Greece takes over EU Presidency

Anna Sonny, 3 January 2014

Greece has now taken over the rotating EU Presidency, which it will hold until June this year. There has been criticism from left and right about whether or not the debt-ridden country will be able to cope with governing the EU, as it struggles with the ongoing financial crisis and its damaging effects on Greece’s political structures and social fabric.

Things however, do seem to be looking up for the country that was on the brink of exiting the eurozone in 2012; analysts forecast a return from recession and a budget surplus this year. After a bailout package of €110 billion in 2010, another of €130 billion in 2011 and a private sector debt write-off of more than €100 billion, the country finally looks set to leave the bailout scheme this year without needing another aid package as some predicted. This is a big step for the worst hit country of the crisis, where prescribed austerity provoked deep social unrest and scenes of riots became commonplace.

Although in reality the EU Presidency consists of hosting key EU meetings and managing negotiations, it is often hailed as a chance for a country to steer the direction of the EU. Priorities of Greece’s programme will be promoting economic growth, combating unemployment (which in Greece alone is 28% but has stopped rising) and deepening the EMU. Social cohesion and migration policy are also of particular interest to Greece, as its geographic position makes it a gateway to the EU for nearby troubled countries, and streams of refugees place even more pressure on its dysfunctional asylum systems.

Greece will have a busy few months ahead with its own local elections in the spring and European elections at the end of May. The European elections mean that the Presidency will only really last under four months since all legal proposals must be concluded by the end of April in preparation for voting. The election results could present a challenge to the future of the EU; it is widely expected that the rise in euroscepticism across the continent will manifest itself at the polls.