Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke about the issues discussed during the Informal Summit in Budapest.

The Prime Minister focused on competitiveness and energy issues of concern to the European Union, with a special focus on electricity prices, and spoke about Europe's need for strategic autonomy.

Μr. Mitsotakis also spoke about the election of Donald Trump in the United States, hoping that a new trade war between Washington and Europe would not open, while he praised the very strong Greek-American relations that exist, which have been sealed by the defence agreement between the two countries.

"We had the opportunity to have a detailed discussion with Mario Draghi and to comment on the very topical issues he highlights in his report. There is an agreement that we need to move from words to action. Let me focus on three specific areas that Mr. Draghi also touches on in his report. On the issues of innovation and productivity, Europe is still lagging behind on innovation issues, and interesting ideas were put forward on how to bridge the gap with the US. We spent a lot of time on energy issues. Europe is facing a big problem of competitiveness, despite the fact that we have invested in renewable energy. There is an explicit reference—in the joint statement—to the distortions in the energy market that need to be addressed in an urgent manner. Two important interventions: we need more trans-European interconnections financed with public European funds, and we need to rethink the way electricity is priced so that the price is not necessarily determined by gas. I have also spoken of the need to invest in the defence industry. We are still far from discussing common resources for defence. But there must be intervention for additional budgetary space for countries investing in defence. We invest 3% of GDP in defense; the time has come to discuss that an amount of this spending should be excluded from the general expenditure ceiling. Finally, the election of Trump has made it absolutely clear to many of us that this need to support European competitiveness becomes more urgent after the US election," the Prime Minister said at the outset.