Greece is not going to accept the strict European Union conditions on the usage of the coronavirus or COVID-19 emergency aid, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Financial Times newspaper in an interview that got published on Sunday.
"Greeks have matured a lot. And we want to do our own reforms", he was quoted as saying in the interview. A six-monthly review of the economic performance done by the European Commission was enough and there was no requirement of any additional strict conditionality, the pm mentioned.
Greece Not to Accept Strict EU Conditions
The prime minister told the FT that Greece had a very "aggressive reform agenda" that would focus on "the green transition", "the digital transition" and encouragements to investments in part through a privatization program. On Friday, while speaking in parliament, he announced new measures worth 3.5 billion euros ($4.0 billion) to support businesses hurt by a lockdown imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
Greece emerged from a decade-long debt crisis in 2018 and was hoping for strong growth in 2020. But the nationwide lockdown imposed in March to prevent coronavirus infections has turned those expectations upside down. The Greek economy is expected to shrink by about eight percent to 10 percent this year before recovering in 2021.
(With agency inputs)
