Press Office
Athens, 16 March 2022
Teleconference of national parliaments and European Parliament on economic governance in EU
The two-day teleconference of national parliaments and the European Parliament on the economic governance of the EU was completed today, in the context of the European Parliamentary Week 2022. The Hellenic Parliament was represented by the Chairman of the Standing Committee on Economic Affairs Stavros Kalogiannis and MPs Effie Achtsioglou and Babis Papadimitriou. The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola, and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, delivered welcome messages.
This year's agenda consisted of two thematic units:
- Debate on EU Own Resources and the revision of the Stability and Growth Pact, with the participation, among others, of the European Commission Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, and the Commissioner for Economy Paolo Gentiloni.
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- High-level discussion on Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, with the intervention of the Prime Minister of Portugal Antonio Costa.
In his intervention during the EU own resources session, Mr Stavros Kalogiannis characterised the situation in Ukraine as extremely critical, noting that Greece condemned the unwarranted invasion, and emphasising that Europe must remain united and alert, as it did during the pandemic. Mr Kalogiannis stressed the need for coordinated action at European level to tackle the energy crisis, and support for businesses and households, noting that the Greek PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis submitted a six-point proposal to the President of the European Commission to address price increases in energy, via European intervention in the wholesale gas market. Mr Kalogiannis then referred to the EUs own resources system, stressing, among other things, that any future own resources should be characterised by simplicity, transparency, as well as the principle of fair burden-sharing, while emphasising that establishing an own-resources, budget-neutral mix, could lead to a reduction in Member States' contributions, thus strengthening the EU’s budgetary autonomy and supporting its political priorities.
Mrs Effie Achtsioglou in her speech, during the thematic unit on the Stability and Growth Pact revision, highlighted public policies and public tools as the only way to guarantee citizen security in the present environment of multiple crises and instability. She called attention to the critical question of Europe's economic governance review, moving beyond strict fiscal rules in order to achieve the goal of reducing social inequalities. Mrs Achtsioglou then presented the following proposals by the President of SYRIZA AlexisTsipras on the Stability and Growth Pact revision:
- exempting from deficit measurement expenditures related to public investment for tackling the climate crisis, addressing natural phenomena and strengthening the health and education systems,
-revising the public debt reduction target to the EU average and replacing the deficit reduction norm with a different target for each Member State,
- taking into account social objectives, such as reducing inequality, poverty and improving social cohesion, further to debt volume/GDP
Mr Babis Papadimitriou, speaking in the thematic unit on the Recovery and Resilience Mechanism, praised its adoption -as a response to the health crisis-, demonstrating the beneficial results of decisive and swift measures taken by the EU. He stressed that Greece via the "Greece 2.0" plan, has been one of the first countries presenting a coherent plan for utilizing relevant funds, moreover adding that our country is among the four countries that received the first tranche of disbursement. Mr. Papadimitriou stressed the importance of the energy transition, following the tragic events in Ukraine and the energy crisis, while emphasising Greece’s targeted choice to allocate more than the minimum required resources in the framework of the energy and digital transition Mechanism, also adding that Greece's plan, envisioning 106 investments and 68 reforms, is a prerequisite for a sustainable production model. Closing, Mr Papadimitriou stressed the need for fiscal rules to be reviewed in the direction of greater flexibility, in order to protect investment and address issues related to the field of defense in this volatile period.
