Read George A. Papandreou’s interview here.

Watch the video of Prime Minister’s statements.

Thank you for your kind words, but also the work you are doing for peace, and the initiatives you have taken in planting this historical tree and symbol, which is so close to our hearts. Throughout the world but also in Greece it has always symbolized peaceful coexistence, something we need so much in this region, something we are working hard for, for peace in the Middle East, something we want to see in our region, in Southeastern Europe, more and more.

And I am happy that your tradition also is built on our tradition. As you know very well, in the ancient Olympic Games, the prize was an olive wreath. And of course the ancient Olympic Games began, the whole purpose of the Olympic Games was not simply to entertain but they were for peace. That was the basis. It was to have an Olympic Truce, so then the different cities that may have been at war could sit down and work together, even come up with solutions to their problems. And that’s why the olive tree is of such importance.

And a few years ago, when we were about to host the Olympic Games in Greece, we began also a park with olive trees, for heads of state and visitors to plant a tree, in favor of the idea of the Olympic Truce, and of course in general in peace.

So these are two parallel movements. It shows how close we are, and I think this is also symbolic of the strengthening of the relations between the Greeks and the Israelis. And of course a warm welcome to all who plan to visit Greece, and I wish you the best when you are in Santorini and Corfu.

And all of you, you are very welcome to come to visit our country. So thank you very much.

>> Watch the video.

It is difficult to describe in words what one feels, going through the memories of the Holocaust, and it is a reminder, a constant reminder, to all of us that we must cherish and protect each and every one’s rights for the best of humanity, for the good of humanity, and that when even one person in the world is threatened, or his or her rights are violated, it’s a violation of the rights of all of us.

And we must say never again to racism, xenophobia, anti-Semitism, combat for open societies, freedom, equality, justice for each and every one. And this is how we see democratic societies. This is how we, as Greeks, see democracy, which is of course the birthplace of this concept.

And I’d like to thank you for your very passionate description of the terrible violence and barbarism that the Jews went through, and I want you to know that we continue to highlight and honor the history of the Jewry in my country, in Greece, who also suffered terrible moments during this Holocaust. Thank you very much.

>> Watch the video.

B. NETANYAHU: Thank you. Welcome to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Papandreou. We are still trying to find out if this is the first official visit of a Greek prime minister to Israel. It certainly is the first official visit in many, many decades, and I am very pleased to welcome you here today.

Historically Athens and Jerusalem were the two founts of our common civilization. So much of the progress, freedom, culture and values of the world we live in today were shaped by ideas that were born in Athens and in Jerusalem.

And of course our relationship proceeded in modern times, with the Jews of Greece, the Jews of Saloniki, who are an important part of our modern rebirth. Today modern Greece and modern Israel are pillars of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean, and I believe great partners in the quest for peace, the peace between us and our Palestinian neighbors and the peace in the entire region.

So I welcome the opportunity of your visit to explore how to do this, how to deepen the relationship and the friendship between our two countries, and how to strengthen all our ties, beginning with the economic ties.

The first time we met was is Moscow. I had the opportunity to discuss with you the enormous challenges that you were facing at the time. Today I’ll have the opportunity to hear about some of the additional steps you have taken in order to meet those challenges. And believe me, Prime Minister, I know how difficult economic reform can be.

And so we appreciate everything that you are doing, and I want to do everything I can to improve Israel’s and Greece’s economic ties, for the benefit of both our countries, and I think we have much to do.

We know that to maintain the standard of living of the advanced countries we need technology, we need modernity. This is something that we can share in abundance, to the benefit of our peoples.

One of the things that we had a chance to talk about briefly is of course the challenge posed by Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons. I have just come back from Washington. I appreciated the fact that President Obama signed into law the bill, a tough US sanctions bill, and I hope that Greece and other European countries follow America’s lead on this.

Equally, I know that you are going today to see President Abbas, and we discussed our commitment and our willingness to enter direct peace negotiations, not merely to negotiate but to seek a conclusion of an historic peace agreement. You voiced your willingness to help us in that effort, and I welcome that and I thank you for that.

I believe that if both sides are willing to compromise, if both sides are willing to end the conflict, then an historic agreement is possible. There are many skeptics; I am not one of them. And I know you are not one of them.

So I will say again that we are grateful for all your efforts, both to strengthen our economic and bilateral ties, but also to strengthen and expand the circle of peace, something that we yearn for and our people yearn for, and I know that is a goal that you share.

So welcome to Jerusalem, Prime Minister Papandreou.

G. A. PAPANDREOU: Thank you very much, Prime Minister Netanyahu. It is a pleasure for me to pay my first visit as Prime Minister of Greece. I have been here before under different capacities. So I’d like to thank you for your warm hospitality and the motivating talks we have had, also for your appreciation and support concerning the economic situation we are going through.

We have taken painful measures. The Greek people have decided to support the change in our country, the necessary changes, and we are now on a more steady path. And I do believe that this crisis will become an opportunity to make our country stronger.

But certainly our cooperation is valued, and certainly economic cooperation in many areas is something which we look forward to, and is highly appreciated.

As you said, we have a long history of cultural heritage and ties between our two peoples, our two cultures, close relations over the ages. And of course in our modern history friendly relations between our two peoples, longstanding relations.

We also suffered the Nazi occupation and unluckily lost a very valuable part of our society, a valued part of our culture, which was Greek Jews. The community is still there, of course, and we cherish this community. But there were so many lost, and it was truly moving when I visited the Holocaust Museum today.

And of course we say never again. But this is a nightmare which also has fitted our fates together and unites our two nations.

I am pleased that our bilateral relations are moving forward, but we have great capacity for further strengthening our cooperation in many fields, from energy to investment to tourism to agriculture.

Let me also say that the Israeli initiative concerning the access to the Gaza Strip is a positive step forward. However, we do believe that further steps are needed, and they are needed in order to change the situation in the area, change the conditions, the living conditions on the ground, obviously with respect to the fundamental need for safety for Israel.

With regard to the peace process, I’d like to express our support to the ongoing progress and process. We are confident that direct negotiations will start soon, obviously taking into account both sides, and with the aim of establishing a just, durable peace, on the basis of a two-state solution.

To this effect, of course, all parties need to avoid actions that may jeopardize this peace process and build confidence between the different sides.

As you said, Mr. Prime Minister, I will be meeting with Abu Mazen, with Mahmoud Abbas, this afternoon. I will take your message to him. The will for a solution, an historic agreement, and of course in any way we can be of help we will do so.

I know that also Cathy Ashton from the European Union was here in recent days, and reiterated the European support for this process also.

I have been asked, Mr. Prime Minister, by many here in Jerusalem why I am in Israel today. It’s obvious that this meeting heralds a deepening of our bilateral relations.

But I also want to be very clear: We are neighbors. We live in the same region and we want peace in this region. There is great potential, once peace is achieved, which we are not exploiting or using right now because of the conflicts in our region.

It’s not the only one. I have made it a goal to take initiatives, and I have taken initiatives, with our direct neighbor, with Turkey, in moving the peace process further, in overcoming historic and longstanding problems, on the basis of international law, good neighborly relations, peaceful dialogue.

And even though we have at times setbacks and problems, I am committed to move forward because I believe that we need to create, in this wider region, a peaceful neighborhood. And that will be, in the end, a win-win solution for all, a benefit for all of us.

So I wish you the best on this road to peace, and as I said, we are ready in any capacity to be of help.

Let me finish simply by saying that today I planted an olive tree in the Grove of Nations. The olive tree is of course an ancient symbol, olive tree and olive branch. As you know, the ancient athletes were crowned with an olive branch, and for good reason. Because you mentioned the Oracle before we came here at Delphi. Two cities that were fighting with each other, one of them decided to go to the Oracle in Delphi and ask, “What can we do to bring peace?” And they said, “Why don’t you organize games?” And they were called the Olympic Games.

For 1000 years we an Olympic truce. Every time Games took place, every four years…

B. NETANYAHU: We should have them every day.

G. A. PAPANDREOU: We should have them every day. And that’s why I am very glad that you also are willing to sign, which we began with Greece in the Olympic Games, the Olympic Truce signature, and I hope I can do so when you are able to visit Greece.

B. NETANYAHU: Well, thank you very much. I actually intend to take you up as soon as I can. I don’t think I told you this, but my first visit abroad was, as a child, we left on a ship from Haifa – this was in the ‘50s; there was no easy plane travel then – and I went to sleep and I woke up and I saw, I think it was Piraeus. And I remember as a child a visit to the Parthenon. And it made an unbelievable impression on me.

So if you can invite me a few years later to revisit ancient and modern culture, and restrengthen our partnership in the quest for modernity and peace, this will make me a very, very happy man, and coincidentally a very interested tourist.

So thank you again, and welcome to Jerusalem.

G. A. PAPANDREOU: You are welcome. Thank you very much. Thank you again.

B. NETANYAHU: Thank you very much.

JOURNALIST: You have said that your country was “in a battle for survival.” And violent protests in the streets of Athens seemed to bear that out for a time. But things have quieted down somewhat, even with the passage of the controversial pension reform. Where does Greece stand now?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: Well, yes, there was at times some violence, and though it gets a lot of media attention, I would say that it was the exception. But, obviously there’s pain, and people are unhappy. But I would say the wide majority of the people realize that we needed to make changes that were long overdue in our country — to make governance much more responsible, and the running of the country much more transparent. We all have to live up to our own personal responsibilities to this country.

I think that’s a feeling that’s quite pervasive, even though it’s very understandable that there were demonstrations. A large number of citizens have to bear the burden, even though they were least responsible for the crisis. It was a crisis born of bad management and governance over the last six years: a lack of transparency, patronage and clientelism, even corruption. This, of course, was highlighted by the international financial crisis.

JOURNALIST: You were born and educated, in large part, in the United States. And many of your closest advisers are American. Do you think the U.S. model of capitalism was in some way to blame for the crisis that Europe and Greece face today?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: Obviously, the problems began in the financial sector, with commercial paper being put on the market — structured bonds and special vehicles, which were very simply fraudulent, even though they did have a triple-A rating. I think we see that markets are fallible, and we should not worship them as gods. Now, we have to see how to put them to best use to help our economies and our societies. But this is a question of, again, bad governance. Why wasn’t this regulated? Why wasn’t there transparency?

But this was not simply within U.S. borders but around the world. Europe too was hit, having bought up so much of these toxic bonds. The developing world was hit; emerging markets less so. But this shows we need much more coordinated action in the world, and more world governance. The G-20 may not be the best of institutions, but the fact that there is an attempt now to coordinate action is, I think, important — as long as we move to implementation and not simply pronouncements.

JOURNALIST: A number of analysts, Nouriel Roubini among them, have argued that Greece still faces an unsustainable public debt-to-GDP ratio, and that emergency loans and austerity measures are just prolonging an inevitable debt restructuring — bankruptcy, in a word. Why not liquidate the debt burden, punish the institutional investors who played down concerns for so long and who profited, and force financial rigor on the state sector?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: There were two options — one was to default, the other was not to default and take a different path. The latter is what we have decided — not only Greece but also the European Union. There are many negatives in a default situation. Our banks would have been hit; not only ours, but also in Europe. This could also have been a self-fulfilling prophecy of a contagion to other countries. And that would be a much worse situation.

We have this big support mechanism of loans, which we have to pay back, but loans at a better interest rate than we could have got at that time on the market. That has allowed us the time to make the necessary reforms. Secondly, we have the problem of a large shadow economy, or underground economy if you like — tax evasion, corruption, and so on — which I believe could also alter the outlook for Greece’s future. This will take some time to fix but we’re committed to this. My government, for example, has now brought in laws such as total transparency in all signatures in the public sector, putting more and more tax reform resources and contracts online. This will make things much more transparent, and I believe this will help bring the shadow economy out into the open. That will bring an important sense of confidence that we can deal with this long-term debt.

JOURNALIST: On a personal level, what has it been like to lead this nation in a time of crisis? I imagine you could not have anticipated the severity the problems when you entered office.

G. A. PAPANDREOU: First of all, we knew there were problems, chronic problems, and we had actually pinpointed their basic nature even before the elections. We said that our country was not well-run: There was a lack of transparency; there was a lot of money that was lost, wasted, through huge bureaucracy, a clientelistic system, patronage, money put to the wrong purposes, and then of course the problem of graft. We knew these things would have to change, and changing them would make our economy much more efficient and competitive, particularly in the public sector.

I don’t think anyone anticipated the almost violent reaction of the markets as time went on. If the markets were not as violent in the reaction [to the level of Greek debt], I think we would have had more time to make these changes with less pain, if you like, less drastic measures. And these have obviously hit some of the richer in society, but also some of the middle class and the poor, which we have to compensate for in many ways.

One other lesson here is that we’re a small country — and markets, particularly the derivative markets, can play around with countries and governments and with every policy we take. Even though there was an initial positive reaction by the markets, a few days later, one analyst, one statement, one banker, or somebody playing around in derivative markets, changed that opinion, turned it around. You can get a psychology in the markets that is not rational, and that can become a mob psychology, which can go in a positive direction, creating bubbles, or in a negative direction, creating catastrophes in countries.

JOURNALIST: You studied sociology as an undergraduate at Amherst College and as a masters’ candidate at the London School of Economics. How has this background, your intellectual training in sociology, helped you deal with this crisis?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: Well, I see a lot of discussion now amongst economists and it’s in some sense, for me, peculiar — even in the United States, which is so cross-pollinated in liberal education. What I’ve appreciated in the United States is the fact that you can have a liberal education, a wide-ranging approach to different things, and learn from different scientific fields. Economists are now discovering “animal spirits,” they’re discovering psychology, they’re discovering sociology as interpretations for behavior which is not this sort of atomized, self-centered, self-interested, rational, market kind of psychology. That’s not what human beings are. We’re not that simple-minded, nor are we computers to be able to understand these mathematical models as they are running our lives.

JOURNALIST: Your father was imprisoned twice and your grandfather six times. They were exiled. How have their struggles informed your fight for Greece’s future?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: My experience is actually a Greek experience: living abroad, diaspora, possibly exile, refugee, migrants, going through dictatorships, jails, persecution — these are things which pretty much every Greek family has had some relative go through. One thing you hear in Greece is, “Yes, this is a crisis, but we have gone through difficult times before. Let’s huddle together and work it out.”

JOURNALIST: Do you think the Greek populace, though, feels that this is somehow out of their control? You mention these larger forces at work.

G. A. PAPANDREOU: I think this is a paradox we’re all living through around the world. Of course, what we’ve been doing, as systematically as possible, is give citizens exactly this sense of being in control, of dealing with the crisis.

There was a moment of almost terror, being terrorized by the markets every day, being told by the Greek and international press, and all kinds of gurus on the economy, that you will lose your money, your euro, your savings, there will be catastrophe, and so on. So we had to steer through this psychology. It was very difficult, of course, but this is where people expected us — both me and my government, and leaders in the country — to chart a stable course.

But because these problems are global, because they’re interconnected, because they’re interdependent, people feel disempowered, and that’s a problem around the world. And that sense of disempowerment is going to create more insecurity, more mistrust in political institutions — and that could range from apathy to violence, from fundamentalism to populism.

This is a deeply democratic question: How do we make sure our democratic structures function in a world so interconnected? Yet as far as governance is concerned, we are still national and not international. How do we deal with these issues? That will be a crux of the problems of our planet over the coming months and years.

When the banking crisis hit, we all heard numbers that we had never ever dreamt of before — trillions and billions. You have tax havens, the movement of capital which can be very quick and uncontrolled, and countries can be exposed. But this is also true for the environment, for pandemics, for refugees, for communications — these are things that have great capabilities but also great potential to be uncontrolled and dangerous in a way you don’t want.

We need to find global governance and we need to find it based on some common values on which we can agree — democratic values. And I think that’s going to be a big challenge.

JOURNALIST: Do you think multilateral, international institutions are the answer? Or do strong nations still need to lead?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: I think we need countries that will lead, but lead in establishing a more multilateral system. This is where the United States and the European Union can be useful in order to engage countries like China or other emerging countries into multilateral institutions. But sometimes leading nations, large nations like the U.S., want to lead, but don’t necessarily want to be restrained by these multilateral institutions. So there’s a dilemma there.

Strengthening regional cooperation is very important because that is a way to get representation of different parts of the world in an organized fashion. And the EU is, I think, one of these models, a model of peace. It could also become a model for a globalized society — that is, we are sovereign nations, but we’ve given up some of our sovereignty to a higher body, and we’ve done so peacefully. We are different countries with different languages, with different cultures, and yet we’ve found a way to work with each other.

JOURNALIST: What would you say to the citizens of Germany, France, and other EU nations that have griped that they are going to face an increased tax burden due to Greece’s problems?

G. A. PAPANDREOU:  I would say that if there is going to be a tax burden, it’s not going to be because of Greece. We will be paying back these loans with a high interest rate, so these countries are going to gain money from us, if all goes well, and we hope all goes well.

But I would say that in Europe, we don’t need “austerity” — it’s not the right word. We need more responsibility in governance. That is why we want to make our governments and our pension systems more efficient. We also need growth, investment in education, innovation, and green energy, and we also need to capture some taxes which are being evaded — not only by citizens but by the financial sector. I don’t think that is sustainable in a democracy. That money could go to the European budget, to infrastructure development, to the greening of our economy, and so on.

JOURNALIST: One of your campaign slogans was “roll up your sleeves.” With six general strikes in the past few weeks, air traffic controllers shutting down airports, and farmers blocking the border, how do you intend to get the Greek public to roll up their sleeves?

G. A. PAPANDREOU: These are big challenges and obviously they’re not easy. First of all, I think we need to show that the government is acting responsibly. And I think that will resonate positively. As people start seeing more and more that everybody is paying their dues, they’ll feel that there is a collective responsibility. That sense was lost.

One of the things that has been discussed is how lazy Greek workers are. I actually went into the statistics of the OECD, and among the European countries, we have the highest number of working hours — number one — in Europe. Not number two, number one. The highest number of working hours in Europe. Number two is Hungary, number three is the Czech Republic. France and Germany are way down there. So we’re a productive nation despite all the stereotyping.

JOURNALIST: What do you see, looking down the road five or 10 years, for Europe? Will the Eurozone continue to grow? Will the EU bring in new members? Five years ago, we thought that Turkey would already be a member of the EU.

G. A. PAPANDREOU: What we’ve seen in this crisis is that we need more Europe, not less. I also see that the more we’re coordinated, the more we work together to solve these problems, the quicker we can deal with crises. We were pretty quick by European standards — but not so quick by market standards — and the crisis almost became a contagion.

But when we did intervene into the markets with this rescue package — not only the Greek package but the wider package, too — then that immediately calmed things. Not completely, but it was effective. That’s why we need more coordination on governance and growth strategies. That will, I think, stabilize the Eurozone in a way that will make it more attractive. And there are countries that still want to become part of the Eurozone. We only recently brought in Estonia, so this is important. But we have to move down a path of deepening our integration. Otherwise, we risk the prospect of moving back to more nationalistic, more self-centered policies — greater insecurity, easier stereotyping, and scapegoating amongst ourselves. And that, I think, would be very sad after what we’ve been able to achieve in Europe over these last decades.

Read the article ‘Reinvigorating Greece is an Olympian task for prime minister Papandreou‘.

Dear friends, ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues, MPs of the region, I wish first of all to thank the Mayor of Poros, Dimitris Stratigos, our host for the next few days, as well as of course the regional Governor of Piraeus, Giannis Mihas, who is welcoming us to the broader Argosaronikos region for his hospitality this evening.

Giannis’ gift clearly tells me, that I shall continue to run for quite some time but it is worth the effort. It is indeed worth the effort and we welcome your support for the successful outcome of the Symi Symposium.

We are gathered here on Poros, for the Symposium’s 13th year, to discuss issues that concern the world, Europe and of course Greece that finds itself at the center of this crisis these last months. We have talked about the important challenges, the international financial crisis, climate change, inequality issues as many of these questions by now have a common origin.

Common answers must be given therefore by the world’s progressive forces. Before I come to the details of the proceedings, I want us to recall the situation a few months back and remember that it was not at all obvious that we could have such a meeting a few months ago, since our country had found itself, a few months ago, at the center of an unprecedented and violent I would say crisis. For many months we were all forced to deal with a crisis that was facing us directly.

A crisis which if we allowed it to develop, without any decisive intervention on our part, without working systematically, would have simply led us to bankruptcy and, of course, from bankruptcy to pessimism and lasting and deep decline.

Ladies and gentlemen, this last year assuredly was the most difficult year of the last decades for Greece. In a matter of months, we were forced to experience in the harshest and most violent way the tragic consequences of a double crisis: the international financial crisis on the one hand, as well as the domestic crisis that was accelerated and aggravated by the former.

This crisis was the result of deep-rooted mentalities, of a state that did not respect itself, of perceptions and practices that hade created a Greece plagued by corruption and impunity and distorted economic development, as well as social and economic injustice since all these phenomena generated inequality, injustice, the law of the strongest and not the law of fairness, the power of the law.

These were the causes that brought us on the brink of bankruptcy, a harsh reality that we lived more intensely than ever before unfortunately because of the policies implemented during the last six years, in particular, by a conservative government which, instead on building on the many opportunities our country had chose instead of ridding the country from its pathogenic conditions to use these pathogenic conditions and invest in them in order to serve vested interests and petty partisan expediencies.

Conservative views but also views of self-interested groups that have always been against the country and society’s collective interest and have wanted for years to keep us, to keep Greece immobilized, without ever changing anything.

Ladies and gentlemen, before the elections of last October, we knew that we were taking over a country with many problems and inequities and we promised and are promising to change it. What we had to face, though was something unprecedented. We found ourselves looking at collapse, the possibility that the country would go bankrupt, a totally corrupt, inefficient, wasteful, unfair state and a country that had lost all credit in the eyes of our partners and international markets.

But we did not hesitate, not even for one moment, to take on our responsibilities, our historical responsibilities; leading Greece out of the crisis was our first priority, we waged battles on all fronts in order to keep Greece on its feet, we fought to convince our partners, to convince the markets that Greece is a deserving country, a country capable of assuming its responsibilities, a trustworthy country, a country that can correct its mistakes.

And we have succeeded and I mean all together, not only the government but the whole of the Greek people who are today making persistent and often very difficult efforts for the benefit of us all.  Within nine months we managed to do the impossible, to avoid collapse, to prove that Greece was again trustworthy, to convince the European Union of the need for solidarity and coordination.

And we were able to obtain both political and material solidarity, by securing € 100 billion in loans that will of course be repaid, the largest financing program ever created, in order to have time as our ally, time to do the things that had not been done for years. To change what had to change, major structural changes in our state and economy.

These are changes that will lead us to prosperity, to the correction of inequities and to a new growth model and, more important, will allow us in the end to secure our own autonomy, our own right to determine our fate, our own right to shape our decisions and priorities and no longer rely on borrowed resources.

They will allow us to develop our own capabilities, with imagination, initiative, collective endeavor, by drawing upon our competitive advantages, promoting the best we have and we have so many good things, pride, love for our work, self-esteem, pride in our country, Greece, hospitality for any person coming to Greece, rectitude, sincerity and community spirit. And then there are our traditions, for which we are proud, traditions though that we sometimes forget and must enhance again in a new environment, through renewed efforts, a new beginning.

All together in the course of last year we were able to demonstrate something very important. We have shown that we can do even the difficult things if we want to. This does not mean that all problems have finally and irrevocably been resolved, far from it.

We are still at the beginning of our joint efforts. We have, however, made a good start, we have made it all together and the time has now come to continue because we can not only save Greece from bankruptcy as we did, but also build a different Greece, a Greece that shall no longer have to face such a crisis again.

I want you all to know that our people’s expectation for change is great, as Giannis said and this great expectation for a better future will not be lost and their efforts, our efforts to lead the country away from the impasse and open up new prospects will not be lost.

We have already completed a large part of the difficult effort we are undertaking. We have done what we should to save the country. There is still much that needs to be done, I would say more creative things in the next few years, in order to change Greece drastically.

One thing is certain though; as we move on conditions will be improving and prospects will become more positive. I am now much more optimistic and certain that we can soon create a fairer, more robust, more modern, more easy-to-live and more pleasant Greece, a more human Greece. This is an essential condition for moving forward and work together with all our society’s creative forces for this Greece of growth, justice, social protection.

An as the Mayor and the Regional Governor have said, the potential of the local community, local government is now released under the new law, the revolutionary I would say “Callicrates” law, generating new opportunities for self-government.

This collective effort has been recorded today in another act that I want to salute. I salute the signing of the collective agreement between the social partners, i.e. the workers of the General Workers’ Confederation and the employers of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises. The signing today of this three-year collective agreement symbolizes our shared will to overcome difficulties together, but also symbolizes our joint resolve to bring changes and make these changes a reality.

So, the challenge ahead of us is huge, but I am certain that as we did during the past months when we proved also to ourselves that we were able to do it, because there were many who were saying, “can we do it?” the answer is, We can do it!

We managed to stand on our own two feet and in the same way, with the same resources and the same will we shall leave behind us, once and for all, the decline phenomena that have led us to what we recently experienced. These are very big challenges. The changes we have to implement are so many and have to be made in a very short period and this is why a meeting like the Symi Symposium is so important.

It allows to come in contact with new ideas, methods, experiences and progressive policies; find among us people, friends who wish to contribute who have had similar experience, people from our neighborhood, from Europe, as well as people from the other end of the world and/or people who had to deal with similar situations like Leif Pagroski from Sweden, Kemal Dervis from Turkey who came to power under precisely the same conditions as Greece has faced and is still facing.

In an unprecedented period for the country it would be arrogant on the part of anyone to affirm that they know the whole truth, that they have all solutions ready in their hands, refusing to explore all possibilities, to discuss any probable good and new idea, especially when we are going though a period when we, as well as Europe and the rest of the world are facing unprecedented challenges.

In fact, many of the ideas underpinning our options today and which constitute the core of our policies, our ideas, like green development, citizens’ access to public information, citizens’ participation in the decision-making process, electronic governance, regional decentralization, were born from the many discussions we had among us, we the progressive people here at the Symi Symposium and at the Socialist International and on which we are now drawing as a government.

These productive discussions were particularly useful this year as well because there are politicians here of great caliber, the President of Esthonia, our friend Ségolène, Andrian from Romania, Luis Ayala from the Socialist International, to mention just a few, and of course our distinguished speakers this evening who have come here bringing with them extensive experience and knowledge.

The change that we have set as a strategic objective is the change of our country’s growth model that will bring social welfare, as well as a kind of tourism, or production if you like that will link the word “value’ to the word “Greece”. Our products, our environment, the transparency under which our country will be operating, as well as the sense of justice which every citizen will have.  With these words I would like to thank again our friends for their hospitality.

Dear friends, dear Symi friends, let me thank you again, old and new, for participating in this year’s Symi Symposium.

Given the unprecedented crisis in our country during the past year, it is natural that Greece should be at the center of our discussions.

This has been a great opportunity for myself, an important not only a break but also important work, to be able to work with you, and of course many of our ministers that came to the Symi Symposium, so that we could exchange experiences, best practices, with policymakers, politicians, intellectuals and many analysts that have gone through similar crises, and of course Sweden, Turkey, the US.

Listening to these success stories reaffirmed my conviction that even though we have made very painful cuts and difficult reforms these are a foundation on which we can build a very new Greece.

I was encouraged by the positive reactions to our own efforts to move Greece from the crisis to credibility, within a matter of months.

Together we have drawn up a roadmap for a different Greece, stable, successful, founded on a clean, green development model, where our natural entrepreneurial spirit can flourish, because setting up a business is easy and quick, and the right incentives to invest are in place.

A Greece where a civil service means exactly that, serving the people, serving the citizen.

A Greece that will be known not as a byword for corruption, but as a model for total transparency.

We have already demonstrated that we have the political will to take this road and make this roadmap a reality. As well as taking urgent steps to tackle the fiscal crisis, we are making deep structural changes.

We are revitalizing our governance model. In less than a year we have pushed through legislation on chronic problems that had festered for decades: pension reform, labor reform, tax reform, improving public administration, streamlining bureaucracy, clamping down on tax evasion and corruption, creating a new framework for local government. And we believe our economy and state will both emerge stronger and healthier as a result.

But passing laws, creating innovative policies is not enough. The next big challenge is to ensure implementation and that momentum is maintained.

Restore confidence in the markets. And to do so, we must prove that our policies are working. So far the numbers are encouraging, but we still have to overcome residual skepticism.

Restore credibility in government. But to do so, we must engage our citizens in the reform process. People are prepared to make the tough choices, if you give them balanced, credible information, but also a sense of justice, give them a real say in transparent decision-making.

Our democracy is around for thousands of years with ups and downs, but I believe from our Symi Symposium we have all come up with the conclusion that democracy must be – and that’s what my goal is – more open, more robust, more dynamic. And it is challenged in these new times, with the changes that are made throughout the world.

Paradoxically, while markets have been skeptical about Greece’s ability to change, wherever I go Greeks tell me over and over again that they desperately want things to change.

Of course, there is resistance to change from some quarters, especially from vested interests. But even the financial analysts who said Greece was doomed to fail and could never change have been forced to reassess.

This crisis is now for us a great opportunity, to establish a very different Greece but also more effective rules and institutions in the European Union. We have already taken important steps, such as the creation of a European credit rating agency, a solidarity fund.

However, the crisis has exposed the fact that many European nations are still reluctant to move forward in a more unified and strengthened Europe, and a more collective Europe. And I think we, particularly progressives, around Europe are ones who want to see a much stronger, more collective, more democratic, more solidarity in Europe, working together.

The crisis in Greece has in fact been a catalyst for some of these changes, at the European level and hopefully at the global level of economic governance. After a prolonged paralysis following the 2008 recession, the sovereign debt crisis has finally mobilized the international community to take collective action to protect the real economy from excessive speculation.

However, the sovereign debt crisis is more a symptom, not a cause, of deeper problems, and particularly deep problems that our financial systems had created.

That’s why I think what was important in our meeting – and particularly for us progressives and social democrats – is that we see democracy, we see transparency, we see the needed regulation as a foundation for healthy growth and for healthy societies and for a participative society.

We see equality not as a burden but both as a value and a prerequisite for a stronger economy.

We see our welfare state and solidarity not as a weight but as both, again, a value and a prerequisite for a strong and competitive economy.

And we see green growth not as a heavy burden but as the way out for a sustainable world, one with quality of life.

So I sense in these past few days that I believe Greece has convinced you that we are determined, but also that, as you well know, many who have come again and again, Greece is a safe, welcoming and beautiful country.

And I hope that soon we will host our symposium in a carbon-neutral island capable of generating all its energy from wind, sea and solar power, and of course producing one of the most productive things that Symi produces: ideas and imagination and hope.

So I again would finally like to thank you, thank you all, for your participation, for your love of Greece, for your beautiful and practical ideas, your commitment to imagine a different world and your promise to make it a reality. Thank you very much.

Dear friends, welcome to the 13TH Symi Symposium; let me welcome both newcomers and old friends. It’s great to see you on this special occasion on this very special and unique year, for Greece at least, but I think for the world too.

I’d like to begin by saying a few words in Greek, so those who don’t speak Greek please bear with me, or put on your interpretation headsets. And this also goes for Greek media that are gracing us today with their presence.

Ladies and Gentlemen, let me welcome you to the 13th Symi Symposium. This symposium was first organized thanks to an initiative the “Andreas Papandreou Foundation” undertook in 1998; it has been since held every single year, for 13 consecutive years in Greece. This is a gathering of distinguished figures from the world over aiming primarily at finding and highlighting those progressive ideas that could make the world we live in a better and more equitable place for all.

As I said in the morning session we had with the Socialist International financial crisis committee moderated by Jo Stieglitz, this great financial crisis the whole wide world is going through, my homeland being one of the most characteristic examples, is mostly due to policies or lack thereof. What was missing for decades was proper policies the absence of which instead left our societies without those much-needed rules and regulations, democratic control and transparency a globalised economy really needs. This in turn led to arbitrary attitudes and, just like James Galbraith said this morning, it also led to the toxic bonds fraud that should be blamed on the financial system and a failure of politics to take control of the situation.

Arbitrary stances, lack of transparency and eventually fraud led to huge economic and social disparities which in turn led to the accumulation of the world’s wealth into the hands of the few who placed profit above viability, and who primarily took the decision-making process off the field of democratic control for politics, just like they did with accountability to our citizens and our countries.

It is thus a matter of democracy for politics to have a say, a matter of democracy for our citizens to get their voice back in our respective countries as well as within the framework of our European and global cooperation. We can thus make strong counterweights in the course of our joint cooperation.

Cooperation means cooperation between the citizens of our countries and the citizen society; it signifies the cooperation of all of us who incarnate and express progressive ideas regardless of whether the field we are active in is the field of politics or that of science or culture.

This is where the importance of international initiatives such as the Symi Symposium lies. In the 12 years since 1998 we discussed and exchanged points of view on many of the most critical issues there are both at the global and the regional level. We have talked about the war in Kosovo, the Middle East, policies in the Balkans, Greek-Turkish relations, EU enlargement, and raised subjects ranging from climate change to green growth and development. From the war in Iraq to the global financial crisis, we have debated on a vast array of issues from a progressive point of view.

Many of our ideas turned into real policies that impact on our lives and affect developments around the world. A lot of our ideas were and still are of service to our homeland, Greece, at this critical point in time to overcome the current crisis the Greek people are experiencing.

As you all know we were at the crux of a financial crisis, caught unaware for that matter, as we were fully unprepared. You see, apart from the general causes behind the financial crisis Greece was also faced with a crisis because of its own special and actually aggravating circumstances.

Decade-long phenomena such as lack of transparency in decision-making and red tape of unfathomable dimensions meant that serious public policies and focused actions had been replaced by a clientelistic state, which was ineffective and even vicious. This is what we are paying the price for today as well as for the mismanagement of the Greek citizens’ wealth, the wealth of our country.

As far as our economy is concerned, the country’s growth model to date did not count on quality, creativity and extroversion, but rather on low quality services and products and consumption thereof, indeed one of the subjects that we have previously deliberated on here at the Symi Symposium.

Our economy was one that was highly dependent on the state, offered beneficial policies for the few, and the state unfortunately squandered huge amounts of money to cater for its cronies or to just keep a national economy that was ever-shrinking and recycling itself barely alive.

This is why my country is currently dealing with enormous challenges. We are turning this crisis into an opportunity and switching to an entirely different model, different growth model which is what Greece is really in need of.

Greece must change; this is our government’s objective. It is our goal to change everything that had failed to be changed for decades as far as the state and its operations, the economy and its yield, the democratic institutions were concerned.

This is why this year’s symposium focuses, next to the big global issues, on my very own country, Greece. And I am also well aware of the fact that you wish to contribute in a creative way and make this different Greece happen, especially as concerns growth in particular and to have a shift in our production model. That is exactly how we are going to leave all the years of lack of growth behind us and create a Greek economy which will provide impetus, unleash creative powers and do away with the obstacle of bureaucracy.

This should be an economy capitalizing on our competitive advantages such as the environment and our nature’s beauty, turning them into growth and helping generate new wealth. But above all this green economy, the model we wish to put in place, should be beneficial and offer prospects for safety and security to all Greek men and women who are asked today to be actively involved in this new effort.

Your presence, you joining us here means that Greece indeed has many great and important friends, distinguished figures who wish to and indeed can help it.

It is for this reasons that I wish to thank you once again; thank you for joining us here, in our country, at a time when we really need as many creative ideas and prospects as possible.

Let me also acquaint you with the fact that although the Greek people may be experiencing a tough reality and be subject to many and tough sacrifices, it is my firm and profound conviction that the citizens are aware the effort we are making today is about their future. It is for the future of us all, and this is exactly why the people are backing this venture up on a daily and systematic basis through the hard work they put in, patience they have to show time and again but above all through their persistence in terms of keeping this national venture up and running to ensure our country’s rebirth.

Now let me briefly revert to English. As I mentioned before, this has been a momentous year which has tested most countries, especially my own, Greece.

The crisis forced us to look into where our country fits in the global architecture, but it has also made us discuss, debate and deliberate on how the European Union will manage its role in the world, and how the international community will manage opportunity and crisis in a world where everything is interconnected to such a great extent.

We, in Greece and in my government, are clear: We belong and are very active within the European Union. It is to the Union we turned in our moment of crisis. It is the EU that forms the framework in which we are shaping our future and it is with the promise of what a European Union could mean that we will indeed build a new future.

The European Union is historically, politically and economically unique. By its very nature, it is a test of whether nations can come together in times of crisis and times of opportunity to face common challenges for the common good.

The test we now face is whether our organic growth is keeping pace with global challenges. The deeper we unify, the greater the stakes, and the quicker we must anticipate, pre-empt and respond to opportunities and threats. The deeper we unify, the stronger we become in dealing with our globalizing world.

And the past year showed us how interdependent our globalized society has become. The financial crisis, like a pandemic may have a single source but it can also then metastasize and grow into an epidemic with remarkable speed and virulence.

So inaction is not an option and lack of coordinated action was not an option. Swift and unified decisions, fast at least by European standards, helped intervene in the markets and deal with a threat of unimaginable economic proportions as the crisis which evolved was not only about Greece and even though the European Union was much slower than the markets were.

One lesson we learned is that we need both regulation and democratic control of markets so that they do not outpace democratic decision-making and that they therefore do not undermine the democratic decisions of our societies.

And we have yet some other threats to face: violence, global poverty, new migrant flows, the uncontrolled exploitation of our environment, weapons of mass destruction and their proliferation.

By not having solutions to these problems, we are creating scope for the politics of desperation, or the politics of fear.

We notice, for there are, ideologies that preach total exclusivity, populisms, fundamentalism and racism. They will eventually prevail, if we fail to find solutions to these global problems.

They challenge the very foundations of our society and pluralism upon which the European project is based.

They promise no promised land, but only a new type of barbarism.

Unluckily, there are those that have took advantage of this crisis and used it as an opportunity to strike against the European model, against the social welfare model, against a model of peaceful resolution of conflicts and against a model to protect and promote human rights.

This model, the European Union, should be seen not as a problem but as a solution offering  a way out of this crisis, and as a means of  protection for the most vulnerable, not a hindrance to economic growth.

And we do notice many conservatives exploiting this criticism, which I believe, in the end, undermines our European project.

These threats must be met with forward-thinking, decisive action. We have a historic responsibility to our citizens within Europe, but also to the rest of the world, the emerging markets and the developing world who are looking for a viable economic model, to define what this project we call Europe could and should offer.

As Europeans, but as progressive citizens and states people too, we must define a Europe that is unified in more than its name, a Europe where financial and political coordination is possible, but also a place where the old can be cared for, the young can find employment, the migrants can feel at home, the entrepreneurs can innovate and the politicians – well, we must make this a place where politicians are neither the servants of the market nor the servants of a state but simply servants to their citizens.

Neither markets nor states are God-like. They are not to be worshipped. They are simply tools in our hands to effectively implement policies for the collective good and the protection of our collective wealth.

Our social welfare systems are not the problem. As we said this morning, in our commission’s session and in our Socialist International council meeting in New York, there are many models, in the Nordic countries and elsewhere, such as in Australia and Canada, which have shown that competitiveness goes hand in hand with a well-organized welfare state and deeply democratic societies.

It is societies of increased inequality and countries where democracy is held hostage to special interests that are most susceptible to crises. There is also lack of competitiveness there, which seems to be one of the developed world’s chronic malaises. It is actually one of the reasons why we have the sovereign debt.

Yet, in a globalized economy, with deep inequalities, where capital can fly from one place to another, from one tax haven to another, from a richer country to a poorer country, we see competitiveness along with lower wages, labor cannot have collective bargaining, human rights are not necessarily respected, welfare systems do not exist, environment can be more easily destroyed, offering, I would suggest just a temporary and short-term competitive advantage to these countries.

I thus would suggest we converge towards a common model, or agree on some common standards, and common values, if you will, so as for both the developed, the developing and the emerging economies to change into a much more equitable society. I am not referring to just what happens within the confines of our nations alone but also what we could have around the world, with much more democratic societies where our citizens do have a voice, and where there should be a much more sustainable society for sustainable growth respectful of our environment.

But this could be Europe’s task. Europe being a global player could take the lead on these issues and become a model in such areas as we would like to see them in a globalizing society.

This is why it’s important that we socialists have come up with proposals, such as for example the Tobin tax, i.e. the so-called transaction tax, or the carbon tax. Coupled together they could be an important tool, not only for the sake of Europe but for the world, favoring development, growth, jobs, the transition to a green economy, helping the transfer of technology to developing societies, and the convergence of our world to a more sustainable one.

So I believe we must bind the Union to its future members but also its existing members with more conviction. This is not simply about enlargement; this is about completing a task which is vital to the stability of the European Union.

I believe it’s time we create a new roadmap for Europe, its current and prospective members alike. And we do have many representatives of these prospective members with us today.

We must bind the Union to its neighbors and other global players, so that we create zones of shared interests, rather than having competing neighborhoods or competing poles. To our east lie Russia, Ukraine and Turkey which is an EU candidate. With these three very large countries the Union must find a much more productive role and modus vivendi.

There are also Brazil, India, China which are as relevant to us as we are to them; we must recognize our responsibility in offering and supporting a social democracy model for them as well.

As for the south: we must build links across the Mediterranean, creating a new sense of stability in the Eastern Mediterranean and establishing new links for energy and commerce. Then we must engage ourselves fully, as we already do, with regions and global institutions, so that we have a strong voice and participate in the institutions that should eventually shape our future.

All this is possible. And I do believe we will be a very important partner also for the United States, Latin America, and the American continent overall.

I would argue that this is possible but it is also necessary. That is why it is a particular pleasure and a privilege that we have Baroness Ashton with us today. I can unofficially, and although it is not in the Lisbon Treaty, call her our new Foreign Minister. A number of EU member-states didn’t like that term, still this is what we hope this new institution will develop into.

So we are very happy to have Cathy join us for the first time along with her family in this Symi Symposium. The European Union has vested in her a unique authority as for her to bring some of this agenda to fruition.

So Cathy, I would like to call you to the podium, and wish you good luck with your work.

PAUL SOLMAN: Is Greece, the Greek economy, coming apart?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: Well, obviously, we had — we have a daunting ahead of us prospect to change our economy, change our society, I would say.

PAUL SOLMAN: But that’s why people are protesting in the streets, I mean violently protesting, right?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: Well, the – let’s differentiate some of the acts of violence, which are the very small minority, very unhappy events, a very small minority. But they don’t represent in any way the peaceful demonstrations, which are understandable, and the fact that, at the same time, a large number of the Greek people, I would say a majority of the Greek people, understand that these measures are necessary.

PAUL SOLMAN: What are the basic problems of the Greek economy?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: I would say, first of all, the fact that the — we have a debt is sort of the tip of the iceberg of the problem of being more competitive on the one hand – and that’s why we’re really changing the productive, if you like, basis of our economy, moving into a green economy, a more transparent economy, also an economy where we had a – we still have a large shadow economy, which is also a hope, because bringing that into the formal economy will also help our – our – not only our statistics, but also bring in revenue for the public sector.

PAUL SOLMAN: Shadow economy meaning an underground economy.

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: An underground economy, that’s right

PAUL SOLMAN: People don’t pay taxes

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: That’s one thing, but there’s — don’t pay taxes or labor’s not registered. There can be a lot of graft in some areas.

When we tackle that — and some of the legislation which we have already passed is starting to tackle these issues. I will give you an example. Tax evasion is going down. We have higher tax revenues, even in the first two months after the new tax law which we passed. These are types of things which will allow us to tap into lost revenues which exist, because Greece is not a poor country. It is a rich country, but it is a badly managed country because of these particular issues.

PAUL SOLMAN: Are these the key solutions that the IMF insisted on when it and Europe granted you $100 billion-plus back in May?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: There’s a whole range of issues. Obviously, we took some very difficult and immediate measures.

PAUL SOLMAN: Such as?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: Such as cutting wages. We have cut down wages up to 20, even 30 percent, in some sectors, public sectors, cutting in pensions. These were very difficult measures.

Obviously, that’s why people are unhappy and feel the pain. Even though there are demonstrations, we also have a large support. People understand that this is a patriotic duty, that we must move forward, change our economy, do not default, and deal with our debt.

Two laws which we’re passing this week have do with a fiscal stabilization authority, which will follow our budget through the Parliament, an autonomous body, making things very transparent, and, secondly, a major pension reform, which will make our pension system viable.

PAUL SOLMAN: But will that bill pass?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: That bill will pass, yes.

PAUL SOLMAN: You guarantee it? I mean, isn’t that hugely controversial at the moment?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: It’s hugely controversial. And that’s why we are showing that there is a strong political will that, yes, we can do things which in the past 10, 20, 30 years, no other government, not only wasn’t able to do, but didn’t dare do. So, this is – just shows that, today, we have the will and the capability of doing that.

PAUL SOLMAN: Nouriel Roubini in The Financial Times just the other day says, an orderly refinancing of Greece’s debt – that is, stretching out the terms, lowering the payments – is achievable, desirable, unavoidable.

Yes? No?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: We could have made the choice of defaulting, but we have made the choice, not only Greece, of not defaulting, and taking this very painful – making these very painful changes in Greece, in order to be honoring the contracts with our creditors.

At the same time, this is not only a Greek decision. This is a decision of the European Union, which has backed Greece, plus, of course, the countries in the IMF, with a huge package of $110 billion for loans, of course, which we’re paying back, but that just shows the political will to help Greece move out of this crisis and make the necessary changes.

PAUL SOLMAN: Two quick questions. Right now, your debt is 12 – you’re paying 12 percent or more for debt. Back in February, it was six 6 percent. And you said at that time, credibility is the key issue.

So, isn’t that a suggestion that things are deteriorating?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: The markets are very fearful, very risk-averse, after 2008. So they take time in order to see whether a program or a government or a company or a bank is credible.

We need that time. We were given that time through this package from the European Union and the IMF, so that we can make the necessary changes in our country. So, I would say, let’s look at the trend in Greece. The trend in Greece is a positive one. We’re 40 percent down on our deficit. We’re ahead of target for – as – from the first report card we’re getting from the IMF and the European Union.

We have made major changes. We’re doing reforms in pension, education, and health. These are things which just show that we’re on track.

PAUL SOLMAN: So, why does it matter to America, to Americans what happens here in Greece?

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: Well, first of all, I think that we’re all in a very interdependent world, so that anything that happens anywhere in the world affects everyone else.

We saw that with Lehman Brothers in – in the crisis in Wall Street. It didn’t just affect the United States only. It affected the global economy. But we saw that also with Greece.

I wouldn’t have expected – and I didn’t expect this even just a few months ago, was how Greece could become the center of attention because of its problems. And that just shows how, even though we all know this, when it hits you, it is much more striking, the fact that we are so interwoven, so interdependent. A small event here, an article here, a comment there can create a panic throughout the world.

PAUL SOLMAN: Prime Minister Papandreou, thank you very much.

GEORGE PAPANDREOU: Thank you.

JUDY WOODRUFF: On Monday, Paul will interview the French finance minister, Christine Lagarde.