Remarks by President Donald Tusk after the European Council meeting
20 March 2015
Good afternoon. Yesterday evening, and early this morning, I hosted an informal meeting with Prime Minister Tsipras, Chancellor Merkel, President Hollande, President Juncker and President Draghi. Eurogroup President Dijsselbloem was also there. The meeting was requested by Prime Minister Tsipras to discuss the current situation in Greece. This morning I debriefed the European Council on the outcome.
This was not a meeting to take decisions, but to have a reality check. And to avoid misunderstandings at the highest political level. We had a constructive and honest exchange on the way forward. As we made clear in our joint statement last night, we are fully committed to the Eurogroup agreement of the 20th of February. And we agreed, in the spirit of mutual trust, to speed up the work and conclude it as fast as possible. I believe this was an important meeting, in which we managed to rebuild trust. It is now up to all of us, not least Greece, to live up to that.
This morning we had a discussion on the European economy with the participation of the President of the ECB Mario Draghi. The economic outlook for Europe is clearly improving. Leaders endorsed the main pillars of the Annual Growth Survey: investment, structural reforms and fiscal responsibility. We noted that work on the European Fund for Strategic Investments is going well. On TTIP, we had a good exchange and stressed that the European Union and the United States should make every effort to reach agreement by the end of 2015.
Events in the southern Mediterranean are dangerous for Europe. We condemned the appalling terrorist attack in Tunis this week and agreed to intensify cooperation with Tunisia in order to counter the terrorist threat, to strengthen its promising democracy and to assist its economic and social development.
We remain committed to Libya’s transition and the work of UN Special Representative, Bernardino Leon. There must be an immediate and unconditional ceasefire, and rapid agreement on a Government of National Unity. When agreement is reached, the European Union stands ready, along with other international and regional partners, to support its implementation.
I am convinced it is vital to continue talks about what more we can do, together with our southern neighbours, to stabilise the whole region. I will visit Tunisia, Malta and Italy before the end of March. I have invited the High Representative Federica Mogherini to join me.
Source: http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/meetings/european-council/2015/03/19-20/
The editorial team of Katoikos
