THE Vice President of the European Commission Margaritis Schoinas going up to his step conference of ND made reference to the previous conference on Sunday, December 1, 2019.
“That 13th Congress marked for Greece the end of a difficult decade and at the same time the beginning of a new era with New Democracy standing up and winning again. “That Sunday was also the first day of the term of the new European Commission, which started with a strong wind in conditions of stability and growth”, he stressed and referred to what followed the next 30 months, typically saying that it looks like a science fiction scenario.
“Pandemic, instrumentalization of immigration, the crisis in the Aegean and now the war in Ukraine. “But what has not been discussed enough and in fact some people are consciously trying to degrade, is how Greece and Europe together, side by side, gave historic battles”, he underlined.
“The deniers, the Cassandres and the conspiracy theorists do not want us to remember how we did it,” he continued.
Mr. Schoinas referred to the largest vaccination program in the history of mankind with over 5 billion doses, the mobility certificate issuing more than 1 billion documents to the Recovery Fund. He recalled the crisis at the border and how “on that damn Clean Monday of 2020 we brought – for the first time in the history of the institutions – all the EU leadership to Evros, on the field, outside the Brussels offices, raising the European shield against the methodical hybrid threat “.
He also spoke about the decongestion of our islands and how “on the ashes of the shame of Moria we created modern European structures 100% financed by European funds”.
He also referred to the tension in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean in the summer of 2020 and how “we succeeded at the highest European level in forming a convincing framework of sanctions and incentives, which with the relevant international alliances – but also the determination of the country’s Armed Forces, the Turkish research vessels back to their ports “.
Finally, he spoke about the battle that the European family is waging with its allies in America and Asia against the horrors of war.
“Yes, friends, we have succeeded in all this. And it was Europe that managed it together with Greece. “With the force of law, not with the law of force”, stressed the vice-president of the Commission, noting that in the critical current moments, there is no room for complacency. The bar of expectations – he continued – is now very high and there is no more room for hesitation, controversy, quarrels and disagreements.
“Citizens demand unity in action and bold decisions. “Especially now that we are approaching the crucial summit at the end of the month for collective action on energy prices, there is no other way than the common, convincing European response.”
At the same time, he stressed the need for greater political legitimacy of the European leadership.
“A Union that buys collective vaccines, weapons and tomorrow natural gas and oil. Borrowed jointly to finance the recovery. It has the largest market, the deepest democracy and the second largest currency in the world. This new Europe of action must also have the power to be legitimized by the will of the people, not by decisions in closed rooms and bargains. The 2024 European elections and the recent proposals of the European Parliament in this direction offer us a unique political opportunity to take the EU out of Brussels. “I wish and hope that they will be discussed in our country inside and outside the Greek Parliament,” he added.
In addition, he noted that for Greece there are lessons from what we have experienced in the last two and a half years, “because they mean the absolute justification but at the same time the highest responsibility to defend the principles and values ​​represented by our great, historic faction.”
He added: “Justification because we fought and defeated the crises not only ourselves but with the multiplier power that our position in the hard core gives us, the first speed of the EU and the eurozone. Where we were because we chose to be, not out of spite “The accident of history. With the moral support that comes from our democratic state. With the center of man, without leaving anyone behind.”
At the same time, however, he said that they also mean responsibility because “the preservation of our European way of life is neither self-evident nor a given” and “we must build continuous defenses against the multiple threats that are posed to us.”
He added: “Let us stand, let us continue to stand proudly, firmly, clearly in front of: Authoritarian neighbors. To supposedly authoritarian friends, populists of the extremes. The populists of the extremities. The stateless but also the supranationalists. Against forever all those who want to turn us into divisive and ideological choices. To all those who want Greece encircled, small and phobic, not wide-angle, strong and European. This is the legacy of the Founder of New Democracy. We do not forget her, we do not hand her over to her deniers “.
Margaritis Schoinas also mentioned, among other things, that Kyriakos Mitsotakis is without a doubt the most central and most important prime minister of the EPP political family.
“A leader who rules without the messianisms of the past and who is recognized in Europe as a reliable protagonist, shaper and inspirer of critical European decisions. We walk with the power of our ideas, principles and positions that have been justified by history.
And finally we walk with the unshakable conviction that the difficult are behind us and the best is ahead of us “, he added.
Concluding his speech, he said that in this last Congress before the next elections, “we are all fighting together for a Europe of solutions and not of counterclaims, for a Greece that believes, wants and can, for a Greece of self-confidence, progress and cohesion, that unites us, that we want and that we deserve “.
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