Yesterday, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras addressed the conference Athens Forum Go for Democracy. He highlighted freedom and justice as the core of democracy, and identified social liberalism as the golden mean between the two. "Our challenge is to dare to converge and join forces beyond the narrow confines of stereotypes," he said and stressed that the upcoming EU Parliament elections were a "test for democracy." He further pointed out that Greece had achieved a major fiscal adjustment and had managed to transform its twin deficit to twin surplus in only one year and a half.

Samaras concluded that the EU seeks balance between competitiveness, extroversion but also accountability, transparency and social justice for all that can only be achieved with a dynamic synthesis!

On his part, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos stressed that Europe should attempt to return to its founding values: pluralism, tolerance, competitiveness, innovation and inspiration.

He also added that in light of the European Parliament elections, Europe must find new, more integrated and more original things to communicate to european citizens.