growth and the real economy, strengthening
SMEs with the aim of stimulating job creation.
This means policies that promote innovation,
transport, shipping and tourism, and policies that
increase the competitiveness of Europe’s real
economy. One of our goals, for instance, is to
point up and strengthen the role of the European
Investment Bank, which must play a key role in
funding basic infrastructure, networks and energy
projects.
Our second priority is to deepen the European
and euro zone economic governance institutions,
thereby safeguarding our own currency. The
great challenge of these six months is to promote
the banking union and the proposal for a single
European deposit guarantee scheme, so that
every European citizen can know that their sav-
ings are secure.
Third among our priorities is the protection of our
common European borders –including the man-
agement of legal immigration and confronting
illegal migration– in tandem with the promotion,
in this area, of responsibility of fair burden-sharing
among the member states. Following the
Lampedusa disaster –which tragically drove this
issue into the foreground– we are working close-
ly with the European Commission and the
Mediterranean countries of the European South
to develop effective and humanitarian initiatives
and policies.
Finally, our horizontal priority, which runs through
all of our other priorities, is the development of a
comprehensive European maritime policy that
promotes blue growth, tourism, alternative energy
sources, fisheries, maritime special planning, and
the exploitation of maritime zones.
The Hellenic Presidency of the Council of the EU
will be frugal in execution, making optimum use
of the state’s existing infrastructure and human
resources. It will be a Greek and European suc-
cess, and a welcome and vital opportunity to
burnish Greece’s image. It will be a presidency
that brings to the top of the European agenda all the
issues of pressing concern to European citizens
and the actors of our real economy, who are look-
ing to European leaderships for policies that pro-
mote growth, social cohesion, and the safeguarding
of the European social and economic model.
Trade with Greece
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