PM calls for greater European strategic autonomy at Draghi award ceremony

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called connected Europe to physique greater strategic autonomy during a speech Thursday astatine an grant ceremonial successful Aachen honoring erstwhile European Central Bank president Mario Draghi with the prestigious Charlemagne Prize.

Mitsotakis said Europe indispensable trim dependence connected outer powers for captious technologies, defense, vigor and concern supply chains, describing strategic autonomy arsenic “an enactment of responsibility, self-respect and semipermanent resilience.”

Referring to Draghi’s legacy, the Greek premier praised his enactment during moments of crisis, highlighting his relation successful stabilizing the eurozone during the sovereign indebtedness crisis. He described Draghi arsenic a nationalist servant defined by seriousness, organization dedication and the courageousness to enactment decisively when Europe faced uncertainty.

Mitsotakis recalled Draghi’s landmark 2012 pledge that the ECB would bash “whatever it takes” to sphere the euro, a statement widely credited with restoring marketplace assurance astatine the tallness of the eurozone crisis.

“No state suffered much than Greece during the Eurozone crisis,” Mitsotakis said, thanking Draghi for believing successful Greece’s resilience and acknowledging the support of erstwhile European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker during the country’s fiscal crisis.

Draghi, who became ECB president successful 2011, played a cardinal relation successful containing the eurozone indebtedness crisis, which followed the 2008 planetary fiscal clang and deed Greece peculiarly hard owed to soaring nationalist debt, weak tax collection, and nonaccomplishment of marketplace confidence.

The International Charlemagne Prize of Aachen, 1 of Europe’s astir prestigious governmental awards, honors individuals oregon institutions that person made outstanding contributions to European unity, integration, and cooperation.