EU Commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker met with main opposition New Democracy (ND) leader Kyriakos Mitsotakis in the afternoon, after arriving earlier in the day in Athens for separate meetings with Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos and Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.
The 40-minute meeting came hours after a historic address by the Commission president in Greece’s Parliament.
According to sources close to the center-right opposition party, two main issues dominated the talks: poll-leading ND’s post-bailout plan and the party’s dedication to legislating reforms and implementing them.
Mitsotakis also reportedly asked Juncker to promote efforts for further debt relief to be extended to Greece, without additional conditions. According to sources, the latter pointed out that debt relief measures, as promised by creditors, are pending since 2012.
In briefly looking to the near future and using Thursday’s meeting as a venue to send a message to Brussels, Mitsotakis reiterated that his party is not committed to a post-bailout growth strategy the government must submit to creditors. He said ND is developing its own growth strategy plan, one based on attracting investment to the country and reducing tax rates.
