Mitsotakis heading to Eurosummit with “heavy” Middle East, Refugee, Economy Agenda

Kyriakos Mitsotakis will participate in the Regular European Council and, on the sidelines of this, at the EuroSummit and the European People’s Party (EPP) with a “heavy” agenda today and tomorrow.

Developments in the Middle East under the concern of a regional conflagration and with ongoing efforts by both American and European diplomacy to prevent a humanitarian crisis as well as Migration and the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework are on the agenda in Brussels.

The prime minister enters the discussions with his counterparts with “clear positions” of Greece, according to his associates. In particular, the Eurosummit takes place a few days after Standard & Poor’s upgraded the Greek economy to investment grade. And this is expected to be used by him to send the message that Greece is now the “positive surprise” of the Eurozone in terms of its growth and fiscal performance.

An extra 2.5 billion euros

Central to the agenda of the “27” is the revision of the Multiannual Financial Framework (2021-2027), a discussion that was opened for the first time at the level of leaders at the recent informal European Council in Granada.

Athens is demanding an increase in the budget, with Mitsotakis reiterating his position that “it is unthinkable” that the EU budget provides so many additional resources for Ukraine and at the same time much less resources are given to key areas such as Migration and the natural disasters.

After all, from Granada, the prime minister, referring to the immediate challenges of the European family, opened the agenda… of a double crisis (Refugee and climate change) stressing that Greece “will propose an increase in European resources by at least 2.5 billion euros”. And this is so that all European citizens, according to him, “know that Europe is by their side, should a country be hit by natural disasters”.

Especially regarding Immigration, Mitsotakis informs his counterparts that under the pressure of the developments in the Middle East, a strategic cooperation of the EU with Egypt is urgent.

“Reliable interlocutor”

Amidst deep concern in Athens about the Middle East and more specifically about the prospect of a regional flare-up, Mitsotakis intends to inform his counterparts about his contacts both in Jerusalem and at the peace summit that preceded it in Cairo last Saturday with the participation of Arab leaders.

Accordingly, he will be informed about the discussions held by his counterparts who were in the region after him (such as French President Emmanuel Macron and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte) but also those who preceded him (Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and others).

Given the strategic relationship between Greece and Israel on the one hand and the channels that Athens wants to have open with the Arab world on the other, the Prime Minister presents Greece as a “reliable interlocutor” with all the countries of the wider region.

This is the role that Greece will project at the summit as well, reiterating, according to its collaborators, Israel’s right to self-defense “only and always in accordance with international law” and the rules of engagement, but also clearly insisting on its separation Hamas and the Palestinian people.

The need to protect civilians from all sides and avoid a humanitarian crisis is the dimension he insisted on in the meeting with his counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu. “No military intervention can replace a viable political solution” he will repeat in Brussels, highlighting Greece’s timeless position (and Europe’s position) in favor of a two-state solution.