Europe needs to reach an agreement on Recovery Fund soon, Varvitsiotis says

The EU needs to overcome the resistance of the so-called 'frugal four' and reach an agreement soon on a Recovery Fund to alleviate the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, Alternate Foreign Minister Miltiadis Varvitsiotis said in statements to Skai television on Saturday from Brussels, where he was accompanying Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to the crucial EU summit to hammer out a deal on the vital virus aid package.

The minister noted that the 'frugal' camp of northern states had "tightly sewn up their wallets and were refusing to make any sort of concession", blocking any agreement.

"It is a mechanism that is counter to reason," he noted. "We cannot let the July period go by and enter into August. It is something that Kyriakos Mitsotakis has said from the start. The pressure that will be brought to bear from the markets on the euro zone will be massive."

He said that European citizens expected a deal and what was needed now was for Europe to display a strong spirit of solidarity.