in favour of a coordinated action undertaken the operational administration of the Aspides, the shields operation. This is a national responsibility initiative. And we couldn't, not take part in that as a peace power. And, we had the opportunity to discuss about that with Madam President.

SOUNDBITE (Greek) Kyriakos MITSOTAKIS, Greek Prime Minister, So one of the things at stake, the coming elections, is how to Europe is to acquire autonomy, what it means to have an independent and stand alone defence policy, a defence branch, that will enhance competitiveness in a Europe. How we are going to tackle challenges, such as of our farmers' challenge, that we have seen today, farmers coming to the downtown Athens today demanding things that are quite fair.

paragraph-11 All this will be issues to be dealt with by the next European Parliament. So I hope, dear Roberta, that all these that are part of our concerns will become a part of the thoughts of citizens. And I hope that this will become a fertile period that will allow us to discuss about our common future. I'd like to thank you once again for our productive cooperation. And, of course, you're always welcome to Greece and Athens. Welcome once again.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Thank you very much, and good morning, Kalimera. I'm delighted to be here today in beautiful Athens in this special year as, we will celebrate 50 years since the return of democracy in Greece. And there are very, proud to say, few better places in the world to be.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President I would like to thank the people of this great country and you personally, Prime Minister, for your leadership, for your commitment and your dedication. It has not been easy, but you rallied to exit the EU enhance surveillance and reduce the debt ratio. You reformed and you handled crises thrown your way. And you did that in the midst of the energy transition, natural disasters, war and global economic slowdown. And that is no small feat.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President On the 9th of June, Greeks and another 400 million other Europeans will be called upon to vote in the European elections. And this is why I am currently visiting European Union Member States: to listen, to show the value of Europe, to increase awareness about the European elections. I am here to encourage to vote, particularly young people, those here aged also 17 can for the first time do just that. And now that postal voting is a reality, it is easier and faster than ever to participate in democracy.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President After the 9th of June, there will be 720 Members of the European Parliament, 21 from Greece. Who those people are and what they stand for is in your hands. They will shape policies and adopt legislation that affect all of Greece and Europe. And it is up to you, Greek citizens, to vote. With the Prime Minister, we also used this opportunity to discuss a number of other pressing issues, as we have just heard, that these included the situation in the Middle East and the war in Ukraine, as well as our support for farmers and the agricultural sector. And here it is important to address this pan-European situation and make it clear that we intend to leave nobody behind.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President As the Prime Minister said, we also discussed the rule of law. The European Parliament recently adopted a resolution, and I understand that the Greek Supreme Court issued an opinion on this yesterday. We will, of course, analyse this, and we will reflect on what is said. By the respective, I also wants to be clear that we must treat all Member States the same, and this is why we insisted as a Parliament on an annual rule of law report from the Commission that puts all Member States under the same scrutiny. Why have we been asking for this? And we have done this for many years now.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Because we want to discuss the issues honestly, and we need to be careful not to politicise or weaponise important discussions on the rule of law. And I also want to acknowledge the important steps that Greece has made on transparency, on equality, and on combating racism. I am grateful for the assurances given by Prime Minister Mitsotakis, and I am confident that in our discussions will be able to move very much forward together.

SOUNDIBTE (English) Roberta METSOLA, EP President Last word. Let me very much congratulate Greece for legislating under your leadership, Kyriakos, for marriage equality. This was an important decision on our shared journey on strengthening people's rights. And I thank you.