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Cash-strapped Greece to host 'spartan' EU presidency

02 December 2013, 21:08 CET
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(ATHENS) - Greece, struggling to emerge from a four-year economic crisis, will host a "spartan" six-month EU presidency starting January, the deputy foreign minister said on Monday.

"We have taken fully account of the special financial framework that we are operating in...we are going to have a very spartan presidency," deputy foreign minister Dimitris Kourkoulas said in an interview with AFP.

In its fifth EU presidency since joining the bloc in 1981, Athens plans to host 14 ministerial meetings and another 120 related gatherings in the first six months of 2014.

The overall cost is calculated at 50 million euros ($68 million) but the foreign ministry hopes to eventually return part of the money to state coffers, said Kourkoulas, who formerly headed the European Commission mission in Bosnia.

Recession-hit Greece has a challenging time ahead -- its presidency coincides with European Parliament elections in May and municipal elections in which the local neo-Nazi party could make major gains, despite an ongoing probe into alleged crimes by its leading members.

Athens is also conducting delicate negotiations with its so-called troika of international creditors -- the EU, IMF and European Central Bank -- to unblock access to pending loans.

Launched in September, the latest troika audit has been delayed owing to unresolved differences on how to bridge a looming budget shortfall next year.

The talks are now expected to run to the very eve of the presidency, and Greece's fragile government coalition could be pressed to make further unpopular cuts that will test its cohesion.

However, Kourkoulas insists Greece will be able to meet its obligations to the full, and the six-month presidency will mark a turning point for the country, which is already seeing signs of economic improvement.

"There is no doubt that we are in the middle, or at the end hopefully, of a very big crisis. But the capacity of the country and the capacity of the government, the administration, to cope with challenges is intact, it is there, it has not been destroyed or undermined," the deputy minister said.

"I have no doubt that Greece will be able to respond to its obligations during the presidency," he said.


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