 My name is John Hamery. I'm the president here at CSS. And can we all get started? Thank you very much, everybody. We're delighted that you're here. Welcome. We're very pleased to welcome you here. I must say I'm very grateful. Fridays are usually not strong turnout days, you know, at think tanks. It reflects your interest in what I think is going to be a very important conversation. I'm very honored that Minister Mitteraki is with us today. Thank you very much for coming. We're really pleased. You know, I'm really glad you're here because there's a standard motif in Washington policy circles, which is it's so hopeless don't even bother thinking about Greece. And there's nothing further from the truth when you think about it. Walk around Washington, look at official Washington, just survey the landscape. You will find nothing other than a classic Greek motif in this town. It is how we think of ourselves. We think of ourselves as being part of the embodiment of this popular impulse, popular rule in democracy that was born in Greece. And it's just so profound in us that we don't spend enough time thinking about it and we don't spend enough time thinking about an ally that has been going through very hard times. Now I would say if it were not hard enough to deal with the economic problems, Greece of course sits in a complicated neighborhood. You know, we have all of the turmoil in Syria. We have all of the turmoil in Turkey. All of this chaos that's on the doorstep of this ally of ours and is carrying extra heavy loads by itself. And so it's important for us in the Washington policy community to focus a bit. I always say to our dignitaries that visit how grateful I am that you come because this complicated, sophisticated America, we only can think about one issue at a time. You know, and we get preoccupied with whatever that issue is of the day. And if you don't come to open our aperture, cause us to think more broadly about the world, we're just not going to be spending the time and energy to focus as we should. And so this is really a gift to us, minister, that you would spend this time with us. Help us think through a region that we frankly cannot have fail and we need to have your success and your energy and your imagination be part of that success. We were very fortunate this summer to have Prime Minister Samaras with us. And it was frankly very inspirational. This is a guy who is the right man at this time to help with some very challenging issues. He has enormous credibility here in Washington. And I think you're going to build on that today, minister. So I thank you for coming. I thank all of you for coming. Heather, why don't I ask you to get started with the real introduction and say welcome to everybody. Thank you. Well, Dr. Henry, thank you so much. And colleagues, thank you for joining us. For many of you, this may be your first visit to our brand new building at CSIS and we are delighted to welcome you. And I learned something about the minister this morning. This is your first visit to Washington. So new building, first visit, we could not be more excited. What we'd like to do, I'm going to briefly introduce the minister. Minister, you can choose to sit here or use the podium, whatever you feel most comfortable. Provide some framing remarks and then we're going to engage in a bit of a dialogue here. I have lots of questions and then I promise we will turn to you and engage you in a very important and lively discussion. We are so grateful for this series which is designed to highlight the Greek presidency, the EU rotating council presidency. And our partners and the generosity of the Stavros-Niarchos Foundation has allowed us to put on this important series of discussions highlighting this agenda. So we are extremely grateful and of course our thanks and partnership to the ambassador and to the embassy for your partnership as well. In some ways, minister Mataraki, your title speaks volumes to me. Deputy Minister of Development and Competitiveness. Europe is having a competitiveness challenge and I think your title and as you were named last summer, July of 2012, really offers us some insights into how Greece is overcoming many of the structural economic challenges it faces. You have been in the private sector, you have experienced the financial community from many different levels and now you're bringing those talents here. We were reflecting, the minister, you look so fresh. No jet lag from Bali where you were in trade discussions there as well. And we are delighted for you to help us understand the Greek agenda for the EU rotating presidency, your own sense of the future opportunities and challenges that 2014 will bring to the Greek government. And then again, when you're done with your remarks, I have a long list of questions so I'm looking forward to engaging with you. So without further ado, thank you so much colleagues for joining us. And minister Mataraki, the floor is yours. Thank you. Thank you so much for your very kind invitation. It's a great pleasure to be here at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies to discuss the upcoming Greek presidency of the Council of the European Union and at the same time take the opportunity to take stock of developments in Greece, present the situation, the opportunities and the challenges we're facing. The remarks of your president were very right. It takes some time for the market, for the analysts, for the community to appreciate the changes that are happening to countries or companies when we talk about the financial sector, how are the right policy choices reflected in outcomes. And one of the roles we have is to communicate the message clearly around the world and especially in Washington of what policy choices we made in Greece in the last couple of years and how are those playing out. I promise because I like interactive discussions to keep my opening remarks short. I'll be happy to talk about sort of four key topics. I'm sure the audience and yourself may introduce others. The first is the upcoming presidency of the Council of the European Union. Greece will be taking on January 1st for six months. We're taking over the presidency at a time where EU is also in transition and 2014 will be an unusual year. In the first half of the year the European Parliament will have elections and a new one will be elected. On the second half of the year the Commission, the European Commission will change where the countries will nominate new Commission members. Therefore two out of the three institutions of the European Union, the Commission and the Parliament will be in transition in 2014 that puts an extra requirement in Council to be more stable and allow the EU to continue functioning on the key priorities we have. We're going to have four priorities as Greek priority during the period. The first priority would be growth, jobs and cohesion. EU went through a very tough economic crisis. We were affected like all countries in the world by the global economic slowdown from 2008 and countries that had already issues with high levels of debt were affected the most. We have taken the economic political choices to recover our economies and most of the European economies are now recovering and we expect Eurozone next year to have a positive GDP growth. Same goes for Greece. However the social consequences of this transition have been great. Countries like Greece have went to a 27% level of total unemployment. It picked around 60% of unemployment for the young people and one of the key priorities would be to reinvest in the economy of Europe in order to create growth which is not jobless. So this is priority number one. Priority number two is further integration of Eurozone which has to do with the banking union, has to do with reinforced budgetary and economic integration frameworks. The third priority for Greece will be migration, borders and mobility. We have had a challenging neighborhood and we've seen a lot of inflows of illegal migration into Europe. Migration into Europe has seen as a national issue until recently. Greece will place in the European agenda as one of our four priorities the need for an integrated European policy within EU but also with the relationship with the countries neighboring Greece to create the economic condition in these countries to reduce the trend of illegal migration but at the same time better protect European borders. The fourth priority for Greece will be an integrated horizontal thematic approach on maritime affairs. That not simply has to do with maritime policy. We're going further than the Lima Sol declaration. We're also talking about, for example, through exclusive economic zones, exploiting natural resources that Europe has and these are important for the recovery of Eurozone. So these are the four key priorities of Greece as rotating president of the Council of the European Union. I will be personally be chairing the Foreign Affairs Council on trade and trade liberalization will be a key driver for growth and jobs in Europe. You mentioned the competitiveness gap. I think the whole western world is facing very critical challenges and I'm sure that will be taken on the Q&A. But how do we translate the four key pillars of the EU, Greek policy in the EU on specific trade issues? One priority for us will be furthering the TTIP agreement, the agreement between the US and the EU about the liberalization of trade, about market access, barriers, intellectual property protection, issues that are very dear both to the EU and to the US. We anticipate that this agreement can create in total more than 200 billion of economic growth for both the EU and for the US. So this will be the key priority for the Foreign Affairs Council for the first six months of 2014. At the same time we have had a breakthrough in the World Trade Organization in Indonesia the week before where the trade facilitation agreement did get approved by all of the WTO countries. That has been a remarkable improvement in the multilateral level of trade negotiations. So we need to see now how we will further the discussion within WTO and that will be a second key priority for us in Council. Finally, just to close the chapter on the trade Council, we will prioritise the agreements that are maturing and the agreement with Singapore and Canada are in the top of the list, but also we will accelerate discussion with countries in the Mediterranean and the Gulf and that ties well not only with the number one priority, which is jobs and growth, but also with the migration, third priority and the fourth, the maritime priority. So that's the key things on our EU agenda. Briefly about Greece, we have had six consecutive years of recession. There is almost no president in global economic history of a country having to undergo six consecutive years in recession. Thanks to the sacrifice of the Greek people, which have been enormous, Greece is standing again on its feet. Samaras was elected as Prime Minister in 2012. Our first priority was to recover our credibility and ensure that Greece remains a full member of the Eurozone. We believe we achieved this target in 2012, as there has been no discussion in any political forum in 2013 challenging Greece membership of the Eurozone. The second objective for 2013 was to beat our budget expectation and stand again on our feet. We've seen in the second half of 2013 our recession estimate to be revised to the better, and that's the first time we're revising to the better recession estimates during the crisis, and we expect the year to close at 4% versus 4.5%, and we see growth coming in 2014. We met our budget objective. Greece was expecting a flat primary surplus in 2013. We will actually have 850 million euros of primary surplus for beating our estimates in the budget, and these are positive news. Now the challenge in 2014, and believe me, we have a lot of challenges still ahead of us, is to get the economy back on track and we see the unemployment starting to come down from 27%. We were flat month on month. We had good inflows of employment in the private sector in 2013. We hope to see these trends recovering. So that's my third pillar. The fourth pillar which I would like to highlight is the development for business. We believe that investments are the key way of driving the economic growth. We have a very pro-market approach. We've seen 2013 a record number of new investments coming in the country, in the order book, as I call them, to be executed in the years to come. The biggest of those being the trans-Sedriatic pipeline, which will be a key contributor to growth creation in Greece, but also a key contributor to energy safety for Europe. And this is something which we will support. And so we've seen positive inflow of investments in 2013 in the level of around 7 billion euros. We have changed a lot of bureaucratic obstacles that the Greek economy had. And now according to the OECD, Greece has been top among its members in taking structural reforms which are pro-growth in the last period. Greece has moved up 28 places in the World Bank doing business reporting just two years. So there's a lot of good work happening. We've seen early investments on recognizing that. The spreads of Greece move from 27% at points to 6% at points. They're now at pre-crisis level. So the market is already recognizing that Greece has gone through the toughest part of the transition and they're willing to invest in Greek debt at pre-crisis level. So these are the four key topics that I would hope we discussed and any other topics that yourself or the audience would like to add. I hope I haven't spoke more than my allocation of time. I wish other speakers were so concise and so high-impact. Thank you, Minister, so much. That was a terrific overview. And I think, again, the common thread from Dr. Hamry's comments to your own, we need to put ourselves in a different frame of mind. Understanding, I personally can't understand six years of recession and 27% unemployment, over 50% youth unemployment. I can only imagine what those conditions would be like in my own country and the civil unrest and the strife that could be there. And it is certainly an enormous feat to overcome that and to start seeing some very promising and early shoots of growth. So we, again, thank you for reminding us of that. As I was reflecting this morning and reading my headlines over my cup of coffee, I was thinking of former British Prime Minister Harold McMillan's great quote when someone asked him, well, what can knock you off this perfect agenda that you've outlined? And he said, of course, events, dear boy, events. And that can sometimes, any well-planned rotating presidency agenda can be suddenly thrust by events. And we're certainly seeing historic events happen in Maidan Square in Kiev. And this is not a priority for your presidency. It's an issue for the Lithuanian presidency. But as we're watching this historic, potentially historic sweep in Kiev, I'm wondering if you could reflect what, if any, opportunities the Greek government, this crisis may continue into your presidency. Some thoughts on that. And the other event that we know about, as you alluded to, is the May 25th European Parliament elections, where we may see Europe elect the most Eurosceptic anti-Europe parliament that we've ever seen. And certainly there are ramifications for Greek politics nationally for that election. And I'd love your reflections on that. I have a couple of other questions, and I think I'm going to give you them in small spoonfuls so I don't overwhelm you. Thank you. I think you raised two very important points. First of all, on Ukraine, Eastern partnership is a priority for the European Union. And at the Foreign Affairs Trade Council, we've taken a resolution before the events. Of course, the recent events that will strongly support the agreement. In the case of Ukraine, there was a political benchmark set by the EU, which we hope that Ukraine, in their path to democracy, will adhere to. Naturally we think that the situation will continue during the Greek presidency. We'll take stock, but it is an objective of the European Union to enlarge its trade and political and economic relationship to our friends to the east. And we hope we'll see positive resolution also for the good of Europe, but also for the good of Ukraine and the other countries. On the issue of elections, I think one of the key topics discipline for PhD students in the next ten years would be how Europe handled the crisis, how Western economies are handling the economic crisis and what are the political consequences toward democratic values from the sudden pressure that European societies faced. It is possible that at the European Parliament you'll have voices which are not European mainstream voices like in previous Parliament. I think that's a challenge for policymakers in Europe to ensure that we maintain economic discipline, but at the same time we foster growth and we foster the and build on the democratic values that unite us all. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. Let me turn a bit to the maritime strategy or the maritime issues that you've highlighted in the agenda presidency. I was reading some remarks by Prime Minister Samaras in Vilnius when he mentioned with very specific interest about undersea energy exploration, as you mentioned, the Exclusive Economic Zone, which of course brings us to issues related to reconciliation of Cyprus, Turkish Foreign Minister I believe is visiting Athens or has visited Athens. Do you have any sense of Athens approach to potentially seeking a new start on reuniting those talks on Cyprus and how potential unconventional gas could be a part of that conversation? First of all on the issue of Cyprus, Greece is supporting the efforts of President Anastasiades in Cyprus to reignite talks about the Cypriot issues and we expect and we hope to see progress on that. On the issue of natural resources Cyprus is already moving ahead with exploitation of natural resources found within their national waters and this is important for the Cypriot economy but for the European Union in general. Energy security is a key issue that Europe has to tackle. It's not only an economic issue that sort of there is value underwater in areas like the Mediterranean where the relevant countries have their respective rights. It is important from a security point of view that Europe becomes more finds its own sources and doesn't rely exclusively on imports as we do now especially for natural gas. One of the issues when you mention about the competitive challenge in Europe energy cost probably is in the top of the agenda and we had the opportunity to ask our colleagues other economic ministers what is the key concern we have about competitiveness and it is energy. Exploiting the resources we have in the Mediterranean it is a priority for a number of reasons. There has been a lot of progress in international law in how you delineate exclusive economic zones. This is a topic that we are raising at the European level and as we think at the European level we need to find the right answers. Fantastic. Let me turn to TTIP, the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. Next week there will be a third round of negotiations here in Washington. How much we have been obviously watching after the impact the effect of the NSA revelations on data protection and privacy. Your reflections and certainly your sense of your colleagues in Europe how big of an issue will data protection play into the TTIP negotiations as they advance? I think data protection is a critical issue for all of us and I think TTIP could also be an opportunity to improve the framework in both sides of the Atlantic. We think TTIP can be a key booster for economic growth both in the US and EU so it is a priority now for all my colleagues in the trade council and as I understand it's becoming a priority also in Washington and we hope that we'll see both sides of the Atlantic pushing through their own regulatory side of the that needs to take place for the agreement to work. At council we gave the commission the necessary mandate to negotiate and I'm very pleased to see that the third round is already taking place. If you see the comments made by the chief negotiators in the first two rounds of the conference, I think it's important to understand that there are two chapters and the working flat hours, not only meeting once every many weeks but also with video conferences and conference call all the time are progressing different agendas. So there is some optimist that this agreement could proceed at a good time frame. The fact that the EU has completed the agreement with Canada could help the EU in key issues but I think the benefits for both the economies are more than the cost of having to make a compromise. Trade agreements are always about compromise and in the end no one is absolutely happy except the hundreds of thousands of people that find a job thanks to the growth created by this agreement. Thank you. One final question and I promise I'm going to bring you into our conversation. I'd like to turn back to you. So on Sunday Ireland exits its program. Yet we know in the spring comes perhaps a more difficult conversation about additional or supplemental funding that will be needed to provide Greece to bridge a gap. I welcome your thoughts on that, the difficulties of that politically within Greece and certainly I think the government has been very reluctant if not pushing back to say society cannot take any more of austerity. We must have a different approach. So I would welcome your thoughts as we look towards 2014 and the extension of potential financing for a new package. First of all I have to say I'm very, very pleased that Ireland will be exiting the program. They have had to go through tough choices. And I would like to remind however that the Greek program was considerably steeper and the level of consolidation required and achieved was much more demanding in the case of Greece. And therefore the consequences, the social consequences for the Greek program was much tougher. As the IMF has said the multipliers the multiplier of the fiscal consolidation program into the GTP was much bigger than originally anticipated and therefore to put it bluntly we got it wrong with regard to the social consequences and the cost of the social consequences back to the fiscal. You know there's a cycle that when the economy is contracting faster than anticipated that affects automatically revenues. And so Greece had to go through a tougher period. Now looking forward in 2014, first of all we had the same reserve territory. And therefore Greece no longer needs funding to cover our own needs. The only reason we need funding is for payment of capital and payment of interest. And that's a thing that's a very fundamental difference versus years before where people were feeling that sort of they were lending to Greece to pay its current obligations. We are covering our current obligations ourselves. And actually in 2013 I just won't give many numbers but just give you ideas. We met our revenue objective as a government. We actually we've done better than expected in tax collection versus the budget. So now we have the fundamentals for this primary surplus to be sustainable in 2014. Greece will actually be below the 3% threshold of total deficit in 2014. And that's a very positive thing. Also the fact that spreads have gone down to 6% means that Greece has access to the markets again. Maybe not today but hopefully in 2014. That creates a completely different mix. So for example if there is a small funding gap and just to clarify what funding gap means in this case is we need to roll over debt. We don't need funding to cover needs. We feel that Greece has options that did not have a year ago. Fantastic. Wonderful. Well let's turn this conversation over to you. If you could hand and we have microphones if you could give us your name and affiliation and as we like to say we like to keep our comments short and our questions provocative. So with those guidelines I think we have a question right up here in the front. We'll just wait for the microphone. Please. Hi and welcome to Washington. My name is Yulia Volkovska. I work for Voice of America and Macedonian Service here in DC. I would like to ask you regarding the ongoing name dispute between Macedonia and Greece. Of course it's related to economic developments as well. I would like to point out the statement of Mr. Venizelos, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister recently in Brussels. So I'm going to use that and I'm going to ask your opinion on that and your opinion of the problem. He said that the name issue is not bilateral a matter between those two countries but a pending international problem and so would this problem be considered as a priority during Greece's upcoming presidency? That's one and of course I would appreciate your comment on the issue at this point. Thanks. I think there is an issue that needs to be resolved and hopefully we'll see policy choices that are less they're more accommodating from our neighbors then that will allow this international issue to be resolved. Very good. Ma'am, right here. Thank you. Julia Panuja-Klonis economist focusing on development and issues. My question has to do with climate change. Given the progressive negative effects of climate change and the recognition of the human factor that means our consumption and production pattern is a contributing factor do you anticipate that to be an item in the agenda of the Greek presidency in the EU that means to encourage more global cooperation in facing that danger? Thank you. I think climate change is a challenge that everyone around the world recognizes to different to a for us it is an important issue and when we look at TTIP environmental issues are something on the mandate already recognized that should be an area that no compromises need to be made that we need to ensure that we maintain the proper environmental protection standards. So I think the issue is well regarded and well recognized by everyone and it's an issue that we'll touch upon. At the same time growth is a priority for the whole world and I think we need to be able to strike a fine balance between both critical issues for humanity. If I may just tag on to that a little bit it will be very interesting to watch Europe exactly meet those challenges as the minister said about energy costs as they increase and I think certainly Europe and individual European countries have made decisions about renewable strategies and also maintaining that balance I think it will be a very important debate to watch within Europe itself and then how that global debate unfolds. Talking about renewables I'm pleased to say that Greece is above our target in adoption of renewables and we're going to be very we're going to be meeting the 2020 target with the current path of investments and that's I think it's positive although I have to say that the adopt the first adoption of renewable energy has positive consequence of course at the same time has a cost component which was not necessarily properly calculated at the beginning of this process. Fair enough. I try to be a bit provocative too. I'm so glad. Hi my name is Philip Finiello I'm with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this question kind of extends from my previous position with the British Embassy and I hate to bring up something somewhat non-EU related but it is kind of related. You mentioned maritime being a priority how much are you looking at and how much would it benefit your maritime priority if the U.S. were to finally ratify unclose and legitimize that global system because I know there's issues in the South China Sea and all over the world how closely are you looking at that how much would that benefit Greece's interest and its commercial priorities. The United Nations Convention Law of the Sea Treaty the 1982 convention that we have yet to ratify. I can actually take it if you want. I'm not an expert on the topic and I try not to be a jack-of-all-trades it's an issue I don't know well so I'll pass. I follow actually unclose issues because we have an Arctic research project here so may I take it? I think this is an issue both of American leadership and also seeking potentially the benefits whether that's the seabed mining rights or extending our outer continental shelf unfortunately it's a great missed opportunity which I hope the Senate will in its wisdom seek to ratify unclose as rapidly as possible. How's that? Okay. Good to me. We'll do this together, right? Yeah, good. First and foremost, welcome to Washington DC Pleasure to see you again. My name is Konstantinus Kanalopoulos and I'm from the University. My first question is with regards to TTIP and to what extent could a successful negotiation of TTIP and the inherent revitalization of the transatlantic relationship as well as the Greek presidency how could Greece's geopolitical and strategic importance and role be increased and be positively impacted? That's my first question and secondly as Greece is trying to pave the path towards growth and recovery but it's an imperative then that research and innovation are a part of the Ministry of Development rather than the Ministry of Education and why hasn't the Greek government done anything to change this outdated institutional structure? Thank you. Excellent question both of them. First of all on TTIP it is a fundamental policy choice for Greece to increase the extroversy of its economy for many years we were a sort of I won't say a closed economy but we were not export driven and that created in 2009 not only a situation where a fiscal deficit was considerable but also our current account had a considerable deficit which actually has also gone to positive territory in 2013 the dual deficits of 2009 became the dual surpluses of 2013 so and also it's a country that historically going back to ancient times we were not never concerned to compete we wanted competition we believed in the quality and the hard work of our people and open markets for us is something very positive and I think one of the reasons Greece came to the crisis we came is that this fundamental Greek characteristics we forgot we ignored in the last 10-20 years so opening global trade for us is a great opportunity and that's where I think TTIP together with the agreement with Singapore the agreement with Canada opening markets reducing barriers is good for the Greek economy which has seen for a number of years a positive growth in its exports so that is not will not increase our strategic position as an agreement itself but it will facilitate global trade which is in line with what as a government and as an economy we want to achieve on the issue of R&D but we can talk about institutions and which ministry has which department and I'm sure there's always an excellent argument for each and every formation what I would say though is that going forward from 2014 we're doubling the R&D spend and that I think is more important that versus who sort of signs the checks on sort of which label which stationary prints the agreement when we go to the next seven years of our EU cohesion budget the 2014-2020 component R&D will double and also I think one of the biggest competitive advantages of the Greek economy which has not been discussed is the quality of the workforce we talk a lot about tourism we talk a lot about the maritime industry we talk a lot about agriculture and the quality and value of the brands which TTIP also hopefully will reinforce in the US but we don't talk enough about generation of very bright well educated people many of them with sort of US degrees, European degrees, Greek degrees in sciences, in technology we've seen some startups picking up in Greece and we've seen global players now investing in Greece Samsung decided to do in Patra a research hub, Microsoft was in Greece, the Google CEO was in Greece recently, the IBM chairman was in Greece very recently, we're seeing an inward trend of big global ICT players that are coming to Greece to invest in people the Prime Minister was in Israel a couple of months ago and I had the pleasure of being in that trip and Israel has been very successful in creating in the Southeast Mediterranean an ICT hub we believe that Greece can also become a hub and take advantage of the quality of the people, the commitment and their energy and I think that's one of the key drivers for recovery going forward and as I said already there are major players, Google Microsoft, Samsung IBM are recognizing that Coca-Cola recently decided to open in Greece their pan-European social media center that will open in Greece it was announced last week Procter & Gamble created an R&D center Nokia Zement Network created an R&D center and that only in the last 12 months that means that there is an opportunity there and that's why we're also coming there to double our investment into R&D to further facilitate this transformation of the Greek economy and the Greek side Minister, can I just jump in here and one of the real tragedies of the crisis of many tragedies was what we call brain drain was the flight of very talented young people because the economic situation was so dire this very encouraging news of ICTs and others coming back are you seeing where flows are returning back that young people highly skilled people are returning to Greece I'm sorry to say not to the extent we would like but there is a lot of people that actually left Greece and that's natural when you have 60% unemployment, we had 60% now we're down to 51 both numbers are huge anyway in the younger population and you've seen the smarter people moving abroad, people that went to do a graduate degree abroad not returning home after that this has been clearly negative for society but I see it as a huge opportunity because you have what I would call idle capacity around the world people that have worked for the major corporations, have worked for major startups in the US, in the UK in a number of areas have become more global in their approach and these people are eager to come back to Greece when opportunity arises and that means that you can have a fast you can see things turning fast and creating a multiplier effect because you have the skilled workforce a lot of it in Greece, some of it abroad and that works very complementary because global companies always appreciate to have in their mix of people people that have worked abroad and have seen things working from the other side so I think that's an opportunity rather than it has been a short time risk but it's a huge opportunity going forward Fantastic, yes sir, over there a microphone coming Can you comment on the possible convergence between TTIP negotiations and DCFTA negotiations between EU and countries from eastern partnership, I mean to what extent the DCFTA negotiations between EU and such countries as Moldova or Georgia could become part of the negotiation on TTIP, thank you First of all I would say I'm very pleased to see you we work very well with countries in the region and through the black city trade and development bank which I'm a governor who spent a lot of effort in creating this eastern partnership already and this black city trade and development bank is based in Greece based in Thessaloniki and we are now further investing in our position in that bank to facilitate the integration in the black city region so as I said for us the eastern partnership is very important and I think as we're going to a plurilateral trade model we have to believe there's a bit more optimist on the multilateral level I think both agreements can work very complementary but we're not working together in the sense that one will delay the other or one will push the other they're both very important initiatives for the union and we hope we'll see a positive outcome in both Mr. I wanted on the previous question I wanted to mention I think the one risk and I'm a huge supporter of TTIP, the one risk that I think we face is that transatlantic relationship this becomes the only source of our conversation, our drive and we know and minister we'll have first hand experience with this we're going to start the third round of negotiations next week this is going to have tremendous up and downs through that we are going to if we want it to be ambitious it's going to as you said compromise makes everyone feel that they haven't won it's going to be extremely difficult this cannot be the only thing it is a strategic piece it is not only to enhance our own economic benefit but to create the international the global standards because let's not let's not make a mistake there are competitive models for our value system of transparency and openness and rules so it is geostrategic but I just my fear and my caution as I watch the transatlantic relationship it can't be the only thing we're talking about it's just a very critical part I just want to add my unwelcome two cents absolutely you're right and there's a number of institutions that we work together the EU countries or the EU together with the US in issues of global security for example NATO is probably one of the best example of that cooperation between the EU and the US the issue with TTIP it's a tangible instrument which if both sides of the Atlantic work hard and make the right compromises within a short period of time institutionalize the economic relationship and that's why I think we're seeing it as a priority but of course I'll take your point that there's many other ways we are actively cooperating and I think we have an excellent relationship one of the best relations we've ever had absolutely thank you I saw a question yes in the front here oh sorry the microphone is coming thank you welcome minister my name is Glacia Vasikeri I'm represented I'm here to represent the ambassador of the European Union who is traveling and he's outside Washington I would like to make two points the first you refer to the elections of the parliament the changes of the commission so this requires a very strong council during your presidency and the next presidency I would like to add that in these two changes one third very substantial institutional changes should be added than the entire institution of external affairs let's say the shop of Mrs. Aston the entire leadership will change there as well so this will also require a stronger council for to ensure the continuity the second thing I would like to mention and I'm sure your people have informed you about this is how things have changed locally in Washington with respect to the coordination among the member states and the EU we have weekly meetings on all the topics where the people of the embassies of the 28 who follow the regular topics come and these topics go as far up as the DCM which meet once per week and the heads of mission which meet who meet once per month and this has created a very strong coordination mechanism amongst the EU and the member states where everybody benefits for exchange of information for additional information to promote the national agenda during the presidency and for those embassies which lack specific information in technical areas let's say transport, energy NSA issues, data protection to benefit from the EU so of course I just wanted to let you know that in the post-lesmon area the coordination of the member states and that of the EU has enhanced dramatically and there is a great multilateral process going on I have to tell you from a Washington perspective Europe is very confusing council, commission parliament Lisbon treaty, reorientation of powers commissioners, director generals and do we confuse you too? Executive, Senate, House committees, majority leaders minority leaders are also confusing for us but the principles are very similar yes indeed people are represented through certain forms the states are represented through certain forms and there is the permanent executive that actually does the daily job so in that sense I think the EU and the US are very similar in their differences but just on the points mentioned first of all with the EEAS we have a good relationship we will be presiding on the foreign affairs council when it talks about political issues on the first six months of 2014 and I think they have played a good role in coordinating European voice on the issue of the EU transition one thing I didn't mention in my opening remarks as I promised to keep them short is that Prime Minister Samaras being proactive met with Italian Prime Interleta well before the beginning of the presidency and we agreed with the Italians would be the president would be the presiding country in the second semester of 2014 to coordinate more than normal among ourselves through 2014 and with the Italian Deputy Minister of the Economy I'm already working very regularly together and we're discussing issues of the Greek presidency preparing the Italian presidency so the council have an extra level of stability in this transitional year for the other European institutions fantastic yes we have a question good morning my name is Katarina Soku with Greek Daily Kathie Marini thank you Minister for this talk and could you please update us on the structural reforms like a short update on the structural reforms taking place in Greece right now and what's their state given that the Troika and the MFR are focusing quite a lot on the structural reforms going forward and do you do you see like a delay in their dividends being benefiting the economy and when do you expect them to really benefit the economy thank you first of all thank you for the question structural reforms for us is the most critical priority for 2014 as I mentioned before I think that has not been well reported around the world Greece has been already ranked top in the world by OECD in the adoption of structural reforms already and the fact that Greece has already moved 28 places in the World Bank means we've done much more than people give us credit for and I'm not using my interpretation of progress I'm using forms like the World Bank and OECD which believe me they're very tough in their in their calculations we moved already very aggressively with the pension reform the label reform we're moving ahead with privatizations we've already seen that one of the key privatizations closed last week we closed also the gas network although I understand the EU has raised certain issues which create complexity for deep privatization to complete so in a lot of the areas we're moving very fast we've liberalized trades we liberalized markets there's still things to do and I think the task force for Europe recently said that we're doing pretty well in these structural reforms we've seen the public sector contracting substantially in the last three years if you look at total employment in the public sector and there is further steps that we're taking one of the most important steps for the public sector for me is the program we have now to upgrade the quality of the public sector by replacing 15,000 people with more skilled people that we really need in many areas of government we are under resourced in some areas we're over resourced and I think this movement of 25,000 people between departments that need people to departments that have excess people will play a role so I think there's a lot of progress I think it's not well reported around the world based on the assessments of these independent entities I mentioned but clearly we have a lot there's always more things to do but I have to say in certain structural reforms I think we've gone faster and deeper than many other EU countries will dare to do in areas which are important like pension reform for example Thank you Heather Mr. Minister pleasure to have you here in Washington John said ladies with Trilogy Advisors you've already mentioned several different areas of strategic development in the Greek economy you spoke about fossil fuel extraction natural gas and my understanding is potentially significant reserves of petroleum if we can get the equipment down several geological layers and also the software development sector that you alluded to with technology and R&D interest for major companies in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world I wanted to ask also about an analogy between the U.S. and Europe in terms of the baby boomer population and millions of Americans who've migrated from colder climates in the United States to retire in Florida and the Southwest is there is an equivalent vision for Greece to become the Florida of the European Union and to develop a retirement based economy that has been tremendously prosperous for a number of states here in the U.S. relative to other parts of the economy it seems that Greece offers a lifestyle a climate and potentially so many other advantages for that type of a growing sector demographically that no other part of Europe can offer that's what we call a Greek snowbird I think there is potential and Greece moved forward in 2013 in April by liberalizing residency laws and that was a very critical component for a strategy to attract people to come and spend considerable part of the year if not all in Greece and now Greece gives an automatic residence permit for people acquiring property above a threshold of just south of $300,000 and Greece is an entry point to Europe from the east first of all and I think this is a theme that plays well in the area of logistics first of all that's something we didn't mention when you sort of brought all the critical sectors together we've seen companies seeing Greece as their entry point to the EU for their logistics infrastructure I think the same can play very well for people from the region that want a second home within the EU and this after the liberalization of residence permit laws is playing well so I think there is the potential there we have a very friendly environment a western economy western democratic values and the appropriate legal framework now to facilitate people coming in we've seen a lot of interest from developers to develop the appropriate infrastructure because people coming in normally don't want one flat in the middle of a city they want something which is more more complete a sort of retirement village with the appropriate facilities and the appropriate medical facilities and we've seen a lot of interest from developers coming through to build this kind of things so I think yes that's a theme that can play and already attracts the initial investors on a cold day I'll close my eyes and think of Crete and I'm good yes ma'am for me $300,000 well thank you hello good morning my name is Sofia I'm here representing the DCM from the embassy of Portugal and I need to tell you that the timing of your visit actually was a bit misfortune for us because we had your Portuguese counterpart here two days ago and really we would like very much to put you in contact with him Bruno yes Pedro and also Antonio the minister of economy so that is a we were together in Indonesia and he came to Athens a month ago ok perfect that's taken care of already so I would like to address you with two questions one regarding the structural reforms because Greece as well as Portugal needs to underperform a very big challenge on structural reforms Portugal has concluded 80% of the structural reforms calendar on what regards Greece what I would like to ask you is how do you envisage your privatization calendar I am asking you this because we had a very successful IPO to our postal services a week ago and we are now moving forward with a privatization of the transportation sector and the water sector and some others those being the most important so that is the first question the second question is now focusing on your priorities for the EU council first congratulate you for having banking union as a top priority because we do believe that is a very important instrument to reduce the financial fragmentation that affects several countries within the EU most of all the southern countries like Portugal and Greece and what I would like to ask you in that regard is how do you anticipate the difficulties that we all know are going to be addressed in what regards the SRM the single resolution mechanism that as you know last week determined another meeting followed this last ecofin so that is the question how do you anticipate the troubles that we need to face at that level and how do you think you can try to work it out thank you first of all on the issue of privatization the SRM government has increased rather than decreased the scope of privatizations bringing in additional assets that we think will benefit from private ownership and I think a key example that is the railway system which was not in the original privatization program we think that there is a lot of benefit to the economy from privatization it's not the inflow of funds that makes the difference it's the incremental investments to upgrade assets that normally comes together with a new capital ownership we hope for example that one of the key hotels with just privatized will bring incremental investments and we understand that this is the plan from the preferred bidders we're progressing hopefully in the next few weeks with privatization that we're trying for many years to do which is the old airport of Athens and that could be a major catalyst for redevelopment in Athens there's difficulties many times to be fair privatizations are not easy and at the one thing we're trying there's a lot of I wouldn't say there's a lot of priorities that will not always tie well together one priority is of course transparency and fairness of price so we need to get the best price we need to comply with very complicated EU regulations I mentioned before as an example that we have a preferred bidder for the Greek gas network company but now it has to go there's an EU component that may take more time that even the EU anticipated at the beginning or it took a long time for the EU to approve the railway privatizations because there's always legacy issues that need to be cleared with DGCOM so it's not the easiest environment to work with flow of privatizations and I think this flow of privatization will continue in 2014 with regard to banking union it's not an easy topic and we need to find a mechanism to protect European taxpayers from the banking crisis of the past but at the same time create a mechanism that the banks have stability themselves within the depositor base there's a lot of challenges that need to be accommodated I don't want as Presidency to come into the topic you know Presidency should not be very specific on issues discussed within Council under EU tradition but I think that Ecofin will put it as a priority and we hopefully will see a resolution before the change of the Commission I think just on the two finger on the banking union I think what makes this anxiety increases knowing that the ECB is about to conduct we hope very stressful stress test and it may without that SRM and backstopping it may cause market concern about about the health and safety of the largest banks One thing that also needs to be considered a bit more broadly is capital requirements at different stages of the cycle the cross cycle approach we're having is being sort of challenged by many thinkers in the banking sector thinking that economies need to over protect at times of economic growth be more tolerant when already the pressure of an economic downturn has been experienced within the banking books so one of the issues for example now being discussed in Greece as part of the stress test is does Greece still need to have an above market capital requirement where already sort of the sovereign depth has been restructured and the Greek economy has stabilized Absolutely wonderful, I saw a few more hands up I'm trying to give short answers to get the most question You're doing great Wolf Brookman with the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany here in Washington I wonder if you could address a little further the topic of the connection between TTIP and the European Parliament We know the European Parliament is increasingly important and of course now we have elections coming up next year maybe two questions first to what extent will TTIP even come up in the context of European Parliament elections as you probably know in our elections TTIP would probably not even come up in most cases and secondly with respect to comparing the institutional US and European institutional framework what exactly will the role of Parliament be in the final agreement as it is brought to the Council First of all I would not say the Parliament is becoming increasingly important I would say the Parliament is very important Has been will be and will remain very important On Wednesday morning I'm hosting in Athens the International Trade Committee of the European Parliament which are coming to see us to discuss issues that the Greek presidency will be facing in the first semester and on the 23rd of January if I don't get the day wrong I will be in Brussels presenting the presidency priorities to Parliament and being an unanswered older question I would expect to be a very lengthy session We're taking issues raised by Parliament very seriously from the beginning Parliament and Council will just make it a bit clear how does it work the Council which is the Member States give authority to the Commission which is the Executive Arm to negotiate so the regular negotiation is done between the US Trade Representative and his team and the European Commission Commissioner Carl de Guld and his team now when they and they report to Council very regularly in Athens where we're going to have as a key topic of discussion to take the state of play and also the Greek presidency will be inviting senior business leaders and that's an unusual thing for Council to attend Council and present from both sides of the Atlantic both from the US and EU and present to the Council Ministers what are the key issues that the market has versus TTIP took place during the previous round of negotiations at the chief negotiator level so as a Chamber of Commerce you should know that we're taking very seriously not only Parliament but also the stakeholders the chambers, the workers the labour unions, the professional unions and make sure that TTIP meets the market needs so that's something we're going to do on the election topic I don't know if it's going to become an election topic this broad consensus that TTIP is important and that was obviously in Council in Luxembourg when we needed 28 out of 28 states to give the mandate to the Commission we required unanimity and unanimity was achieved and from we'll see also how the trade and INTA the Trade Committee of Parliament has not raised issues against the agreement obviously when we call about TTIP different people expect different things so towards the end of the negotiation where specific chapters will come up in public I'm sure there will be topics for discussion but clearly as I said in my opening remarks a trade agreement it's an outcome of compromise so not everyone will be happy with each and every line of the agreement Hi, thank you Mr President first of all my name is Pietro Masci, I'm an Economist first of all I think that Greece the Greek government and the Greek people congratulated for all the achievement I just think about that three, four, five years ago many if not all commentators and experts were saying not if Greece remain in the Euro but when will leave the Euro and when Greece implode so I think you should be very proud of all the effort, reform, structural reform that you have made and this is not the case in other countries as you mentioned that are in a similar situation there are various questions that I would ask the diaspora the other one of the foreign direct investment the skilled labor but one thing that I would like to see your opinion is how do you reconcile your pro-market attitude, view and structural reforms with a rather pro-government approach that many, pro-government approach that many governments in Europe take including the overall European Union with the central role of the government, intervention, public spending taxation and so on thank you a topic you didn't raise but I just wanted to raise having the opportunity being in CSIS it's about the Euro and I think it's more valuable to make this comment now than if I have made it three years ago the Euro is not a temporary mechanism it's not an instrument that countries have decided to use for a period and then move on as you're moving towards stronger economical and political integration in the European Union countries and this is a said priority for all of us in the Union the Euro has to be seen as an irrevocable arrangement I don't think anyone suggested last month that Detroit should leave the dollar or California should leave the dollar and if anyone suggested that in the US people would look at him with great surprise sort of you can't do that that doesn't happen and because Euro is a younger currency maybe the markets have underappreciated the length that the EU went to protect the single currency if there's sort of at the end of the crisis in 2-3 years we do one pager with key lesson learns I think the number one key lesson learned and a lot of market participants underappreciated and being from the market I would say they bet on the wrong on the wrong outcome they underappreciated the political resolve that the EU, the ECB all the countries had to ensure at any cost that the single currency stands and when Draghi said what is the year ago that I'll do whatever it takes we did whatever it takes so people betting on the wrong side of the Euro up to now and I think they will in the future are betting on the wrong outcome on the issue of reconciliation I think the Greek government is being driven by a pro-market approach we say investments is the key thing for the economy politics is about choices and our choice is we need to have a less regulated environment a private sector driven environment an environment that hails entrepreneurship because not is the right thing because it's the only way to reduce unemployment and return Greek to prosperity so it's a conscious choice we're making and we're saving our choice in every policy junction we come through I'm not sure we have no more hands you've exhausted them you have handled every question and my goodness did you get a lot thrown at you I have to say my one comment as I've looked at the Euro crisis for four plus years I believe the economists and the market underestimated the politics and the power of the political solidarity and I fear European politicians underestimated the economics of a very divergent union and both underestimated each other's force I guess is the most polite way I could say but the fact that Greece as you and others have suggested has overcome enormous challenge and you have inspired me I see a much brighter future and information that I wasn't aware of so thank you for your powerful presentation I hope we are on your itinerary the second time you visit Washington and you can give us an update on TTIP the banking union how Greece is undertaking its structural reform we're so grateful that you were here with us best of luck and in a presidency you're going to be a very busy man for the next six months so we wish you well we wish the government great success and you have a very big and base here in Washington so thank you Mr. Minister thank you so much