Eduardo González
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, will be received today in Athens by the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, with whom he will later travel to Delphi to participate in the sixth edition of the Economic Forum held in this city.
The bilateral agenda of the President of the Government will be developed throughout the morning, with a meeting and a working lunch with Mitsotakis in which bilateral, European and regional issues will be discussed. Afterwards, both will appear before the media to read an institutional declaration, according to Moncloa sources, who specified that during this appearance no questions from journalists will be allowed by decision of the Greek Government. Sánchez and Mitsotakis already coincided this past week in Porto on the occasion of the European Social Summit and the informal meeting of heads of state and government of the EU.
The governments of Greece and Spain share many points of view on the regional and European agenda, despite belonging to different political families. On the one hand, as countries highly dependent on tourism, Greece and Spain support similar proposals to restore summer mobility, especially the European vaccination certificate, which was initially presented by Mitsotakis and repeatedly supported by Sánchez. The proposal is currently at a very advanced stage of negotiations and could be approved for the whole of Europe, as a “digital green certificate”, before June.
Likewise, and in this case due to their status as Mediterranean countries, Spain and Greece agree on the need for a more supportive European migration pact, an idea also advocated by other “frontline” countries, such as Italy, Malta and Cyprus. Madrid and Athens are also particularly interested in strengthening the EU’s Southern Neighborhood and the role of the Mediterranean, advocate greater economic integration in the EU and call for the potential of the post-COVID-19 recovery plans, which both countries recently presented to the EU, to be harnessed for this purpose.
After the meeting in Athens, the two heads of government will attend the opening of the sixth edition of the Delphi Economic Forum, which will take place at 4:30 pm in a hybrid format and will be attended by the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou; the President of Estonia, Kersti Kaljulaid; the President of Slovakia, Zuzana Čaputová; and the Commissioner for the Promotion of the European Way of Life and Vice-President of the European Commission. Margaritis Schinas.
After the inauguration, Pedro Sánchez will participate in the afternoon in a conversation with Mitsotakis, which will be led by journalist Florian Eder, director of the international digital newspaper Politico. Sánchez has already spoken, in his capacity as opposition leader, at the 2018 edition of the Economic Forum, a non-profit organization committed to the search for and promotion of ideas for sustainable and competitive growth in Europe and the Mediterranean.
The Delphi meeting will also be attended throughout the week by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya. Specifically, the head of Spanish diplomacy will intervene in the morning of May 13 in the Panel European Sovereignity in a changing world, and will participate 24 hours later in a Ministerial Round Table with her counterparts from Greece, Nikos Dendias; Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides; and Malta, Evarist Bartolo, entitled Peace and cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean.
