{"id":5501,"date":"2026-05-14T14:45:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=5501"},"modified":"2026-05-14T14:45:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:45:00","slug":"kyriakos-mitsotakis-honoured-draghi-at-the-charlemagne-prize-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/?p=5501","title":{"rendered":"Kyriakos Mitsotakis honoured Draghi at the Charlemagne Prize ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"

With strong political messages and clear references to the critical turning points in European history, Kyriakos Mitsotakis honored Mario Draghi<\/b> at the Carlos de Carlos<\/strong> award ceremony in Aachen. <\/p>\n

The prime minister<\/b> spoke of a Europe <\/b>at a turning point, warning that it “runs the risk of not being the author of its future, but a passive spectator of decisions taken elsewhere<\/em>“. <\/p>\n

At the same time, he praised the contribution of the former president of the ECB<\/strong> to the debt crisis, describing his historic stance as crucial<\/strong> for the salvation of the euro and the resilience of the eurozone. <\/p>\n

The Prime Minister began by stressing that “Europe<\/b> has never been a<\/b> geographical construct; it has always been an idea and above all a choice<\/em>“, made again and again by peoples with different languages and histories, despite their traumatic memories. <\/p>\n

Speaking of Mario Draghi,<\/b> he described him as “a true European<\/strong>“, noting that for a younger generation of politicians he had been an inspiration for what it means to serve the public interest. He made particular reference to his contribution during the debt crisis, recalling the historic statement that set the course of the eurozone: “The ECB is ready to do whatever it takes to preserve the euro<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n

Mitsotakis stressed that no country suffered more than Greece at the time, expressing gratitude to both Draghi and Jean-Claude Trichet and Jacques Delors<\/b> for their support. “The Greek people have proven themselves worthy of the trust of the European peoples<\/em>,” he said. <\/p>\n

He then described the current European challenges<\/strong>: the erosion of competitiveness, the innovation gap, the growing dependence on third countries and the need for strong strategic supply chains. He said there is a risk that Europe could lose its leading role. <\/p>\n

The prime minister called on the EU to restore its capacity to innovate, invest and develop technology, warning that without these “our strategic strength will shrink<\/strong>“. <\/p>\n

He also made an important reference to the concept of security, stressing that “a Europe that cannot protect itself cannot be truly sovereign<\/strong>“. Security – as he said – goes beyond defence and touches on infrastructure, energy, supply chains and institutions. <\/p>\n

At the same time, he called for the mutual assistance clause in Article 42 (7) to be made operational, so that the EU’s collective defence becomes real<\/strong>. <\/p>\n

Mitsotakis also spoke in favour of common European borrowing, noting that the Union’s ambitions – especially in the field of defence – should be reflected in a strengthened European budget. “We all have to give something to make Europe stronger,<\/em> he stressed. <\/p>\n

He concluded his speech by pointing out that European unity “<\/b>is never automatic” and that leadership requires honesty, even when it is uncomfortable.
“We have to believe in ourselves. And when Europe decides to do what is necessary, it can make history<\/em>,” he said. <\/p>\n

.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n With strong political messages and clear references to the critical turning points in European history, Kyriakos Mitsotakis honoured Mario …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/en.tomanifesto.gr\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}