Greek PM says ‘huge step’ if EU moves towards joint debt issuance

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Wednesday that if the European Union eventually moves towards a joint debt issuance to finance a recovery program it will be “a huge step” for the bloc.

“This is not a crisis that we can overcome without big bazookas and I think what the European Commission is proposing is big; what the ECB has done is also big and, combining the two, and if the European Union is finally led towards a joint debt issue [even at Commission level] to fund a program that focuses on business rather than loans, this will be a huge step for the EU,” he said during a webinar by Brookings Foreign Policy program on Greece’s successful response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the challenges ahead as the country reopens to tourism.

“[A way for the EU] To show solidarity in a tangible manner and help all the countries to absorb the crisis,” he added.

Mitsotakis described the European Commission’s recovery plan as “very ambitious,” noting that Greece will be one of the countries that will greatly benefit from it.

“I hope it is an opportunity to do something really bold, which in a way revives the European project,” he said, and warned that the countries that remain sceptical about the plan greatly depend from the single market and a possible collapse would result in a significant cost for them.

The webinar was in partnership with the University of Virginia Miller Center.