Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis stressed the need for boosting coordination at European level to tackle the economic crisis during the European Union's extraordinary summit in Brussels on Sunday.
According to Athens News Agency, Karamanlis said that many European economies are going through a recession and are being faced with considerable problems in the monetary sector. "Indeed, we are experiencing the most serious crisis in the postwar era," he said.
Karamanlis pointed out that social problems created cannot be ignored and stressed the need for helping the sectors of the population that are worst hit by the crisis, Xinhua reported.
He said that a return to protectionism must be avoided, adding that this could jeopardize a great deal of what Europe has achieved so far.
The Greek Prime Minister placed particular emphasis on the need to protect such economic sectors as the car industry, tourism and shipping. He further said that problems facing the real economy were discussed, as well as the issue of strengthening the supervision of Europe's monetary organizations and foundations.
As regards employment, he noted that all the tools at the EU's disposal must be utilized, starting from the European Social Fund.
He acknowledged that the economic crisis is dealing a blow to Greece, just like to all the European countries. He put forward three main priorities for the Greek government, which are boosting growth, fiscal restructuring and supporting the financially weaker citizens.