At a forum in Slovenia, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis expressed his disagreement with the positions of the President of the European Parliament, David Sassoli, who expressed his strong dissatisfaction with the outcome of the Summit, which discussed the European reaction to the developments in Afghanistan.
Sassoli said, among other things, "We are very disappointed with yesterday's conclusions of the Council of Interior Ministers. We have seen non-EU countries come forward to help Afghans seeking asylum, but we have not seen a single Member State do the same. We all rightly thought of all those who worked with us and their families, but no one had the courage to offer shelter to those whose lives are still in danger. "We can not pretend that the Afghan issue does not concern us, because we participated in this mission and shared its goals and aspirations."
The answer of Kyriakos Mitsotakis:
I have heeded what David (Sassoli) said and I agree with him on the ambitious reform agenda of the European institutions. But let me disagree with David (Sassoli) 's assessment of the decision taken yesterday by the European Council at Ministerial level on Afghanistan. What we said was clear: We do not want a repeat of the uncontrolled mass flows we experienced in 2015. I am defending this decision, representing a country that has fallen victim to a policy that at the end of the day highlighted the significant weaknesses of European institutions and we have not been able to reach an agreement on a common Immigration and Asylum Pact.
However, we agree that we must protect our borders, and we must do so in a disciplined way that is governed by principles, with the utmost respect for international law. But at the same time we must recognize - as Europe and as European institutions - that we must learn from our mistakes. I think what happened in 2015 was wrong. We recognize it openly. We face the need to support the refugees, close to the source of the problem, that is, close to Afghanistan. And we are sending a clear message to illegal immigration networks and those who are taking advantage of human suffering and despair that they cannot repeat what they have done systematically in recent years. So let me, David, disagree with this aspect of your speech.
The first round of the debate, which was also attended by the President of the European Council Charles Michel, the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, the Vice-President of the European Commission for Democracy and Demography Dubravka Šuica and Janez Janša, the Prime Minister of Slovenia (which holds the 6-month Presidency of the Council of the European Union), panelists were asked to answer the question "what is the role of politics".
Kyriakos Mitsotakis stated:
The policy for me is to be a manager and a leader at the same time. We are constantly called to solve problems and face crises, big and small. At the end of the day, we must bring the results that our citizens expect from us. Being a leader means first of all telling the truth and, sometimes, making decisions that are not popular.
We are in this job, because we have to make decisions that many others would not want to make, fearing the consequences of choices. Being able to distinguish what is important and what is less important, looking to the future in the short term, but at the same time achieving a balance in terms of long-term strategic goals, is the job of the politician today.
Towards the end of the discussion, Kyriakos Mitsotakis noted:
If one listened to this debate without knowing much about European politics, one would conclude that "these people can not agree on anything." But this is not the case. So I want to end with a note of optimism. In the last year, we have achieved a lot. We talk a little about our successes and a lot about our weaknesses: The Covid Recovery and Resilience Fund, the Covid pandemic response, the Digital Certificate, the goal of zero emissions by 2050.
These are great achievements. How did we achieve all these goals? Because we have the capacity as Member States to take a step back, when needed, to then make a leap into the future. So for me, Europe is the art of making small compromises to achieve ambitious goals. This is, in my opinion, at the core of the perception that together we are stronger.
If in a process that requires unanimity - and Charles knows very well what we are talking about and how difficult it is - we think only of the priorities of our nations - states and do not see the big picture, we will have lost the essence in a rapidly changing world .
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