Kyriakos Mitsotakis briefs EU officials on his program of reforms in Brussels (photos)

Kyriakos Mitsotakis, leader of Greece’s major opposition party New Democracy (ND) presented his plans for Greece to exit the current economic crisis during a series of contacts in Brussels with European officials on the sidelines of the EU Summit. Mr. Mitsotakis agreed to visit Berlin on February 13 in a brief encounter with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the European People’s Party (EPP) meeting in Brussels. The leader of ND stressed that a front-loaded program of reforms with lower primary surpluses could act as a springboard to drag the country of the current depression, while he was critical of the Greek government’s unilateral decisions. “The Greek government’s unilateral decisions strengthened the arguments of those who wanted to cause problems to the completion of the second review of the Greek program”, Mitsotakis stressed. Mr. Mitsotakis also met with the Vice-Presidents of the European Commission Valdis Dombrovskis and Frans Timmermans and Commissioner of Financial and Economic Affairs Pierre Moscovici and laid out his program of reforms. During his contacts, he claimed that the current government had neither the will nor the competence to implement the necessary reforms and lead the country to economic growth. On the pressing refugee crisis, the president of ND argued that although the tide of refugee and migrants flows had been contained, the problem had to be addressed in a more complete way. He also touched on the need to face the challenge of youth unemployment that was plaguing the EU.