Greece leaves the crisis behind it, Greek PM says to EU leaders

Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis intends to strike an optimistic tone about the country’s future ahead of his scheduled meetings this week with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

According to government sources, Mitsotakis will assure European leaders that Greece is returning to normality and growth largely due to his government’s tax investor-friendly programme.

The Greek PM is scheduled to meet the German chancellor this Thursday where he is expected to outline his plan for growth, which will include lowering taxation for businesses to 24% in 2019 and 20% in 2020. These measures will be in the draft bill to be tabled in September, after the impact on state revenues of recent favourable measures for debt has become apparent. According to the aide, the Prime Minister considers that the implementation of an investment-friendly development plan will strengthen the government's arguments for lowering primary surplus targets, since the target for this year has not changed.

A government source noted the recent agreement reached during Mitsotakis' meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron concerning Greece's return to economic normality through an investment-friendly plan for growth and the Prime Minister's focus on a return to normality in the day-to-day life of the Greeks.

"Simply the fact that the Prime Minister carried out a one-day trip to Paris - a trip lasting seven hours in total - and then went to Mati at 9:00 the next morning is indicative of his philosophy of government," the aide said. He noted that the Prime Minister was informing everyone he talked with in Europe that Greece has exited both the economic crisis and the populist crisis, while emphasising his determination to proceed with a strict implementation of the programme on which he was elected, in order to generate growth, new jobs and to promote front-loaded reforms for the recovery of the country and a lean, efficient state.