Finance Minister, Harris Georgiades, said on Monday, upon his arrival at the Eurogroup meeting, in Brussels, that the new Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, has the knowledge to fulfill his difficult mission and that fiscal consolidation must be combined with growth support.

In particular, the Minister of Finance said: "I would like to congratulate the new Greek government and the new Prime Minister. I think the Prime Minister is aware that this will be a difficult mission, but on the other hand I am sure he has the knowledge and experience to lead this effort -  lead Greece even further ahead."

In relation to achieving and maintaining the primary surplus target of 3.5%, the Finance Minister replied: "the important thing is always to have a way of combining fiscal consolidation with growth support. The fiscal consolidation I think should guide the decisions of each member state and of course Greece".

Invited to comment on the progress of the discussoins on the establishment of a Deposit Guarantee Mechanism, Haris Georgiades stressed that "I can not be satisfied with the very slow pace of progress in relation to this issue that must be complemented by the European banking union."

The Minister stressed that "the European banking union will be incomplete without this common deposit-guarantee scheme, and consultations should proceed without delay."

We have failed as an EU to stick to successive timetables on this issue, we have already been delayed, he noted.