Meeting with Herman Van Rompuy in Brussels | Statements
June 20, 2011 |
PRIME MINISTER
PRESS OFFICE
Athens, June 20, 2011
H. VAN ROMPUY: I met with Prime Minister Georgios Papandreou. I expressed my strong support to the Prime Minister in his unwavering effort towards reform of the Greek economy.
I underlined the need for Greece to make further adjustment efforts to address the current challenges, recognising the progress made so far.
The package of measures agreed upon by the government and the Troika on fiscal consolidation, privatisation and structural reforms needs to be supported of course by the Greek Parliament. This will pave the way for the next disbursement by mid-July.
We are working on a medium-term strategy, including voluntarily private sector involvement along the lines agreed upon by the Eurogroup yesterday.
Given the length, the magnitude and the nature of the required reforms in Greece, national consensus is a prerequisite for success. Thank you.
G. A. PAPANDREOU: First of all, thank you, Mr. President. I had a very constructive and important discussion with Herman Van Rompuy, President of the Council.
We are in a process of a very intricate and difficult negotiation, which involves the institutions of the European Union, and not only, and of course member states. From our side, I’d like to say that we are determined, as a country and as a government, to be on track with the programme, to move forward, to do what is necessary in order to put our country into a fiscally much better and viable position. And we have been doing this over the past year, and will continue to do so. And I do hope that the Greek Parliament will be approving the programme which we have in front of us.
At the same time, we do hope that the European Union will have also a similar will, a unity, if you like, of purpose, to not only support what Greece is doing but also show the necessary strength for a crisis which has obviously not only reached Greek dimensions, but wider European dimensions, and which need the necessary decisions to be made over the Council that’s coming in the next few days.
But I thank you very much, Herman, for your support and the constructive cooperation we have.
H. VAN ROMPUY: See you back on Thursday, at the Council.