2024-09-24 04:53:26
Unfortunately, the Draghi Report has no chance of succeeding, it will be a firecracker and will be thrown into the wastebasket or into some file in the Berlemont Building” said Evangelos Mytilineos, President and CEO, from the floor of the general meeting of the Association of Industries (SBE) of Metlen Energy & Metal and President of the Pan-European Association Eurometaux.
Regarding the Greek economy, he estimated that its future will be judged on the issue of the current account balance, stressing that the fiscal deficit “has not only been reduced, but also with the help of inflation, it has done very well”. Unfortunately, as he added, the current account deficit is worsening and this means that the general economy, despite the memoranda and the strictest discipline imposed on us from abroad and the sacrifices of the Greek people, is still not competitive and therefore imports much more than it exports and when balanced it will mean that Greece will have a productivity worthy of the other EU countries. “This worries me more than anything,” he noted.
Greek entrepreneurship deserves ten times thumbs up, according to him, as it survived the extremely difficult environment of the beginning of the previous decade and the industry is here and fighting it.
Regarding the Draghi Report, what he says – said Mr. Mytileneos – “is transcendental. When he says about 800 billion investments per year from the public and private sector, he got the answer the same day from the German Vice Chancellor, that he can forget it. Because without money nothing happens. Almost everything he said is what we, who are friends of Europe, say have little or no chance of happening, because the political union of Europe has not preceded it, for every issue there must be unanimity of 27 member states”.
He also expressed strong criticism once again for the outgoing Commission under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen and the “green transition” of Europe, the cost of which, as he emphasized, will amount to several trillions to achieve the goals. “The outgoing Commission was elected with the green flag, which did not get us anywhere, it cost and is costing a lot of money, but the road and the final goal to the very large majority of the population is still unknown. But the people and businesses are the ones who will eventually have to pay for it”, he added. Furthermore, he also expressed doubt about the effectiveness of the next Commission due to political choices in the persons who occupy key positions, such as the choices of representatives for foreign affairs from Lithuania and for energy matters from Denmark, and found a lack of European politicians of the caliber of François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, but he characterized the choice of Apostolos Tzizikostas as the Greek Commissioner as the most ideal. At the same time, he expressed the opinion that the elections in America will play a very large role in the course of Europe, estimating with regard to Kamala Harris that if elected she will follow the “School of the Democrats”, that is, greater extroversion and involvement in international issues.
From the stage of the same event, the Minister of Development, Takis Theodorikakos, emphasized that the surest security for the Greek economy is the strengthening of the Greek industry and reiterated that on October 21 the official announcements will be made about the new production model adopted by the Government which will emphasize industry, extroversion and innovation and that at the end of October the emblematic investments will also be announced to which 170 million euros will be given from the Recovery Fund. The message that the industry does not feel that it is high in the production model for a number of years was sent by the president of SBE, Loukia Sarantis, welcoming this announcement.
Mr. Mytilineos also announced that the parent company of the Group (Metlen) will immediately become a member of SBE.