“Greece is a great nation, one that we Europeans owe a great deal; Greece is one of the axes of stability in the Balkans,” EU Commission President said during his address before a special Parliament session in Athens on Thursday.
He told Greece’s Parliament deputies and attending political leaders that “we cannot leave Greece alone to manage the migrant crisis”, while also touching on another sensitive issue that has further strained Greek-Turkish relations: the continued incarceration of two Greek soldiers in the neighboring country.
“The two Greek servicemen being held in Turkey must be freed,” he underlined.
In other comments from the Greek Parliament’s podium, Juncker praised what he called the Greek people’s will and perseverance, adding that he is moved by the fact that he is the first Commission president to address “the representatives of a people I so love.”
“Greece can now lift its head and turn a page (in its history). It is opening a new chapter in Greek history; a crucial point for Greece and Europe. Europe without Greece is an incomplete structure. But Greece without Europe would merely be just another country, while in reality it is not any other country,” he said.
In other statements, he also touched on the wider region, saying the western Balkans need a European prospect in order to not repeat the tragedies of the 1990s.
“The Commission has proposed the start of (accession) negotiations with Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (fYRoM); this doesn’t mean that we’ve given a date, nor even an accession date. Everything will be judged objectively. For fYRoM, when I visited in the Parliament there, I said I could not provide a solution. I can only say there is an urgent need to solve the name issue (between Athens and Skopje),” he noted.
Juncker heaped more praise on his hosts by stressing that “Greeks showed the entire world that they know how to make history. They refused to bow their heads, and became architects and not slaves of history. I have always remained a faithful friend of Greece, even when there were populists and demagogues in Europe who wanted the country to leave the Eurozone; I always spoke openly and sincerely to the Greek people, respecting their dignity.”
In concluding his address, Juncker declared, in Greek, “Long live European Greece, long live Greek Europe”.
