Article by Alternate Minister of Foreign Affairs Miltiadis Varvitsiotis in the newspaper PARAPOLITIKA (10. 07. 21)

Two years after the 2019 elections and a year and a half after the outbreak of the unprecedented pandemic that tested our resilience, Greece of the post-covid era has been transformed, compared to the country that the New Democracy government was handed on July 7th. In addition to what has been significantly achieved at home, Greece has remarkably upgraded its image abroad. It is no longer an inactive country as regards its foreign policy, but a country that claims its place in the international system with extroversion, confidence and energy.

Starting with our European family, the affairs of which I have the honor to manage, what we are now receiving from Brussels is a clear shift. We are now an equal member, co-shaping EU policies. We coordinated effectively with our other partners in matters of trade, transport, supply of medical supplies and vaccines, while the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has played a leading role in adopting innovative proposals, such as the Digital Certificate and, of course, the Recovery Fund. To make this major step forward for the European Union, we fought together for months in the European Councils, culminating in a five-day negotiation last July. In the end, however, we returned to Greece with 72 billion, an amount higher than any other country, a true fiscal superweapon, which will be invested in the real economy to achieve Green Growth, Digital Transition and tackle the effects of the pandemic.

During these two years, we also achieved something important in our foreign policy: we have turned Greek-Turkish relations into European-Turkish ones. If we had not mobilized the European Union with systematic work and solid arguments, if we had not managed to repeatedly include Turkey on the agenda of the European Councils and had not demanded respect for international law at European level, today Turkey probably would not have returned to the negotiating table. And this is a great achievement of our government.

We also redefined the image of Greece in the particularly important field of Human Rights, the Rule of Law and Democracy. Successfully holding the presidency of the Council of Europe in the second half of 2020 -as generally acknowledged by the EU- we have raised important issues and left important legacies in the history of the institution, such as the Athens Declaration and the Institute for the Study of History. We aspire to do the same with the Conference on the Future of Europe, a project that we are launching this year and through which we want to give a voice, especially to the Young Generation, to tell us how they dream of the Europe of tomorrow.

At the same time, despite the multiple crises (health, national, economic ones), Greece has clearly been strengthened on the international stage. We export security. We are building broad alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean, participating in all multilateral formations, strengthening our position in the EUMED Group, of which we are holding the chairmanship for this year and I have already had the honor of welcoming my counterparts to Athens to make a Joint Declaration on important issues of common interest. We are also taking an active role as regards the European integration of the Western Balkans and the highlighting of our contribution to the stability of the region.

The promise we made two years ago that “Together we can” make Greece better, we dare to say that we have already fulfilled it. This year, a year of high symbolism, celebrating the 200th anniversary of the War of Independence and the 40th anniversary of EU membership, coming out of the pandemic and aiming for Recovery, we are determined to make the essential leap forward. We have the vision, the willingness, and the tools. United, we continue.