PM calls for European response to energy crisis
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has called for a joint EU response to the energy crisis, saying the bloc should decouple European electricity and gas prices.
“We need to break the link between gas prices and electricity prices. If we do not do that, we will impose huge economic pain on our citizens and our businesses. I hope we can do this on the European level,” Mitsotakis said during a discussion with Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development Secretary-General Mathias Cormann at the 7th Delphi Economic Forum on Saturday.
“We need to mobilize European resources to help all member-states to address this,” he said, warning that failure to tackle the problem will play into the hands of populist leaders. “If we do not do this, we will allow the forces of populism to re-emerge stronger… we will lose the support of our populations because they will feel the pain from the Russian invasion,” he said.
He meanwhile pointed to Greece’s early repayment of IMF loans, the approval of the first installment from the Recovery and Resilience Fund, and the expectation the country will exit the enhanced surveillance regime in August.
“It is important to give markets the message that we are able to stand on our own two feet, that we can be relied on,” he said, adding the next target was raising the country’s credit rating to investment grade.
