Two German MP’s of the ruling party, citing the high cost, asked for Greece’s resignation from the EU presidency.
“Greece should resign from its scheduled presidency for 2014,” the two MP’s of the CDU and FDP parties said, arguing that the six-month Presidency will cost about 100 million euros to Greece.
Klaus-Peter Willsch from the Christian Democratic Party stated to Bild newspaper that, “Greece should ask the European Commission to postpone the Council Presidency, otherwise there will be need of another assistance package.” Frank Schäffler from the Liberal Party stressed that, “Greece should voluntarily resign from the presidency.”
On September 18, the head of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, Hans Svoboda posed this issue in response to Pavlos Fyssas’s murder. As he said, if the Greek government and the Greek Prime Minister, Antonis Samaras do not stop the hateful behavior of Golden Dawn and other fascist groups, “this will be an unacceptable EU presidency and will not bring any progress in Europe or Greece.”