Greek Deputy Foreign Minister for European Affairs Tasos Chatzivasileiou took part in the EU General Affairs Council, which met in Luxembourg on Tuesday and Wednesday, October 12-13.
The Council’s agenda covered critical issues set to be debated at length at the upcoming EU summit on October 15 and 16, chief among them the 2028–2034 Multiannual Financial Framework, which appears to be splitting the European family.
The Luxembourg meetings, which served as preparation for the two-day summit on Thursday and Friday, made clear that the dividing lines remain sharp between the so-called Frugal countries, such as Germany, and the Friends of Cohesion group, to which Greece belongs. At stake is the EU’s seven-year budget, which is expected to be finalized during Greece’s presidency of the Council in the second half of 2027.
With both camps holding firm for now, and Greece consistently backing funding for agricultural support, infrastructure projects, regional investment, and social policy, Chatzivasileiou reportedly urged his counterparts not to let Europe slow its progress at this point. He also stressed that the EU needs an ambitious budget free of across-the-board cuts.
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Addressing his counterparts, the deputy minister also made specific reference to the Greek prime minister’s letter on energy, which called for moving ahead with discussions on immediate measures to support households and businesses across Europe.
Against the backdrop of clashing positions among the ministers responsible for European affairs, the upcoming summit is shaping up to be pivotal. Its agenda is already seen as heavy, covering the Multiannual Financial Framework, energy, enlargement, competitiveness, Ukraine, the Middle East, and migration, among other issues.
In addition to meeting counterparts from the Friends of Cohesion member states, Chatzivasileiou took part in three consecutive intergovernmental conferences on Albania, Ukraine, and Moldova, which assessed each country’s progress toward EU membership, with high-level representation from all three.
The conference on Albania, where the country was represented by Prime Minister Edi Rama, came first, followed by the conferences on Ukraine and then Moldova, both of which sent deputy prime ministers.
On the sidelines of the General Affairs Council, Chatzivasileiou held a bilateral meeting with Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel.
Following Rama’s address at the intergovernmental conference on Albania’s accession process, Chatzivasileiou also had a brief one-on-one with the Albanian prime minister.
Montenegro, however, remains the frontrunner among the candidate countries, continuing to score highest against the EU’s accession criteria.