Greek turnaround came after hard work, Vestager says

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met on Monday with visiting European Commission Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager at his office in Athens to discuss the upcoming formal end of Greece’s enhanced surveillance status.

They also talked about the progress achieved in several sectors in recent years, as well as protecting healthy competition, Europe’s energy and food supply security following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, managing inflationary pressure currently affecting the entire EU, and progress in implementing Greece’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan, “Greece 2.0.”

“What Greece has achieved in recent years is truly impressive,” Vestager, who is also commissioner for competition, said at the start of the meeting, adding that it is unfortunate the multifaceted crisis of war, energy, inflation and climate does not allow the proper celebration that should follow the news of the enhanced surveillance’s end.

She also spoke of how Greece’s turnaround was initially doubted by many, but the Greek government worked hard to achieve this, with the help of sacrifices by the Greek people.

For his part, Mitsotakis said that “every time this period comes around – end of June, start of July – we are reminded of what happened in 2015 and how close we came to total destruction.”

He added that the price paid for the previous government’s choices was heavy but, as Vestager noted, Greek society proved remarkably resilient.