'This is Europe' debate in the European Parliament: Speech by Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Prime Minister of Greece, on 5 July 2022

'This is Europe' – an initiative proposed by the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola – consists of a series of debates with EU leaders to discuss their visions for the future of the European Union. On 5 July 2022, the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was the fourth EU leader to address the Parliament since its Conference of Presidents endorsed the initiative on 28 April 2022. Mr Mitsotakis mentioned EU solidarity frequently, in terms of how it had helped Greece during the economic crisis, how Greece could contribute to energy security, and how the EU should support Greece when dealing with migration challenges and relations with Turkey, as well as of the effective impact of solidarity in dealing with the Covid 19 pandemic. Another key theme in the Prime Minister's speech was crisis, and how the EU can better deal with future challenges by learning lessons from its handling of previous crises. One of Mr Mitsotakis's concluding messages was that the EU needs an 'agenda for resilience and development' to respond to major challenges in defence, migration, banking union, energy, coordinated action based on the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the deepening of democracy, addressing fake news, and developing the EU's role in the Western Balkans.