Live from the Roman Forum the Mitsotakis-Macron debate – The next years will be of existential importance for the EU

“Thank you very much for this invitation and for visiting. I think this is Europe’s moment for many reasons. First of all, everybody in this world has a clear view that this is a hub of instability. The number one power, the United States, may be an ally, but it is not predictable and reliable. The international order is at risk. And what is the EU? A point of predictability and reliability. When we have allies, we are together. Greece and France acted together with the Gulf countries. From day one we sent air defence systems to those countries and they recognised it. We made a concrete contribution to their defence. We should not underestimate this,” Emanuel Macron commented at the outset.

“Europe is an important trade player, the same range as China. We are a place of significant economic activity and we have improved relations between Greece and France in recent months through Euronext,” the French president said.

He continued: “Now, we must use our weight on the international stage to be respected more than we are today and impose reciprocity on the global trade side.”

“I agree with the French president that this challenge is a great opportunity for Europe, which has been shaped by crises. I believe there is a great opportunity to step up on two fronts,” the prime minister underlined.

“To add substance to the bet on strategic autonomy, Greece and France are at the forefront of the debate. We did that in 2021 with the defence cooperation agreement we signed in 2021. Now we need to spend more, but also more intelligently on defence,” he added.

“The second challenge,” said Kyriakos Mitsotakis, “is to strengthen our competitiveness. We are a big market, we can do much more, but we have to address issues about the common market, about the fracturing of the energy market, we have to move from words to action on investment. We now need to implement policies, beyond agreeing to do so.”

“The next few years will be of existential importance for the EU, today we had the debate on the European budget,” the prime minister continued. “We have to convince other partners in the EU that we have to mobilise European money to achieve our goals. But we had the same discussion in 2020 and we convinced Angela Merkel (about the Recovery Fund). I remain optimistic that at this turning point the EU has an important role to play. It is just that the EU sometimes does not move with the speed we want, but when it does move, it moves with intensity.”

“We need to move faster and with simplistic logic. In some areas we have over-regulated, we have a lot of national regulations in several areas. But sometimes we need regulations to protect our own industries,” Macron commented.

The French president added: “Both the US and China have regulations to protect their own businesses. We have to maintain a fair competitive environment, but we have to protect our interests. China has a lot of potential and is killing European industry. But we are slow to see it. Last year China destroyed 250,000 jobs in Germany. We have to react and we will react with regulations in certain sectors. We must also react in the digital environment, with regulations for teenagers.”

Kyriakos Mitsotakis said: “Two areas of focus are the protection of teenagers on the Internet. I expect that what we are doing at the national level will be passed on to the international level. We have also sent a clear message to technology companies. At the same time, we have to safeguard the public space. There was fake news in Ancient Athens too, but what is happening now is out of control. What is happening with anonymity, the problems of deepfakes will be a big challenge for everyone, especially for those of us who have elections ahead of us.”

“If the main concern of citizens is the cost of living, we need to frame the debate in that light. We should say that free trade means lower prices, a functioning market and the ability to fund the welfare state. We should not make these discussions too technical, we need to explain why a free trade agreement can be positive for our oil producers – for example exports to India.”

“This is a unique moment when the American president, the Russian president and the Chinese president are facing the Europeans. Let’s wake up!” said the French leader.

“The Russian economy is suffering from the sanctions on Ukraine. We do not want to be part of the war, we expressed clear support for Ukraine. But we will support the Ukrainians in their war of independence. Ukraine is resisting very well, better than some people expected,” the French president further assessed.

“We have formed the coalition of the willing,” Macron continued, referring to Ukraine’s war. “This was our reaction to the moment with President Zelensky in the Oval Office (when he was attacked by Donald Trump). All the Europeans are involved, we have Canada, Australia, Japan with us. And it’s a very strong creation.”

“The US is welcome, we appreciate them very much, but we decided to act. And what France does does not depend on what the US does,” Macron added meaningfully.

“France and Germany must overcome their differences, I have confidence in Emmanuel and Friedrich (ed. Murch, the German chancellor), Europe must have a 6th generation fighter,” Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.

“President Trump was right in 2017 when he said that Europe is not doing enough for defence. Greece was an exception for its own national reasons. But there is a national dimension, which is our commitment to support European allies in times of threat. What we did with Cyprus was a gamechanger, we supported a member state at the time of threat,” the Greek prime minister stressed.

“We put into practice Article 42 par. 7 on common defence. And we have a common defence clause in our bilateral defence cooperation. We have to take this article much more seriously,” added Kyriakos Mitsotakis.