EU elite gathers in Athens for Greek presidency

Europe's political elite gathered in Athens on Wednesday as troubled Greece officially takes over the presidency of the EU for a six-month stint set to include European elections in May. Police threw up a tight security cordon around Athens city centre ahead of the evening's official opening ceremony for the Greek EU presidency, with protests banned in the area.
Athens assumed the rotating presidency on January 1, as the bloc battles a rise in anti-EU sentiment and Greece itself struggles with recession and social unrest.

Greek Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos has called it "a great responsibility".

The presidents of the European Council and the European Commission, Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso, were in Athens along with the bloc's 28 commissioners who will hold meetings with Greek officials.

Barroso and Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras were to address the press in the afternoon before the ceremony.

Samaras has called it "a presidency of hope."

Greece itself is heading into the new year with some optimism following six years of recession, with Samaras predicting the crisis-hit economy would need no further aid after it exits its bailout programme in 2014.

However, the country is still grappling with a massive debt and a fiscal shortfall which it still needs to address with its EU-IMF creditors.

• Greece's main opposition leftist party Syriza, a strong critic of the government's austerity cuts, has said it would boycott the opening ceremony.

Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras is a candidate for the post of European Commission president on the radical left ticket.

• In addition to helping to organise the May European Parliament elections, Greece is scheduled to hold municipal elections on May 18 and 25.

The Greek polls are expected to bolster anti-austerity parties including Syriza and the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn.

The rotating presidency of the European Union -- designed to share out responsibility among the bloc's members -- has lost some of its importance with the creation in 2009 of a permanent head of the European Council, currently held by Belgian Herman van Rompuy.

Voice of Russia, AFP
voiceofrussia.com
8/1/14
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