The time for big decisions for the European Union has arrived. Today in the Special European Council we will first of all discuss the proposals that the President of the European Commission has put forward on how we, as the European Union, can drastically strengthen our deterrent capability.
I want to express my satisfaction because Greece and I personally have been struggling for a long time to be able to convince the European institutions that what is starting today should have been done a long time ago.
I particularly want to welcome the proposals for further fiscal flexibility, so that Member States that already spend more than 2% of their GDP on defence expenditure can continue to do so.
It is very important that this fiscal flexibility should apply to all the Member States of the European Union: to encourage those who spend a little to spend more, to reward those who are already spending more, and possibly allow them to spend even more on common European defence.
It is also very important that new financial instruments are being created from unused resources of the Recovery Fund – and this has been a long-standing Greek position. We look forward to further elaboration of these proposals, both today and, above all, at the next European Council.
In these crucial times, the strategic autonomy of the European Union must be a non-negotiable priority.
At the same time, in our effort to support Ukraine in reaching a just and viable solution, we must under no circumstances give up the effort to engage the United States in this new scheme of a sustainable peace, which will be based, first and foremost, on strength.
It is important to be able to provide security guarantees for Ukraine the day after, and the United States should participate in that security guarantees scheme. And we must constantly strive to convince the United States that this is ultimately in their interests as well.
