ATHENS — "You are making us proud as a country," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said while addressing young Greeks whose "start-ups" won European awards for innovation and enterprise.

The prime minister, who met with them a few days ago at the Maximos Mansion, praised the importance of the young people's success and stressed that, while everything starts with an idea, close cooperation and a lot of work is needed to get to the point of implementation.

"It is very creative for us to see the concept of creative entrepreneurship develop in our schools. I have spoken to many groups of young people who have been involved in this process. You made us proud as a country," he said and added:

"This whole process: how you organise a team, how you think about setting up a business, how you deal with the complexity behind a new product or service. I think that all these are very useful lessons, which will accompany you for a lifetime."

The prime minister underlined that "your own experiences make it easier for us to break through some stereotypes," and added:

"We work together when we want to and when we realise that only through cooperation can we advance our common goals. A team must work together. And I think you have to learn to manage the complexity and diversity of a team, the different ideas, the tensions that can arise, to finally come up with a common component. I suppose you would also have this experience, that not everything goes the way you planned it. There are difficulties, there are different views. You have to find a way to resolve these tensions, differences, and a collective intelligence within the group that is greater than the sum of the individual intelligence of each of you. This is the great beauty of teamwork. One thing is for sure: whatever you choose to do, whatever you choose to study, you will always have to work as a team."

Mitsotakis stressed that "for those of you who finally choose the path of entrepreneurship, I think you will always have very strong experiences. I wish and hope that you pass on these experiences to younger children."