Schäuble: Athens is on the right track with the reforms

When asked if Greece is following the right path in the economy today, Wolfgang Schäuble answered that Athens is in the right track and must continue the reforms in order to gain competitiveness. He stated that he was always in favor of a fiscal and economic union and admitted that the Greek people paid a heavy price, but Greece, like other countries,  should firstly solve its problems in order to gain competitiveness.

In the debate at the 25th Economist Roundtable, Mr. Schäuble criticized the existence of migrant camps in Southern Europe. Responding to this statement, Margaritis Schinas, Εuropean Commission Vice-President for Promoting our European Way of Life, said that “unless we achieve a major European agreement on migration and asylum, we will continue to face conditions like those of Moria and Calais and other abominable phenomena.”

This is one of the few issues on which I disagree with Mr. Schäuble (who participated in the debate through Internet), said Mr. Schinas and explained that “we do not discuss about immigration and camps in a situation of political vacuum or in a sterile environment.” “All these happen due to the fact that we do not have a European immigration policy because some EU Member States are blocking our (European Commission) proposals as they believe that the problem doesn’t matter them.”

“Now I think it’s high time this agreement is made.”, he continued.

Mr. Schäuble ‘s stance on the issue preceded Mr. Schina’s statements.  The German official mainly criticized the European institutions for tolerating this situation and stressed that if we do not discuss these issues, we will not have credibility.

“The biggest challenge in the world is the decline of democracy”

The third person in the debate was the thinker, political scientist and author, Francis Fukuyama, a staff member of the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL) at Stanford University, who “rang the bell” for the global decline of democracy, by characterizing it “The biggest challenge”. He, also, added he was in favor of an alliance of the West against China, with which the cooperation, as he said, should be selective. When asked about the Chinese investments in Greece, he replied that “it isn’t something wrong”, as the Piraeus project is going well and it consists a win-win cooperation.

Mr. Fukuyama accused China and Russia of using the pandemic crisis as a tool and said that many populist leaders who urged their people to defy the pandemic had failed, citing former President Donald Trump’s mismanagement of the health crisis.

“This summer will be better than the last one”

Mr. Schinas stated that Europe had learned from the pandemic that it needed to show resilience to the economy, health integration, security union and the digital transition. In addition, he added that we have a great opportunity to build solidarity, public health and education that withstood the health crisis in order for them to continue to flourish.

The vice president said he was optimistic that this summer we have many reasons to believe that it will be better than the last one.

He admitted that the EU failed to respond to the Covid-19 challenge in the first weeks, but added that today we have the largest vaccination program and Europe is region with the highest vaccination rates globally. He stressed the creation of the Recovery Fund, which is a symmetrical response to the symmetrical challenges caused by the pandemic.

When asked on the different views expressed by the countries of Eastern Europe within the EU, Mr. Schinas replied that with the EU enlargement in 2004 we were called to reconcile history with European geography. Then, he stated that in a few years the new generations of these countries will join the EU value system and the debate we have today will just be an academic one.