PM Mitsotakis at EPP youth conference: Jobs and security among key priorities

22:53 22/11/2024 - Πηγή: iEfimerida

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis participated on Friday in the European People's Party Youth Conference, titled "Securing Europe's Future: Overcoming Challenges."

The event, held in Athens, was organised in collaboration with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation for Greece and Cyprus,

the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies and hosted by the Youth Organisation of the New Democracy (ONNED).

Mitsotakis highlighted his government's focus on fulfilling its promises, with job creation—particularly for young people—at the forefront. He noted that since New Democracy assumed office, more than 500,000 jobs have been created, while unemployment has fallen from 17.5 percent to below 10 percent. Additionally, he emphasized efforts to reverse Greece’s brain drain, with 300,000 young Greeks returning from abroad during his tenure. "We achieved this while maintaining fiscal discipline, resisting the temptation to overspend," he said.

Addressing broader challenges, Mitsotakis urged young attendees to review the Draghi Report's summary and underscored the importance of European self-reliance in security.

He also added that if you look at the challenges related to security and defence, especially after Donald Trump's re-election in the United States, Europe for many decades had become complacent in terms of taking care of its own security. He also added that "we had effectively ceded the safeguarding of our security to the United States".

He stressed the need to ensure that farmers are not overburdened or, for example, that consumers are not forced, for example, to change their cars and buy more expensive electric cars when they cannot afford to do so.

Mitsotakis also discussed the transformative role of artificial intelligence, advocating for open dialogue with the next generation to address their concerns and shape effective policies.

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