THE Kyriakos Mitsotakis and the Emmanuel Macron sent a message of deepening the strategic and economic cooperation between Greece and France, during their joint presence at Greek-French Economic Forum at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center.
With a cutting edge investmentsthe defense and them new technologiesthe two leaders underlined that bilateral relations are entering a new, more ambitious phase, with the aim of strengthening European competitiveness and shaping common responses to geopolitical and economic challenges.
Macron: Investments in Greece are increasing, let’s do more
“Greece has succeeded in recent years on an economic and political level. No one forgets the crisis you went through. France has always been on your side, against an asymmetric shock. You were forced to make very strong and courageous reforms. Your growth is above the European Union average. Greece is a model of economic progress”Emmanuel Macron emphasized at the beginning of his speech.
“We have developed very strong bilateral relations at the level of services and investments. And in the last few days they have intensified. Over 200 French companies with over 17,000 employees are located in Greece. Investments in Greece are constantly increasing, they have reached over 2 billion euros, in defense, artificial intelligence, infrastructure and renewable energy sources“, said the French president, adding, however, that much more needs to be done.
During his speech, Emmanuel Macron expressed his support for the creation of the IMEC corridor, which will start from India and reach the Mediterranean and Marseille. As he pointed out, it will be the heart of the “alliance of independents” with many investments in energy, infrastructure and maritime transport.
“We believe in innovation, not in hegemony at the expense of others. Not to conquer the world, but to build a world that respects each other. Let’s believe in ourselves. Let’s continue our path forward and long live the friendship between Greece and France”, concluded the French president.
Mr. Mitsotakis: Greece and France are closer than ever
“The previous discussions were extremely meaningful and fruitful, cultivating the ground for the further development of new partnerships, as well as the tightening of productive forces between the two countries for new investments and partnerships. In other words, for an even more ambitious chapter in the Greek-French cooperation in many different fields. The friendship between Greece and France has, after all, been founded on strong foundations, on relationships of mutual trust with historical depth, but also in a common European consciousness, which was forged at critical moments in history with French political thought evaluating our country over time as an integral part of European architecture”, stressed Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
He made special mention of France’s contribution to the admission of Greece as the tenth member of the European Economic Community in 1981, expressing gratitude for a support that, he said, changed the fate of modern Greece.
He underlined the historic closeness that he said found its strongest expression in the strategic partnership agreement signed in Paris in 2021, a few months before the war in Ukraine began. “A landmark agreement, the upgrade of which we decided today with President Macron. So I would say that today the two states are closer than ever, politically, strategically, economically, educationally, culturally. I would even say that this cooperation model is perhaps the most advanced form of strategic relationship that Greece has developed with any member of the EU”. Something that has a critical, but also topical importance due to the situation we are going through.
He reiterated that improving the competitiveness of the European economy is a condition for us to be able to maintain the generous social model, which ultimately distinguishes us from other regions of the planet. “Greek-French cooperation can essentially function as a model for the ways in which Europe as a whole could move,” he said. He added that the crises we are going through are many, but through them new opportunities also emerge and he underlined the importance of joint action.
He referred to the importance of expressing solidarity in practice and emphasized that “the debate on European defense is no longer a theoretical debate about the future. It is an immediate geopolitical necessity.”
The prime minister also said that “Greek-French cooperation must progress and is progressing beyond the traditional seller-supplier relationship to a logic of substantial co-production, a process which will connect the Greek and French ecosystems on many different levels”. Our emphasis should be much more on cutting-edge areas such as cyber defense, unmanned systems, defense against unmanned systems,” he stressed, referring to the Centaur system.
He underlined once again the need to improve the competitiveness of the European economy, “a priority which becomes a necessity”.
The prime minister closed his greeting with another important common priority as he said “which concerns the financing of the very ambitious intentions that Europe has developed, whether we are talking about the level of defense, whether we are talking about the level of competitiveness, whether we are talking about the level of the climate crisis. The diagnosis has been made by all of us. It was done first of all by Mario Draghi and Enrico Letta, in the interesting studies they did. We know what we have to do. We know we need less red tape and a simpler regulatory framework. We know that we need to complete the union of savings and investment as soon as possible, we know that we need to invest in our human resources and now assess how education and training are linked to the rapid changes in the labor market.” And “we also know that we have to take real steps to finally have a single European energy market”, emphasized Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“What I can assure you is that Greece and France, France and Greece are completely aligned in this effort and it is really my great pleasure to welcome today President Macron to Athens on a very important visit together with his delegation, not only to sign the important agreements, which we signed, but to confirm that behind the texts, behind the initial agreements there is something deeper. There are relationships of respect and love between our peoples and as you said yesterday that France loves Greece, I assure you that in the same way Greece also loves France”.
