With reference to the Action Plan on Bilateral Cooperation signed by the Greek and German Foreign Ministers in Athens on 4 December 2016, the sixth round of consultations at State Secretary level took place in Athens on 30-31 May 2024.

Both sides reiterated their commitment to enhance their bilateral relations and to work jointly for a stronger and united Europe. To this end, the German Federal Ministries competent for Foreign Affairs, Economic Affairs and Climate Action, for Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer protection, for Food and Agriculture, for Housing, Urban Development and Building and the Greek Ministries competent for Foreign Affairs, for Environment and Energy, for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection, and for Rural Development and Food acknowledged the good progress made in bilateral cooperation since their last consultations in May 2022 and agreed on perspectives for the work ahead.

We welcome Germany’s participation as an “Honored Country” in the Thessaloniki International Fair 2024, as an additional positive step towards further strengthening and deepening Greek- German economic and business ties.

Greece and Germany held political consultations and discussed the progress and potential of their bilateral relations, as well as regional and international developments, namely Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, the situation in the Middle East, Western Balkans and Eastern Mediterranean.

Regarding European Union’s priorities both countries place much emphasis on enhancing global competitiveness and resilience, implementing and further developing the European Green Deal also as a driver for growth and innovation. This includes the need to spur investments, both private and public, strengthen the EU Single market, remove unnecessary bureaucratic burdens, especially for SMEs and improve the competition framework as well as pursue an ambitious, robust, open and sustainable EU trade policy. Both countries support farming to adapt to climate change. Germany and Greece also place much emphasis on ensuring adequate defence funding. Both sides reaffirmed their support for EU enlargement, in accordance with conditionality and the principle of own merits, and for the parallel EU internal reform process in view of ensuring that Union policies are fit for the future and financed in a sustainable manner, based on the values on which the Union is founded, and that the EU institutions continue to function effectively, in accordance with the December 2023 European Council Conclusions. Moreover, both countries place much emphasis on expanding EU cooperation with third countries to address among others irregular migration.

On Migration, both sides acknowledged the milestone agreement on the Pact on Migration and Asylum and reconfirmed the importance of the Greek-German Migration Dialogue. In this context, it was agreed to continue working together, in preparing for the Dialogue’s 12th Round, to be held in Berlin, on June 14th, 2024.

Greece and Germany enjoy an excellent level of cooperation at the UN and share the same strong commitment to upholding the rules and principles enshrined in the UN Charter also in view of Greece´s candidature as an elected member of the UN Security Council for the period 2025-2026 (elections on 6 June 2024).

Greece and Germany share the understanding that climate-related shocks threaten food security and economic growth and can contribute to displacement and instability. Both sides acknowledge that the common long-term target of the European Union is climate neutrality at latest in 2050. Together we are committed to accelerating the expansion of renewable energies, cross border energy infrastructure both for hydrogen and electricity and flexible demand to make Europe’s energy system fit for the future.

In the field of green hydrogen both sides will continue to collaborate in the context of TSI (Project H2Greece). Moreover, the bilateral cooperation under the TSI umbrella has in the current month been enlarged to the implementation of the emissions trading system 2 and a national social climate plan for Greece (Project CLIMA+).

Both sides express their strong interest in the prospect of establishing stronger and more resilient energy interconnections within the EU. Both sides acknowledge that the green energy corridor between southern and northern Europe across the Adriatic Sea as expressed via the Green Aegean Interconnector (GAI) project merits further consideration.

The General Secretariat for Civil Protection (GSCP - Ministry for Climate Crisis and Civil Protection) has established and developed an extensive network of cooperation with several German authorities in the field of civil protection and disaster management.

It is worth mentioning that over the last few years, Germany has assisted Greece in the outbreak of disasters (forest fires and refugee crisis), the most recent being August 2023 and August 2021. It is worth mentioning that Germany has already participated twice in the UCPM pre-positioning program, sending immediately deployable ground forest fire teams to strategically chosen areas of Greece.

Regarding the agricultural Ministries, also responsible for rural development and food, the following issues were examined aiming to developing bilateral cooperation at the level of exchange of know-how and the strengthening of the cooperation between the two sides:

1. The implementation of agri-environmental measures and ecological programs within the framework of the Common Agricultural Policy 2023-2027.
2. The management of waste from agricultural activities.
3. Carbon management and the circular economy in the context of agricultural activities.
4. Promotion of organic farming and sustainable viticulture.
5. The limitation of gas emissions which contribute to the climate crisis.

Climate change and extreme weather events highlight challenges and shared responsibility in the field of housing, urban development and building. Therefore, the topics of sustainable urban development, climate adaptation in municipalities, resilient urban development and climate-friendly heating, cooling and building were discussed. The field holds great potential for further knowledge sharing and in-depth cooperation.

Both sides have agreed to further strengthen German-Greek relations within the European family and continue this format of consultations.