PM Mitsotakis on EU summit: Greece, Cyprus proposals were 'imperative, balanced and appropriate'

He said that by agreeing to a hotline mechanism, Turkey had committed to respecting international laws, a point underlined by the Greek National Defense Ministry on Thursday following NATO's announcement. No meeting between defense leaders from the two countries has been set yet, he said, but it is more likely to have the Greek-Turkish exploratory talks begin first "to get a sense of the situation in our relations, and then look at a timetable for political contacts."

Asked to comment about the rejection of the initially proposed text that the EU Council would use as a basis for discussion on relations with Turkey - a part of the meeting's agenda over Thursday and Friday -, Mitsotakis said that Greece and Cyprus made the point that the issue at stake were Europe's strategic interests in their entirety, not just those of Greece and Cyprus. The two countries "convinced our partners that the text changes were imperative, balanced and appropriate," the Greek premier added.

On another issue, of exploratory talks between Greece and Turkey, no specific date has been set, he asserted.

The final text of the Council on relations between the EU and Turkey was agreed upon after hard work, the premier said, responding to a question by the Athens-Macedonian News Agency. "Often, EU member states do not get involved in councils, but just the presidency does - which is responsible for recording the proposals - as well as some member states that retain a special interest and have a special role in relation to these issues."

He affirmed however that Greece and Cyprus "made it explicitly clear that the first text was not acceptable. We tabled many proposals in writing, and most of these I can tell you were accepted. This is something particularly pleasing, because it shows that being on the side of the law means you can convince your European colleagues that what you are saying can be put down on paper as binding decisions, for the entire EU and all member states."

The Council, the Greek premier noted, also referred to an issue that will be on the agenda in the next European Council summit, which relates to a common line on the state of law as a reference point for all EU member states. Mitsotakis was responding to a question related to his meeting with the prime minister of Hungary.

Asked to comment on the coronavirus-related measures, he said it was too early to fully evaluate the success of the measures. He added that the issue of crowded transportation means was discussed as being a common problem in all EU member states. "Everywhere throughout the world it is not possible to maintain social distancing during rush hour," he said.