Will the Greek Presidency bring change to EU economic governance?

On January 1, 2014, Greece put on the EU Presidency coat for the next six months. It is the fifth presidency for Greece since its accession to the European Communities in 1981. Over the last five years, Greece has been hit hard by the crisis and the consecutive austerity measures, pushing Greece not only into a deep economic, but also into a devastating social crisis. The question for us therefore is if the country will be able to use its Presidency to revise the EU’s macro-economic approach to ensure European governance is consistent, by restoring the balance between social and economic governance.

Presenting its Programme and Priorities, Greece sees its priorities for the coming months in a framework of "the promotion of policies and actions for achieving growth, combating unemployment, promoting economic and social cohesion and structural reforms, deepening integration and completion of EMU, as well as addressing external challenges, including the EU enlargement".

The main principles identified by Greece to guide the work of the Presidency are:

  1. Enhancing civic and society engagement in the EU, through policies and initiatives in response to citizens’ everyday problems, concerns and insecurities;
  2. Deepening the Union, especially the EMU; and
  3. Reinforcing EU democratic legitimacy and accountability along with collectivity and solidarity links among Member States, as well as in incrementally constructing European democracy and in expanding civil rights.

The primary aim for Greece is growth, as they consider this a driving force for a sustainable way out of the crisis, and they expect growth to create jobs, strengthen political stability, to correct social imbalances and, reinforce European cohesion. This "growth first" approach, could however disregard the need to have well designed and coherent social policies at the centre of economic governece, as a prerequisite to achieve smart, sustainable and inclusive growth. Such policies are key to re-establishing the confidence of people in the European project.

An initiative is put forward for an investment programme, based on an increase of the lending capacity of the European Investment Bank, targeting actions in countries which register alarmingly high levels in all four social indicators (unemployment, youth unemployment, social exclusion, poverty).

At the next Spring Council, an interim evaluation will be undertaken of the "Europe 2020 Strategy". We hope the Greek Presidency, together with the other member states, will use this opportunity to address the lack of delivering on the Europe 2020 poverty and employment target and will take steps to reverse the worsening situation in these fields in particular. Addressing the ongoing social crisis is also  necessary if Greece wants to fullfil its commitment to devoting special importance to the social dimension of the EMU.

Another important field of action for Greece is migration and mobility. The aim of the Greek Presidency is to concentrate efforts on comprehensive migration management and promoting all dimensions of migration and mobility policies. At the same time, action is envisaged to tackle the problems arising from illegal migration in economy, social cohesion and political stability.

In preparation of the Greek Presidency, Social Platform met with Greek civil society and representatives of the Greek government in December 2013.

2014-01-06