Pierrakakis at the ECOFIN meeting in Luxembourg: These are extremely challenging times for global peace

These are extremely challenging times for global peace, especially with what is happening in the Middle East, National Economy and Finance Minister Kyriakos Pierrakakis said in a statement at the Ecofin meeting in Luxembourg on Friday. The minister pointed out that Greece strongly believes in de-escalation and that diplomacy should prevail. He also stressed that there should be a single European energy market and lower prices.
Specifically, the minister's statement is as follows:
"At yesterday's Eurogroup and today's Ecofin meeting we discussed the international geopolitical situation and the impact it has on both the European and world economy. Needless to say, times are extremely difficult for world peace, especially in relation to what happens in the Middle East. Greece firmly believes in de-escalation. Greece firmly believes that diplomacy must prevail.
In the context of our meetings, we had the opportunity to touch upon a wide range of issues: from the modernisation of our customs posts and the overall reform of EU customs, to the enhancement of Europe's competitiveness through the removal of obstacles that continue to exist between the member states of the European Union.
We need to reduce energy prices. This will be extremely beneficial both for our consumers and for our businesses. And we must achieve this in order to further strengthen competitiveness at the European-wide level.
I also reiterated that the fiscal stability of our country is a given, even in these difficult times. We have managed to achieve significant fiscal performance in Greece, and this is something we intend to continue in the future, through further reforms and even better policies at both macroeconomic levels and - especially - on a national level."

Greek economy's resilience

Speaking from Luxembourg, Pierrakakis also highlighted the resilience of the Greek economy in the midst of adverse global conditions. 
The Greek FinMin also emphasized in his interventions that European competitiveness should be strengthened at global level, whileovercoming internal obstacles in Europe was urgently needed, including the fragmented regulatory framework. As he put it, "We cannot have different regulatory frameworks for the EU's 27 member states."
One of the issues discussed at ECOFIN was the progress in terms of a series of reforms for the Customs Union. Greece fully supports the reform proposed by the European Commissionand the Polish presidency, Pierrakakis said, "especially under the current circumstances of intense trade competition and inflow of low-value products, mainly from Asia, through digital platforms."  He also underlined the importance of the proposal for the founding of an EU Customs Authority and of a hub of digital customs data, and well as providing a handling fee on online orders, and spoke of the need to reduce energy cost, a critical issue for both consumers and businesses.
In addition, Pierrakakis also congratulated Bulgaria for achieving the convergence criteria in the process of accession to the European Union, and reiterated Greece's unwavering support of Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone.

 

(Story updated)

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