Letter to the President of the European Commision, Jose Manuel Barroso

PRIME MINISTER’S
PRESSOFFICE
Athens, 5 August 2011

Dear President,

I would like to thank you very much for your letter dated August 3, 2011.

I totally agree with you on the importance of the decisions taken in the meeting of the Heads of State/Government of the Eurozone countries, on the 21st of July. Provided these decisions are implemented in a timely and effective way, they will equip us with all those institutional and financial tools necessary for tackling swiftly the Eurozone public debt crisis.

I also share your view that recent developments mainly reflect an increasing scepticism about the systemic capacity of the euro area to respond to the ongoing crisis. This is exactly why I believe that, besides the immediate implementation of the decisions taken on the 21st of July, it will take us a constant effort of further institutional enhancement, so that we always are ahead of developments and not behind them.

Finally, I would add that, the decisions having been taken by the leaders, the appropriate European institutions as well as member-states should proceed now to action and, in particular, the national parliaments, where that is necessary.

Mr. President, I wish to convey my conviction that we will decisively act to that effect, as we have done so far, on these critical, for Greece and Europe, issues.

Yours sincerely,
George A. Papandreou