Greece's Ministry of National Economy and Finance urges EU-wide industrial policy to create European champions and reports a 4.8% primary surplus

In a speech at the Economist’s “29th Annual Government Roundtable”, Greece’s Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kyriakos Pierrakakis, argued that Europe needs “European champions”, driven by a common EU industrial policy extending to more sectors and by removing barriers at both EU and national level. He framed this as a strategic approach consistent with the Draghi and Letta reports and linked it to Greece’s ability to face geopolitical and structural challenges. He pointed to Greece’s fiscal and macroeconomic results, citing a primary surplus of 4.8% of GDP and an overall surplus of 1.3%, GDP growth of 2.3%, and a continuing decline in unemployment, alongside what he described as fiscal gains from tackling tax evasion. Euronext’s proposal to acquire the Athens Stock Exchange was characterised as a private transaction with strategic significance. Looking ahead, the minister highlighted the MITOS platform (mitos.gov.gr) as a basis for modernising and simplifying public services by codifying processes, legal bases, average time and cost, and process steps, alongside priorities including targeted removal of obstacles, productivity improvement, attracting investors, supporting more mergers and acquisitions, and using the Superfund to drive privatisations and greater outward orientation; he also cited investment rising from 11% of GDP in 2019 to 15.3% and emphasised the EU Recovery Fund’s linkage of financing to reforms such as digitising the land registry and rolling out digital patient records.