File photo.
National Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said that Greece has not withdrawn its proposal for participation in the European financial instrument for action on security in Europe (SAFE), responding to party leaders’ interventions during his speech on the 2026 state budget in Parliament.
After noting that SAFE is essentially a loan and that Greece proposed programs already included in its armaments plan, Dendias said the proposal’s rise to 2.9 billion euros was due to the country presenting too many alternatives. “Nothing has ended in SAFE. We still have three months to decide which country will participate and where. When we decide, it will come to the armaments committee for approval by the national delegation. For now, SAFE is a ‘matrix’ of possibilities. We wanted to have the widest possible possibility, to choose with whom and on what we will cooperate,” he said.
He added that the responsible commissioner asked Greece to write the sum as the already approved loan and explained that redistribution from unallocated funds could occur. “We wanted to prevent all this. And on this, denying what was written in the Greek press, there was a clear announcement from the EU as to what we have done and how. Please, let’s not rehash something that has been proven wrong. The submission to SAFE was done correctly,” he said.
Dendias also responded to reports to the leaders of New Left, Greek Solution and Niki, saying there was never a request to resubmit the plan. “We changed the ‘cover letter’ regarding the amount. We put the maximum amount, if there is redistribution and if there is SAFE-2,” he said.