“Europe doesn’t have the luxury of time,” emphasizes Eurogroup President and Minister of National Economy and Finance Kyriakos Pierrakakis in a social media post, sending a message for joint decisions and coordinated action on critical economic issues, setting aside national divisions and interests. Meanwhile, Mr. Pierrakakis, summarizing the results of the last two days of meetings in Brussels, noted that “in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN we worked for common solutions that strengthen the European economy under conditions of international instability. Europe doesn’t have the luxury of time”.
Pierrakakis: European action, no “asterisks” and national “exceptions”
In a short video accompanying the post, the minister states: “Having on one hand in mind the great responsibility we have for the sustainability of European businesses and on the other hand the need to protect European households from large price increases, the key word here is the purchasing power of households.”
At the same time, however, he adds that the current situation highlights something that, in his opinion, is much broader: “Europe cannot remain permanently in a state of crisis management. Europe’s strategy must transcend the crisis of the moment”.
The video includes an excerpt from his interventions, in which Mr. Pierrakakis, addressing his European counterparts, points out: “We often say that we all agree with this agenda, but then an asterisk appears with a “but,” where everyone adds a specific exception that concerns them”. However, as the Minister of National Economy and Finance emphasizes in concluding his post, “we don’t have the time. We simply don’t have it.”
