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Greece plays up progress as it takes on delicate EU presidency

08 January 2014 20:06 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Greece took over the presidency of the European Union on Wednesday and chose the moment to deliver a staunch defense of its efforts to recover from six years of recession and two bailouts that have cost it more than 200 billion euros, APA reports quoting Reuters.

Meeting Brussels-based journalists as Athens took on what is largely a ceremonial EU role for the next six months, Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos and Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras were quick to highlight nascent signs of recovery, with forecasts for the economy to grow marginally this year.

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras delivered a similar message, while all of them trod carefully around the possibility that Greece will need another loan or else have to write off or renegotiate a portion of its vast debts later this year.

Since it emerged in late 2009 that Greece had fiddled its statistics, the country has received two rescues totaling 240 billion euros - more than its annual output - from the EU and International Monetary Fund, and flirted with leaving the euro.

To try to put the economy back on a stable footing, the government has slashed spending, cut public sector salaries and pensions, raised taxes and begun to sell off state assets, enforcing a dramatic and deeply unpopular internal devaluation.

"No other country during peacetime has achieved as much as Greece has achieved since 2009," Stournaras said when asked what specific steps he had taken to make the economy competitive again after six years of contraction.

"People should this year begin to feel the impact in their pockets and in their everyday lives."

Asked if it was not essential for Greece to write off some portion of the money loaned to it by the EU and IMF to have any chance at a sustained recovery, both Venizelos and Stournaras demurred, while Samaras played up the signs of improvement.

"Greece, after huge sacrifices, is able to say that it is leaving behind the crisis," he told a joint news conference with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

Ahead of the arrival of Barroso and the rest of the members of the European Commission, police and paramilitary units sealed off the centre of Athens and demonstrations were banned to prevent any disruptions to the launch of the presidency.