PM Samaras in Strasbourg: Working for a common European identity

21:18 15/1/2014 - Πηγή: E-Typos

We have proven all doomsayers wrong - Greece showed it can succeed and has become a symbol for the resilience of Europe, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said on Wednesday during his address at the European Parliament.
Presenting the Greek

EU presidency's priorities, Samaras said that "Greece showed it can do it. Greece has become the symbol that Europe endures, that Europe is going on, and that it can."
Speaking of Greece's success in financial terms, he made special mention of the primary surplus achieved for the first time in 2013, while he said Greece expected to enter recovery in 2014 after six years of recession.
Giving a brief outline of Greece's agenda, the prime minister stressed the need to focus on growth and employment, by setting the strategy for the 2014-2010 period, and improving the growth rates of specific sectors like transportation, energy, shipping and tourism. The European market must complete its integration, foreign trade supported, the euro currency strengthened and the banking union completed, among others.
The main priority of the Greek EU presidency is promoting financing of the real economy, especially small and medium sized entreprises. We have to work hard and adopt the Single Resolution Mechanism (SRM), which is a crucial pillar of the Banking Union, he said.
The issue of illegal migration must also be dealt with by a comprehensive plan including solidarity, border protection, a fairer share of responsibility among EU member-states, and measures to return migrants to their countries. Fighting human trafficking is necessary, he said.
The presidency will also seek to revive the Union's sea transportation, and find new ways to cover needs in security and energy, including taking advantage of seabed sources. Strategic partnerships must be strengthtened so that the region provides stability, peace and growth, reflecting our principles and values, he added.
He also referred to the European enlargement especially regarding Western Balkans countries. "The accession process of countries in this region has acquired over the last two years a clear momentum thanks to the accession of Croatia, the beginning of accession negotiations with Montenegro and the candidate status to Serbia," he said.
Greece was tried because of the mistakes made that were continued for decades, structural deficits in the EU and by mistakes made during the planning of the first fiscal adjustment programme, such as the mathematical factoring used which underestimated recession. "Greece survived and is now overcoming its problems, entering the path of fiscal halth and revival," he said.
Referring to Greece, Samaras stressed that "My country was tried, as no other country in the European Union has been ever tried, and it survived...We delivered."
"Greece kept its commitments and honored its word - in other words, we delivered," Samaras stressed. "Remember the example of my country," he noted, "Greece suffered and still suffers; but we are now standing on our feet, we are proud, we are holding our ground, we are returning to normality - and by doing so, we prove to everyone that Europe works, that Europe can make it. By Defending our destiny as a nation, we also defended the future of Europe, in every step of the way."
Greece "has covered great distances, but we still have a lot to do," the prime minister said, pointing out that now "Greece has the largest restructural primary budget deficit in Europe and the eurozone."
The prime minister spoke of the unity of Europe and "the common wish of all peoples to proceed to the integration of Europe," and said that Europe "united can export stability and security to the rest of the world."
Referring to the European Commission, the European Council and the European Parliament as the "soul, the mind, and the muscular system of Europe," Samaras said that although they had not always been in harmony. "What we need is 'More Europe and Better Europe!' And the rest of the world also expects this of us," he said.
Greece is committed to supporting the integration and collaboration of Europe, he said, adding that "we want a strong and responsible Europarliament."
"I'm speaking at a very critical point. The European Union was tried, in terms of its cohesion and in its currency. Serious construction deficits became obvious, but the crisis is now being overcome. Europe has seen its mistakes and is trying to overcome them. We must complete the changes and take them further."
At May's Europarliamentary elections, which coincide with Greece's completion of the EU presidency, Europeans must not vote in bitterness but with the hope that the crisis can be overcome, he said.
A united Europe "is not just some administrative bodies, not just some institutions, not the bureaucratic procedures and the technically ocomplicated regulations. Primarily Europe is us - all of us: Everybody in this chamber, all European citizens who voted for us and sent us here. All of us, debating and sometimes disagreeing; all of us working hard for Europe and enjoying the fruits of our union," he underlined.
Concluding his speech with remarks in English, Samaras said, "As a political nation, as a single market, Europe is a super power of a global vision....Now Europe is being transformed, to not just a common institutional framework for all its countries, but to a common identity and a common conscience for all its people."