Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met today with Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, at Maximos Mansion.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Welcome. It is a pleasure to see you. We just had a very long cabinet meeting in which the Minister of Finance also presented his outlook for the Greek economy for this year and the coming years. I think we are happy to report that we feel very confident that we will return to a very robust growth path.
As you know we were one of the first countries to receive approval for the RRF (Recovery and Resilience Fund) facility and we are happy that you will also play an active role in helping us manage it.
And we feel that the potential is right for a big investment boom. Our main goal was always to bridge the investment gap that was a permanent feature of Greece’s economic performance over the past decade. We feel well-positioned to do this. We have a very ambitious agenda when it comes to digital transformation and when it comes to climate change and moving towards a low carbon economy.
You know the work we have also done with the Public Power Corporation (PPC), and we are very, very happy that you will be our faithful partners in this path towards financing our new growth model. We are very, very happy to have you here again to reaffirm our mutual commitment and to speak about the future.
Werner Hoyer: Thank you very much Prime Minister, Ministers. It is a great pleasure to be back to Athens. I myself just realized that this is the 15th year that I come to Athens, practically every year at least once. Last year it was a little bit slow but it is good to be back.
And I congratulate you on the enormous progress that has been made under your leadership. We also celebrated last week when we had the Ecofin and the Board of Governors meeting of the Bank; when I praised Christos for the excellent cooperation but also for the ambitious plans that we have seen.
Being part of “Greece 2.0” is a great honor for us, but it is logical. I remember when I took over the Bank ten years ago, I was here and it was difficult times. As I said, we have been here for 40 years, we intend to stay here and after the crisis we will be here.
And why is this logical? We are now on your side when it comes to bringing life into this unique package that the European Union has “wrapped”. And we are happy to be part of it. So, we are extremely happy.
