Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis participated in a discussion with journalist Francine Lacqua, in the context of the “Greek Energy: The New Era” conference organized by Bloomberg in Athens, at the Hotel Grande Bretagne. The entire discussion follows:
Francine Lacqua: Thanks for giving us your time. I know you’re very busy. It’s really one of the biggest crises that we’ve seen in recent memory. Let’s start on geopolitics. So before I ask you whether we’re entering a new global energy crisis, President Trump has spoken about the need for others to come up and help in the opening up of the Strait of Hormuz. What are your thoughts on this?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Oh, you jumped straight in.
Francine Lacqua: I just jumped straight in.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: You didn’t give me any breathing space whatsoever, huh?
Francine Lacqua: Does it feel like one of the EU calls?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Well, let me first of all point out that since the beginning of this crisis, Greece has extended its geopolitical and defence footprint to cover the needs of Cyprus. We were the first European country to send two frigates and four F-16 planes to respond to the call for help from our Cypriot brothers, and at the same time, we also responded to a request from our Bulgarian friends to help them with their air defence in terms of protecting their airspace.
So, in terms of strengthening our defensive posture, Greece has done its job. And not only that, it has also encouraged other European countries to join in, thus sending a clear signal that the Eastern Mediterranean should be a top priority area for Europe as a whole, and I think this was a positive step in the right direction.
Moving closer to the region of the Persian Gulf, I would also like to point out that Greece has consistently supported Operation “ASPIDES”, which was organised by the European Union. So, there is a European mandate to protect freedom of navigation in the Red Sea and around the Horn of Africa. So, we currently have a frigate there.
Unfortunately, Operation “ASPIDES” has not been fully supported by many other European countries. Right now, only the Italians and us have naval assets in the area, and maybe the French will join. But “ASPIDES” is clearly defined geographically and does not, I repeat, does not extend to the Straits of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf.
So, the answer, the simple answer is no, Greece is not going to participate in any operation around the theatre of current operations. And I doubt that there is much European appetite for such a mission right now.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, do you think there’s any way that the United States can still be helped? If you get a direct ask from the President, what would you answer?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We will not engage in any activity in the broader area, as long as there are military operations. We have been very clear from the beginning: we strengthen our defensive posture. Of course, we have a strong interest in the freedom of navigation. We have amongst us leading Greek shipowners who are very concerned about what is happening in the broader area.
But unless there is -and I think it’s not, it’s clearly not on the cards right now-, unless there is a European-endorsed mission, Greece will not participate on its own. And I think the likelihood of such a mission right now is very low.
Francine Lacqua: Do you think the longer this conflict lasts, the more likely it is that Europe will be drawn in?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think that Europe will not be drawn in militarily, but Europe certainly needs to focus on the economic ramifications of the crisis. We will have a very important European Summit -I’m sure you’ll ask me about that-, starting in two days.
And we need to manage the economic and energy consequences of what could be -I hope it’s not going to be the case- a protracted war. It’s going to be a different story if the operations, if the military activity ceases in weeks, and it’s going to be a different story if this war drags on for months.
As far as Greece is concerned, we’ve been working actively for rapid de-escalation. We don’t believe that the structural problems of the Middle East can be solved through military operations. At the same time, of course, we fully acknowledge that Iran cannot have nuclear weapons and cannot threaten its direct neighbours. But right now, the focus of my European colleagues is to manage the economic consequences of what could be a very significant energy shock.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, how long do you think the conflict will last?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I have no idea, and I don’t think anyone can accurately predict the end of this conflict. Again, I can only hope that it will not last long, because I doubt that one can achieve significantly more military objectives beyond what has already been achieved.
On the other hand, I think that the longer the conflict continues, the downside risks are significantly higher than the upside benefits from the continuation of the conflict.
Francine Lacqua: I mean, is it the gasoline price at $5 that will de-escalate the conflict from the US side, or how do you -you’re in crisis mode, Prime Minister, right? You’ve had to cancel a number of visits to foreign countries. Again, how often are you on the phone to try and figure out what the end of this is?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: First of all, we have some experience in managing a crisis. Unfortunately, that was not what I had in mind when I first got elected to power back in 2019. But I think it is important to highlight that the experience of the way Europe managed the energy crisis in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine needs to be considered in great detail. The things we did well, the things we didn’t do so well at the time.
And what I am urging is for Europe to have a playbook of short and medium-term measures ready to be activated, preferably decided at our level, in case we need to support our businesses and our consumers with the prices of energy.
And of course, when you look at the price of energy, you look at the price of electricity, you look at the price of natural gas. The two are obviously frequently connected. But you also look at the price of gasoline and the price of diesel. And when I look at the price of electricity, I think we need to point out that the performance of Greece over the past months has been remarkable, and it is a great validation of our overall energy strategy.
Our energy strategy has always been that we want to invest heavily in renewables. We need natural gas as a baseload power. And of course, in the long term, we would be open to consider other technologies such as nuclear. But this is, again, a discussion that is just starting.
In the short to medium term, we invest heavily in renewables and we use natural gas as a backup. The first three months, we had very good wind conditions. Thank God we had lots of water. So we have lots of hydro potential, which we use in a smart way to keep our prices down.
The end result is that Greece is becoming a significant net exporter of electricity. This has never happened before. It happened over the past few years. I think it’s a great success of our overall energy policy, but also of the players who are active in the Greek market, starting with, of course, the Public Power Corporation (PPC), where we still retain a 35% stake.
But it’s also a policy that eventually brings down prices and I think sends a signal in terms of how we need to consider our future energy mix going forward.
Francine Lacqua: And I want to talk a little bit more into detail about that. But do you think at this moment in time we’re entering a global energy crisis?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think we’re very close to that. If you talk to the energy experts, they would all tell you that the worst-case scenario was always a closure of the Straits of Hormuz. And if you look at previous crises -again, I’m not an expert, I just do my basic reading-, there was never a significant physical disruption of the flow of oil and gas.
And of course, gas is becoming much more important now in terms of LNG. So right now it’s not just the geopolitical risk, it’s the physical disruption to the supply chain.
And the question is, how long is this going to take to clear? The answer is: I don’t know. But what I do know is that the longer the conflict lasts, the longer the consequences of the crisis will be with us.
So in terms of looking at measures to contain rises in the price of electricity -again, in Greece we have not seen it yet because our energy policy has been validated-, but when you look at, for example, the price of gasoline, and in particular diesel, this is an area of concern. Why am I making the distinction? Because there’s a clear pass-through when it comes to diesel into inflation, which is not necessarily the case for gasoline.
And I understand that there was a global supply issue when it comes to diesel in Europe. That’s why the price of diesel has increased significantly more than the price of gasoline. So, for me, diesel would be the number one priority. And then, of course, looking at the overall electricity market, where we would anyhow need to make interventions.
I’ve spoken tirelessly about the structural problems of the European electricity market. So, in that sense, the discussion that we will have bridges the short-term impact of the crisis with the long-term interventions we need to make in Europe in order to increase our competitiveness.
Francine Lacqua: But, Prime Minister, you talk about common sense actually to the Greek energy complex, but has the crisis exposed a major strategic failure in Europe’s energy complex?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Well, Europe has been and will be for the foreseeable future a net importer of energy. I mean, it’s a fact we don’t have, you know, we don’t produce much gas, we don’t produce much oil. It was not a very wise decision by some countries to shut down their nuclear energy capability years ago. So, we know that we are in a long-term deficit.
What is the solution? I think we need to double down on renewables, that’s very clear. We need to double down on storage. And we need to look at baseload power where, you know, maybe in the medium term nuclear could be an alternative to natural gas.
At the same time, we also need to explore the potential to find natural gas in Europe. And this is what Greece is doing. I mean, for the first time, we will have an exploration in Western Greece within the next 12 months. This hasn’t happened in Greece for 40 years. Both Chevron and Exxon, in conjunction with Greek companies, are active now in Greece.
So to the extent that we will be using natural gas for the foreseeable future in Greece, primarily for electricity production, I have every reason to want this natural gas to be home-produced, if that is possible.
So that’s what I mean by being a realist. I think we need to be technologically neutral. I think we need to overcome the ideological tainting of certain technologies. This was true both for natural gas but also for nuclear. What we know for certain is that we need to get rid of coal, because it’s by far the most polluting and the most expensive form of electricity.
And without wanting to be technical, we need to look at the Emissions Trading System (ETS), because ETS was conceived as a pricing mechanism to encourage renewables at a time when baseload energy was much cheaper and at a time when the ETS itself was also much cheaper.
So having expensive energy and expensive ETS is madness right now. We don’t need ETS to be so expensive to send the price signal to move towards more energy-efficient sources, especially of electricity production. So I will be lobbying very hard for this.
I’m happy because the President of the Commission has accepted that we need a revision of ETS. I’m not in favour of ripping ETS apart, but I think we need a recalibration to look at ETS according to taking a different sectoral approach according to what it is we want to achieve.
Francine Lacqua: So how would you reform it? So this is not a suspension of the Emissions Trading System (ETS)?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: No. What we could do, I mean, we’ve suspended ETS2 for households and transportation for a year. I think this was a wise choice. I mean, we have technical issues such as how much free allowance we will give to business.
And we need to understand that there are areas where we can move the green agenda fast. Renewables make sense. They’re cheaper than traditional fossil fuels in terms of electricity production. But when you talk, for example, about heavy industry, refineries, cement production, shipping, we cannot impose a very heavy cost when we don’t even have the proven technologies to make decarbonization work.
So that’s what I mean by a more pragmatic approach. So let’s move fast where we know we can deliver. And the biggest success for Europe right now, if you look at the overall emissions, would be to get rid of coal. We’ve done it already in Greece. We use, we burn very little coal, only as a backup, but other countries have not done so.
So if our concern is overall emissions, let’s go after the low-hanging fruit, make sure we send the right price signals to invest in clean technology, but don’t destroy European industry and undermine European competitiveness in the process.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: So this is what I term sort of my pragmatic Green Deal. I think there’s a lot of momentum to support this approach within the European Council, but also within the European Parliament, because at the end of the day, we are 25 minutes into this discussion and we have not yet raised the number one concern of our citizens, which is affordability.
So everything needs to be looked at through the lens of affordability. People are struggling. I was looking at the statistics. Greece ranks third or fourth in all OECD countries in terms of real wage growth in Q3 2025. So our wages are increasing, our real wages are increasing, but people are still struggling.
And if they’re going to be faced with another energy crisis, which inevitably will lead to higher inflation, possibly higher interest rates, which again could bring down investment, then we cannot just sit in Brussels and talk abstractly about competitiveness without understanding that the flip side of competitiveness is better jobs, higher-paying jobs for our citizens, and at the end of the day, help for those who are more vulnerable, who are struggling with the affordability crisis.
Francine Lacqua: So concretely, should Europe bring back emergency measures that they put in place in 2022? Should they relax state aid and fiscal rules to protect industry?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: If necessary, yes. I don’t think we’re there yet. In general, I’m always a little bit concerned about state aid rules, because they tend to benefit the bigger countries, but it could be necessary.
I think there are interventions in the electricity market which, if necessary, could be implemented. But again, as far as Greece is concerned, we’re not there yet. Maybe we should look at taxes. Excise taxes are very high across Europe, and they’re also, to a certain extent, subject to European regulation.
Maybe one way would be, if these prices persist, to have sort of a limited escape clause for excise taxes in order for us to allow governments to lower them, without having the budgetary cost counted towards our deficit or our surplus targets.
So there are ideas. What I’m saying is, make sure we have the toolbox ready. And if this continues, to make sure that we don’t lose time to activate it. Because I do remember, Francine, in the last crisis I was insisting on a cap on natural gas prices when they went through the roof. It took us eight months to implement it.
And right now, frankly, we don’t have the time, in case things go wrong, to wait for so long.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We paid a very heavy price during the energy crisis of 2022. And we should be fast and efficient, but again, targeted and temporary. I think these are the key words.
And again, when we look at Greece, the support that we could offer, we would only lower taxes, excise taxes across the board, if this were a European decision. If it’s up to national budgets, we would always favour targeted measures of income support.
I don’t see a reason why we should open up a big hole in our budget to support people who can afford paying higher gasoline or diesel prices. If it is necessary, we have the playbook in Greece for targeted support measures for those who are more vulnerable.
Francine Lacqua: Do you think households can get support, can get help across Europe if prices go higher? Or is there worry within the Council that actually European governments are running out of ammunition?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Look, not all European governments are in the same position. If Greece were not a resilient economy with a strong fiscal position, I would be much more concerned. I am concerned, but I would have been much more concerned. The reason why we can even contemplate these measures is because the economy is growing, it’s because we’re bringing healthy tax revenues and because we have the fiscal space, maybe to recalibrate our plan and to help households and businesses.
And we’ve proven that we can actually deliver on that front, because if you look at our overall economic performance, we deliver on our budgetary targets. So we produce very significant primary surpluses. It’s necessary because we do bring down our debt. Our economy is growing at two times the Eurozone average.
And at the same time, we passed a €2 billion targeted tax reductions package, which as we speak has helped households. Because the real wages have actually increased. Because the tax burden, especially for families with children and for young Greeks, has decreased. I mean, I keep reminding people that if you’re under 25 in Greece today, you pay zero income tax. And if you’re between 25 and 30, you only pay 9%.
So the more children you have, the bigger the tax credits. So these are significant measures to support real disposable income.
But if we were not in a strong fiscal position, we would struggle to be able to implement these types of support measures.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, Europe plans to fully phase out Russian gas by 2027. Is that still realistic?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Yes, I think it’s a decision. I don’t think we will walk back from this decision. Of course, this means that we need to look for alternative sources of gas.
In the case of Greece, I think what we’ve been able to achieve when you look at gas is to turn a country which was sitting on the periphery of the European energy system into a core player when it comes to Southeastern Europe. Because in 2019, we imported around 6 billion cubic metres of gas exclusively for domestic consumption, primarily electricity production. And in 2025, 17 billion cubic metres of gas passed through Greece.
So 11 billion BCM actually used what we call the “Vertical Corridor”, and this gas was transferred to the north. This is important to us because it allows us to leverage our assets, our infrastructure. It turns Greece into a provider of energy security for the Balkans, for Southeastern Europe, including Ukraine. We sold gas to Ukraine during very difficult times.
It ties us geopolitically with the US, which I think is important because Europe has taken a strategic decision to import more American LNG. So, we’re actually doing nothing more than implement what has been agreed at the European level. And of course, it also helps our energy companies to invest more in infrastructure to leverage our geographic position.
Francine Lacqua: You mentioned nuclear, you know, right at the top. Do you think nuclear energy is now unavoidable for Europe?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think nuclear energy is unavoidable to get to net zero, whenever we’re going to get to net zero. And I still hope it’s going to be 2050. It is impossible to get to net zero without nuclear. And I’m not speaking about Greece, I’m speaking about globally.
Nuclear is -we have no experience in nuclear in Greece, so I have to be careful when I speak about nuclear. But what I’ve said is that I want to explore the possibility of whether nuclear, especially the emerging nuclear technologies, could make sense for Greece. I’m not committing to nuclear. We’re talking to our big energy players. The only thing I’m saying is let’s have a debate.
I’m convinced at the global level that nuclear is going to be part of the solution. I follow with great interest the significant capital that is invested in nuclear, especially new nuclear designs, and I want to make sure that if this were an option for Greece, at least we would be able to explore it without the ideological baggage of the previous century.
Because I was happy to realise that when I started this debate, some of my colleagues were shocked. They said: “Are you going to talk about – are you crazy? Are you going to talk about this?” But people are actually curious to find out more. I think they understand that at the end of the day, we need energy that is clean, that’s affordable, that’s safe, and we need to decrease our dependencies.
Nuclear fits these bills. We don’t know about the price yet, because we don’t know how competitive these new nuclear technologies will be, but I would certainly bet in favour that at some point they will become competitive. There’s no doubt about that.
And of course, if I look even further out into the future, I would be very interested to talk to my leading Greek shipowners to explore whether nuclear could be also a possible solution for long-haul shipping. Because the truth is right now that all the existing technologies to decarbonize are complicated, dangerous, they don’t seem to do the trick.
If I look, you know, 10, 15, 20 years into the future, we’re already -I mean, nuclear is already being used for military. It’s expensive, but who knows what will happen in 10, 15 years. So as a leading shipping nation, I want to make sure that our shipowners are at the cutting edge of this discussion and at least participate in the research and the debate around nuclear.
Francine Lacqua: Do you already have a blueprint? I know you’re exploring, but do you already have a blueprint of what that would look like? Is it small modular reactors?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Look, I mean, the large reactors are difficult and expensive right now. This, at least, is the experience of other European countries. We are interested in exploring the SMRs, and of course, I mean, we would also possibly explore cross-border joint ventures with countries such as Romania or Bulgaria that already have nuclear infrastructure. This again could be an option.
Again, all this is, I wouldn’t say premature, but certainly not mature in the sense that it’s a long-term project. It’s not going to solve our issues today or tomorrow.
I described, you know, the mix of energy that I envision is more relevant for Greece. Again, I’m a big believer in renewables. I’m a big believer in storage. I’m a big believer in hydro, in spite of the fact that there are still some environmental concerns. If you have the geography, we need to explore hydro.
And I talked to PPC, who’s the big player. There is still potential, I think, to maybe add 1 to 2 gigawatts of hydropower in Greece, and of course connect these projects also to big irrigation priorities.
One of the big projects that we again are revamping is moving water from Western Greece to Eastern Greece, especially to the region of Thessaly, which is our primary agriculture area. And this requires infrastructure. Part of it is already built. And we could kill, maybe three birds with one stone: produce electricity, manage floods, and also make sure that we have enough irrigation water for Central Eastern Greece.
Francine Lacqua: I mean, hearing you speak, it’s very clear to me that you really want Greece to become a true energy hub, right, for Southeast Europe.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Yes. And of course, this also plays out in terms of possible interconnections. We’ve not spoken about interconnections. We have our domestic interconnection priorities. We need to interconnect our islands. We already interconnected Crete, which is apart from my home island. It’s very important because eventually we’ll bring down electricity prices for everyone and will provide and will allow Crete to leverage also its renewable potential. And we stop burning heavy oil, which is what we use for the non-interconnected islands. So we have domestic interconnection priorities.
We did not speak about grids, but this is a big European priority. The more grids we have, the better interconnected the European system is, the lower prices we will have for everyone. We’re clearly not there yet, but there is a grids package and there is an emphasis on making sure that we get more interconnections.
There’s always a possibility to interconnect with Africa, with Cyprus, as you mentioned, with Israel. So we just have to look at our geographic location to understand that we have a very important role to play in this new energy landscape that is emerging in Europe.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, how much do you worry that this crisis will lead to another wave of inflation in Greece?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think, again, there is no such thing as “Greek inflation” per se. I mean, there is global inflation and of course we always look at Greece and we always look at what we can do in Greece.
And inflation is the number one concern. Again, affordability is tied to it. But it’s not so much inflation, it’s a cumulative rise in the prices. Because you can still have zero inflation, but the prices are 25% higher or 30% higher than what they were five years ago. And this is what people feel.
Of course, the only answer is to make sure that real disposable income increases, so that wages increase faster than inflation. And of course, that you also lower taxes to leave people with more money in their pockets.
And whenever necessary, yes, we will make interventions in the market. We imposed a limit to the profit margin in the whole fuel supply chain. I’m a liberal politician. I don’t like these measures, but when they’re necessary, I want to make sure that no one takes advantage of the crisis to increase prices beyond what is justifiable. We did the same thing for some supermarket products.
So I think when necessary, we want to make sure that we do intervene in the function of the market. Again, I stress these are temporary measures right now. They will apply for three months. Hopefully we won’t need to extend them beyond June.
Francine Lacqua: But what could be next? So if you say Europeans could expect more intervention in markets, or Greece could expect more intervention….
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: Well, first of all, I mean, when you talk about inflation, inflation is a prerogative of the ECB. Is the ECB going to raise interest rates? I don’t know. Again, I’m not a central banker, so I don’t want to offer advice to experts. It doesn’t seem to me that right now it would be necessary to do so. But again, if you reach the point where a central bank increases interest rates, you already have a problem.
Again, everything depends, and that’s why I’m a little coy in terms of what I want to say. Our response is going to be different if this crisis lasts weeks, and it’s going to be different if we meet again in June and we still have an active conflict in the region. But what I do know is that I want to keep a big chunk of my national powder dry. You never throw all your ammunition. You never use it at the beginning of a crisis, because you never know how long the crisis is going to last.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, on politics in Greece, you’ve said that elections will be held next year, and actually more specifically in the spring. Have all the recent geopolitical developments changed your calculus in any way?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: No. If anything, I do believe that the fact that we have a stable government with a strong majority in Parliament is a big asset right now.
If I look at how complex coalition governments are in other European countries, I’m very happy about the fact that we do have a comfortable parliamentary majority. I could only imagine what it would mean having to negotiate for example, with the socialists, I don’t know, or whoever could be our coalition partner, I don’t know, to send your ships to Cyprus. We took this decision in two hours. So we can react very quickly.
So I do believe this is an asset, that is an additional reason apart from being consistent from an institutional point of view to see out our term.
The polls are, I’d say, rather good for an incumbent government right now, but I never look at short-term polls because you may get a bounce now, who knows what could happen in a month’s time. What I do know is that right now my party, the party I have the privilege of leading, seems to be the only party that has a credible plan for the country.
And when I look at the opposition, it’s in complete disarray. Their only concern is to get rid of the government without offering any alternative for what they want to put in place. And that is not, in my mind, a very consistent or very convincing strategy.
We have a clear plan of where we want to take the country. I want to present in my next campaign, I want to look Greeks in the eye and tell them, “look, this is what I promised in 2023. I promised I would focus on wages. I delivered. I promised I would focus on defence. I delivered. I promised I would tackle the problems of the healthcare system. And I think we’ve made good progress. And this is my plan for 2030”.
2030 is historically a very interesting date, a year for Greece, because it will mark 200 years since the foundation of the independent Greek state. So we celebrate 1821, and we will celebrate in a few days, March 25th. It’s our Independence Day. Our Independence Day was the beginning of the trip, our national war of liberation. But it was in February 1830 that the Greek state was officially created.
So I want to make the case to Greeks that 200 years after the Greek state was founded, we can celebrate a country that is truly European, that has addressed the remaining structural problems that may still be present, and that we’ve made real steps in terms of truly converging with Europe. So we and I have a very clear plan of what I would like to do in my third term. And I think it’s the only plan available right now. I’m not saying this because… I mean, I wish there was an alternative plan to compare to, but I don’t see any alternative plan right now.
And in the context of a very difficult geopolitical environment, I think there’s also an experience premium. Having someone who has dealt with crises before rather reasonably successfully, I think is important at a time when people look at stability and safety. And this is always the number one priority of any government.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, in the couple of minutes we have left, what’s your take on the social media ban that Europe is talking about for teenagers?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We’re moving in that direction. We will make announcements over the next weeks. I was the first to actually raise this topic, one of the first to raise this topic at the speech I gave at the United Nations 18 months ago in 2024. And I think we’ve reached a point where the evidence is unambiguous. Addictive social media exposure of our children and our teenagers, especially the addictive scrolling is damaging to their mental health.
And we need to do something about it.
So we will do something about it. The age limit we will set is going to be 15 years. But whatever we do, we’ll make sure it’s in compliance with the Digital Services Act, because there’s also European regulation.
But at some point, we also need to honestly confront the platforms and tell them something very simple: “You’re making enough money. You don’t need to make money out of our children and our teenagers as well.” So I think this is something that the platforms also understand.
But we will be moving in that direction. And I presume that at some point there’s also going to be European momentum. But we want to make sure that whatever we do is legally tight and can be implemented.
Because we already use age verification tools for other policies. For example, in Greece you’re not allowed to buy alcohol or tobacco if you’re under 18. How do you implement it? Well, we now have a great digital tool where if you go show up at a kiosk, you just scan a QR code and the seller of the product gets a green or a red light. So it taps into a national database and they just know with full GDPR compliance, if you’re above, or if you’re underage.
So if you get a red, sorry, I cannot sell you cigarettes or alcohol. So it’s another example of how one can use technology to implement these types of policies.
Francine Lacqua: Would this be going after US assets? Because a lot of these social media platforms are US. And do you expect that to antagonise the President?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: First of all, I mean, we need to understand that in terms of compliance, a lot of it is European compliance. But we want to send a very clear signal that we take this very seriously. We talk to parents. There’s overwhelming support by parents, but also by children. Children themselves realise that this addictive scrolling is not necessarily good for them.
And I think this is, this should be an issue of cross-party consensus, and it should be a national priority. It should also be a European priority. And I wouldn’t be surprised if even in the US the tide would change, would turn. So, because again, we are looking at what’s happening, how much we’re robbing, you know, our kids of the time they spend outdoors doing sports, or we see all these kids sitting around the same table, and rather than talking to each other, they text each other. I mean, you don’t have to be a child psychiatrist to understand that this is not good for our kids.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, maybe a final question on what you’re expecting from the EU leaders summit. And also, we talk a lot about European sovereignty when it comes to AI. Are we going to see a decoupling from US technology? And will that be discussed or will it just be in crisis mode?
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: I think the primary agenda will be to deliver on our competitiveness and single market agenda. We have clear deliverables. We take decisions and reach conclusions which in principle we have already discussed. Of course, we want to have more control over our AI stack and our AI infrastructure. At the same time, we realise that we have to work with the big American players.
And again, for me, it’s a question -I’ve said this numerous times- of picking our battles. Also when it comes to regulation. And for me, two areas of priority have always been protection of minors, the mental health of kids and teenagers, and the protection of our public space and our public square. Because if I look at the amount of misinformation, disinformation, AI-generated content that is currently flooding the internet and is being used by malicious actors, this is a true challenge to our democracy, to free and fair elections.
We’ll have many European countries having elections, critical elections taking place in 2027. And I’m afraid that these elections are going to be unlike anything we’ve seen.
So also making sure that we educate, not just the younger generation, but everyone about deepfakes and the ability to question instinctively what you see. If something doesn’t really make much sense, make sure you check it.
The way we work with technology companies to ensure that we include watermarks to clearly determine what is AI-generated and what isn’t. These are going to be real challenges. I mean, the distinction between the truth and fake is going to be that much more difficult.
And I think this is a global challenge. It’s not just a challenge for Europe. I saw President Trump making tweets about this. So it’s a challenge for everyone. It needs to be addressed not just by us, but you need a global alliance against this misinformation and deepfakes.
Francine Lacqua: Prime Minister, thank you so much for your time. I think we covered a lot of ground in the last 45 minutes, so thank you for being so generous.
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: We were exactly on time. Thank you so much.
