ATHENS – Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, addressing the online Cabinet meeting held on Wednesday, referred to the chain reactions triggered by the conflict in Ukraine and the need for bold and coordinated solutions to address them.

He underlined that the “struggle for peace and legality should be primarily combined with initiatives, bold initiatives, for the defence and energy policy of Europe”.

Mitsotakis pointed out that “the government is moving on the domestic front but at the same time is also moving within a European framework, as well as in Greece’s neighbourhood.”

He reiterated the government’s commitment to supporting enterprises, households and farmers for as long as the crisis in energy continues, adding that “in the next 10 days, I believe we will be in a position to announce and initiate an additional full support programme using national and European funds”.

Apart from the government’s actions at home, Mitsotakis referred to the six-point plan which he presented in a letter to the European Commission, to regulate trading prices in the wholesale market for natural gas, where the normal market rules of supply and demand appeared to no longer apply. He noted that prices had skyrocketed speculatively, despite the fact that there was no real problem with the production, quantity and supply of fuel, with the crisis in Ukraine as a pretext.

Referring to his imminent meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday in Istanbul, Mitsotakis noted that he will travel to Turkey on Sunday with a desire to be productive, even more so given that both countries are already concerned over broader regional issues.

Mitsotakis also made a special reference to the bill for restructuring primary healthcare, as well as developments concerning the pandemic, noting that “we must continue to observe the main protection rules and obviously we will continue to insist on the necessity of continuing the vaccination programme”.