Avramopoulos wants joint effort to pull eurozone out of crisis

Defense Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos expressed concern, in an article in Sunday’s Kathimerini, about violent protests in Egypt, social upheaval in Turkey and the risk of social instability in the eurozone.

In a piece referring to the broadening of social protests against austerity policies in southern Europe, Avramopoulos pointed to the «revival of debate regarding a multi-speed Europe.» Such a development would «push Europe backwards» and make it all the more difficult for the bloc to emerge from a broadening economic crisis, he wrote, calling instead for «a dynamic move forward aimed at exiting the crisis based on a common decision by all toward closer convergence» and noting that such an initiative could put the eurozone back on the path to economic stability and growth.

Avramopoulos also expressed concern about upheaval in nearby Egypt and in neighboring Turkey where he referred to «an extremely difficult and unstable political situation with indications of more general instability.»

The minister said Greece’s assumption of the rotating presidency of the European Union in January 2014 would be an opportunity for the country to «return to the fore on a geostrategic level» and to make an essential contribution to the rejuvenation of the transatlantic alliance.