Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met this morning with the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Alain Berset, at Maximos Mansion.
At the beginning of their meeting, the Prime Minister and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe had the following dialogue:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Good to welcome you to Athens. It’s a real pleasure to have you here. I think the topic that we will discuss, in particular, strengthening the rule of law through greater transparency, efficient oversight, strong institutional checks and balances is a core and ongoing priority, both for the country, but also, I would say for me personally.
We’ve gone through a difficult decade that tested our institutions and our society, but over the past years, I think Greece has clearly turned the page. In terms of strengthening the rule of law and also improving the effectiveness of our institutions, I think we have made significant progress, as I think has been recognised by the European Commission in its annual Rule of Law Report.
We take the recommendations very seriously. As you know, we’ve improved significantly over the past years. Also, recommendations made by the Council of Europe, the OECD, respected organisations such as Transparency International, where we have been improving year by year in terms of our rankings.
I want to be honest with you, we are not where I want to be, but we are clearly moving in the right direction. I think at a time when there is a lot of doubt amongst our citizens and the main issue seems to be trust in the competencies of government, these issues which are related to the rule of law, to fighting corruption, should be core priorities. That’s why I think we are also natural partners in discussing these topics.
We’re also just initiating a very important process of amending our Constitution. In our case, we need two consecutive parliaments to complete this process. I want it to be a very ambitious project, and I do place the strengthening of our institutions, the rebuilding of trust between institutions and our citizens, as a core priority for this big project of amending our Constitution to make it fit for purpose for the third decade of the 21st century.
Again, thank you for being here. Very much looking forward to our discussion.
Alain Berset: Thank you very much, Prime Minister, for this very warm welcome here today in Athens. It’s a huge pleasure and honour to have this occasion to see you again.
The first reason I’m here is to thank you, to thank you for the very strong commitment that we feel from Greece for the work of the Council of Europe, but also the very strong commitment for, I would say, a rules-based international order, for multilateralism, international law. It means a lot today, where it is under strong pressure, I mean, to have places with stability and strong commitment on the long term is essential for the continent, and that’s why I’m so pleased to be here.
I also want to thank you for the very strong support that we feel from Greece for accountability and conflict for Ukraine. I mean, there is no democracy without accountability. We know this. In the case of Ukraine, it also means the work that we have together and that Greece is supporting with the European family. We have more than 35 countries now joined for the Claims Commission, and we are working continually on this. I also want to mention the work that we launched at the Council of Europe for the New Democratic Pact for Europe.
We are here, and I was yesterday in Delphi. It was a pleasure to visit Delphi. A pleasure also to see Athens, and also to well, having in mind how important the long-standing history and the history of Greece is for the whole continent. You gave us democracy. We never forget this. At a time where it is under strong pressure, we need to reaffirm this commitment. I’m sure that we can also do this together.
Thank you very much for this occasion to meet here today in Athens.
