Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday, August 20, welcomed the official withdrawal of his country from the European Union's external financial surveillance system - the so-called EU enhanced surveillance of the economy, which has been in place for 12 years, DW reports..

August 20, 2022 is " The release of Greece from enhanced supervision by the EU from August 20 on the eve was approved not only by the finance ministers of the eurozone countries, but also by the EU Commissioner for Economics Paolo Gentiloni.

Greece will remain under surveillance for the duration of the loans, as will other EU states - Ireland, Spain, Cyprus and Portugal - who received financial assistance.

Brussels praised Greece's efforts to ensure economic growth and increase the country's competitiveness. " As he noted, Greece's successes are all the more commendable because they were achieved in a crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine..

In turn, Mitsotakis stressed that even without EU oversight, the mistakes that led to the severe financial crisis in Greece should by no means be repeated.. On the one hand, there will be wage increases and tax cuts, on the other hand, this should not undermine efforts to maintain financial stability, the Greek Prime Minister warned.

Greece has weathered a severe financial crisis that began in 2010 with a debt crisis and, as a result, under pressure from its creditors, has been forced to introduce austerity measures. The Greeks lost about 25 percent of their income in the process..

In August 2018, Greece successfully completed the third external macro-financial assistance program. And now, as Greek Finance Minister Christos Saikouras noted the day before, the country is returning to European standards and is no longer an exception in the eurozone..

It should be noted that the macro-financial assistance to Greece from the EU amounted not to billions, but to hundreds of billions of euros..

The first aid package was approved by the EC on May 3, 2010. By March 2012, the country had received €72.8 billion of the approved €107.3 billion. The second aid package for Greece was approved on March 1, 2012 and included 34.5 billion euros from the first package and an additional 130 billion euros. The second bailout package was provided under additional austerity measures.