Unfortunately, the Draghi Report has no chance of success, it will be a rocket and will be thrown into the waste basket or into some archive in the Berlemont Building”, said Evangelos Mytilineos, President and CEO, in the plenary of the general assembly of the Association of Industries (SBE) of Metlen Energy & Metal and President of the Pan-European Association Eurometaux.
Regarding the Greek economy, he estimated that its future will be judged by the issue of the current account balance, stressing that the fiscal deficit “has not only been reduced, but also with the help of inflation, it has worked very well”. Unfortunately, as he added, the current account deficit is getting worse and this means that the general economy, despite the memoranda and the stricter discipline imposed on us from abroad and the sacrifices of the Greek people, is still not competitive and therefore imports much more than it exports and when balanced it will mean that Greece will have a productivity worthy of the other EU countries. “That worries me more than anything”, he noted.
Greek entrepreneurship deserves ten times more approval, he says, as it survived the extremely difficult environment of the early part of the previous decade and the industry is here and fighting against it.
As for the Draghi Report, what it says – said Mr Mytileneos – “is transcendental. When he talks about around 800 billion euros in investments per year from the public and private sectors, he received the response from the German Vice-Chancellor on the same day, saying that he can forget it. Because without money nothing happens. Almost everything he said is what we, who are friends of Europe, say has little or no chance of happening, because the political union of Europe did not precede it, for every issue there must be unanimity among the 27 Member States”.
He also expressed once again strong criticism of the outgoing Commission under the presidency of Ursula von der Leyen and of Europe’s “green transition”, which, he stressed, will cost several trillion euros to achieve its goals. “The outgoing Commission was elected under the green flag, which has taken us nowhere, it has cost and is costing a lot of money, but the path and the final goal for the vast majority of the population is still unknown. But it is the people and companies who will ultimately have to pay for it,” he added. He also expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the incoming Commission due to political choices in key positions, such as the choices of representatives for foreign affairs in Lithuania and for energy issues in Denmark, and noted the lack of European politicians of the calibre of François Mitterrand and Helmut Kohl, but characterised the choice of Apostolos Tzizikostas as Greek Commissioner as the most ideal. At the same time, he expressed the opinion that the elections in America will play a very important role in the direction of Europe, estimating that if Kamala Harris is elected she will follow the “School of Democrats”, that is, greater extroversion and involvement in international issues.
On the stage of the same event, the Minister of Development, Takis Theodorikakos, stressed that the most secure security for the Greek economy is the strengthening of Greek industry and reiterated that on October 21st the official announcements will be made on the new production model adopted by the Government that will emphasize industry, extroversion and innovation and that at the end of October the emblematic investments to which 170 million euros from the Recovery Fund will be allocated will also be announced. The message that the industry has not felt up to the mark in the production model for several years was sent by the President of SBE, Loukia Sarantis, welcoming this announcement.
Mr. Mytilineos also announced that the Group’s parent company (Metlen) will immediately become a member of the SBE.
