Greek ministers strike a positive note at start of presidency
Antonis Samaras Economic performance Evangelos Venizelos Greece Lithuania
Toby Vogel in Athens
greek ministers strike a positive note at start of presidency finance minister says country is on the path to recovery.
https://www.politico.eu/wp-content/themes/politico/assets/images/favicon/favicon.ico
POLITICO
The Greek government sought to project a positive image as it opened its term in the rotating presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers. “We are assuming the presidency not as a country in crisis but as a country that is back on the path to recovery,” Yannis Stournaras, the Greek finance minister, told reporters in Athens yesterday (8 January).

Greece took over from Lithuania on 1 January and formally opened its term with a ceremony in Athens yesterday evening. The Greek government held a meeting with the college of European commissioners in the afternoon. The event was held amid tight security, with riot police deployed as protests were banned in the city centre.

Stournaras said that Greece had achieved a primary surplus last year and improved its competitiveness rate. He predicted that its economy would grow by 0.6%, in line with predictions by the European Commission. “We have completely eliminated the causes of the current crisis,” he said.

Evangelos Venizelos, deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs, sought to quash expectations that Greece will need assistance later this year to service its debt. “We’re not asking for anything with regard to our debt,” he said. “All this mythological discussion about a haircut, about European taxpayers at risk, is erroneous and rather insulting for Greece,” he said.

Venizelos, who is also leader of the centre-left Pasok, the junior partner in Greece’s ruling coalition, said: “Greece is doing well. The [assistance] programme is paying off and we’re repaying our debt. No member of the eurozone has suffered any losses due to the assistance provided to Greece. Not one single European citizen has paid for that.”

Stournaras said that, in the view of the markets, a reduction in interest rates or delayed maturity for loans were better ways of reducing the cost of servicing debt than a haircut. He put the figure of the “financial gap” for 2014-15 at €11 billion but said it was too early to judge whether this would require a third loan package from the EU.

The troika of international lenders – the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund – are scheduled to hold talks in Athens next week; Greece hopes to secure an agreement on the next steps within weeks. Stournaras said that negotiations had been “very difficult” because they involved “very sensitive questions” of a social nature. “The troika represents the lenders, so it’s a necessity to negotiate with them and that’s what I’m doing,” he said.

The Greek government is nervous ahead of elections to the European Parliament in May, when Greeks will also elect new representatives at municipal and regional level. Syriza, a far-left party, and right-wing extremists are both expected to do well in the elections to the European Parliament. A bad result for the two parties of the ruling coalition – the centre-right New Democracy of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras and Pasok – would undermine the coalition’s ability to govern, and might prompt an early election.