“We will debate amongst ourselves a key topic: growth,” French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said, on 23 May, during the traditional meeting of the members of the Party of European Socialists (PES), which was held a few hours ahead of the informal summit of the EU heads of state and government. “Mr Holland is not alone, he is not isolated” in defending this issue, Ayrault stressed.

In the mind of Irish Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore, “Stability and growth go hand in hand - you can’t have one without the other”. Gilmore added that: “You’re not going to get investment unless there’s stability in the euro, but budgetary discipline alone is not sufficient to get the European economy moving again”. The “recipe” that consists in focusing only on budget discipline does not work, the President of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz (Germany) said. This summit “creates now a lot of expectations and until the end of June, the next summit, we should deliver”.

The Austrian Social-Democrat Chancellor Werner Faymann, who intends to support Hollande on growth, echoed Schulz’s views.

As for the Greek crisis, the former Greek PM, George Papandreou, said that his country “wants to remain in the eurozone”. The head of the Greek Socialist party and former Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said: “We hope that the cooperation, the support, the solidarity of the European Socialists would give the possibility to organise, to sell a consensual framework of common interest to Greece and the eurozone”.

Speaking of this issue, Ayrault also stressed that Greece does not intend to leave the eurozone.