Mitsotakis at the European Council: no cuts to cohesion, flexibility on energy and a crisis mechanism on migration

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis set out three Greek priorities on arriving at the European Council summit in Brussels on Thursday, October 15: the new Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) for 2028-2034, the cost of energy, and a crisis mechanism on migration. “We have in front of us a European Council with an extremely rich agenda,” he said in a statement published by his office.

“We will not accept cuts”

“Greece is not satisfied with the proposal submitted by the Irish presidency, as it identifies a substantial inconsistency between the ambition of the goals set by the European Commission and the resources it has made available,” the prime minister said. Greece, he added, is one of 16 “friends of cohesion” countries that “will not accept cuts to cohesion policies and the Common Agricultural Policy”.

He expressed the hope that negotiations will close at the December summit, “but our frugal friends will also have to be persuaded that we will not accept further cuts to critical pillars of European policy”.

Flexibility on energy costs

On energy, Mitsotakis said its cost “has fuelled a new explosion in European inflation” and that a European response is also needed. “We will ask for a provision to be included in the conclusions asking the European Commission to examine additional measures, additional flexibilities, so that we can support our citizens and the businesses that need it most,” he said.

He recalled the measures the Greek government has announced for heating oil, noting that he does not expect the negotiations to finish “today or tomorrow”. Energy prices in Europe have soared because of the war with Iran, with the IMF and the International Energy Agency warning of a diesel shortage, as covered in our report on the IMF and IEA warnings.

A mechanism modelled on Evros

The prime minister said he was pleased that the Greek proposal for a mechanism to deal with migration crises has been accepted by the Commission. The recent case, he said, “was very similar to what we saw at Evros in 2020”. As he explained, the mechanism will allow front-line countries, “in very exceptional circumstances, to suspend the granting of asylum and to proceed with mass returns”.

The summit, which ends on Friday, also has Ukraine, enlargement and the Middle East on its agenda, with an emphasis on freedom of navigation.

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides, who had announced that he would raise defence issues, said on arrival that he would stress the importance of the GSI electricity interconnector “and Turkey’s illegal efforts in relation to it”. His Maastricht speech on strategic autonomy is covered in our earlier report. Mitsotakis said recently that the GSI “is no longer only a Greek and Cypriot” project, as covered in our report on his remarks.