The Prime Minister met at noon with the European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos at Maximos Mansion.
At the beginning of the meeting, the Prime Minister and the Commissioner had the following dialogue:
Kyriakos Mitsotakis: It’s always a pleasure to meet you and you come at a very interesting time. As far as the enlargement agenda is concerned, especially when it comes to the Western Balkans, we have been strong supporters of this agenda for many years.
I think it is fair to say that overall, we have not made the progress that we would like, but we see renewed momentum. Of course, every country is different and every case is unique, but I’m very interested to hear your thoughts on how the process is going and what we can do to be constructive and helpful.
Two of the candidate countries are direct and geographic neighbours and with all of them we have very strong ties, so we have a strong interest in anchoring the Western Balkans to Europe. And I’m sure that as far as this is concerned, our agenda is fully aligned.
Marta Kos: Yes, indeed. Thank you, Mr. Prime Minister, for giving me a chance to meet you before Delphi. Indeed, there is a movement in the accession process and we have some very good news from the last days. Yesterday, after nearly 17 years, for the first time, the working party on the enlargement or the accession treaty for Montenegro has been established. This is only the first step, but it shows the commitment from the member states and, of course, from Montenegro and also the European Commission.
And when I speak about the enlargement process, Greece is a very important partner, especially if I look forward to next year. So during the second half of next year, it is your presidency, and I really count on you. We can’t be successful without the presidency in the enlargement process. And it will be a lot of work to do for you too, Aleksandra, and of course for everybody. But why, you know, you are in the middle, so you are bordering many candidate countries, and you have always been involved, and you have given a new push through Thessaloniki 2003.
