"Greece has a stronger economy compared to the average of the European Union," said Paolo Gentiloni, European Commissioner for Economic Affairs, during his visit to the Ministry of Economy and Finance where he met with Minister Kostis Hatzidakis. During the visit of the European Commissioner, a meeting was held in which participated, on the part of the Ministry, the Deputy Minister of National Economy and Finance, Nikos Papathanasis and the Deputy Ministers Haris Theocharis and Athanasios Petralias and on the part of the European Commission.

During the meeting, the new framework of fiscal rules, the progress in the implementation of the Recovery and Resilience Fund, as well as tax policy issues were discussed. The following statements were made after the meeting:

PAOLO GENTILONI: Α PLANS THAT SHOWS RESULTS

"Greece has a stronger economy compared to the average economy of the European Union. It is one of the economies that is doing better, and this is the result of two factors: the good decisions taken by the Greek authorities, our European commitment. Because part of this success and growth is linked to the joint efforts of NextGenerationEU. We have in Greece a stronger recovery plan, showing results in both investment and reforms. We have had difficult months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, but I think we can look to the future with a little more optimism for the European  economy," the EU official said.

HATZIDAKIS: ΜΟVING FORWARD

"Commissioner Gentiloni has a distinctive role in Brussels, not only because he has served as Prime Minister of Italy, a major European country, but also because he is highly regarded among the ECOFIN and Eurogroup Ministers who meet every month. And a positive contribution to the management of the economic and monetary union, within the European Union.

Greece, as he noted, has made a lot of progress over the last few years. But our commitment is to continue this effort, building on the support of Brussels, on the big package that we have from the Cohesion Fund and from the Recovery Fund. We have the largest per capita aid in the whole European Union. But based on two other things: fiscal seriousness on the one hand and a pro-investment approach on the other hand.

We are moving forward with changes and reforms that we have already passed, on tax evasion for example. And with other changes, such as the bill to encourage business mergers, to encourage innovation, the changes that we will soon bring about for the subsidiaries of the Super Fund, to make them more flexible and more efficient. And of course this spirit will also be reflected in the new Four-Year Programme from the Greek side, which will be submitted in September in Brussels and which will reflect the new strategy of the Greek government, which will be presented in September in Brussels", the Minister said.