Greece assumes the presidency of the European Union Wednesday, starting 2014 with a promise by the government to pull the country out of a six-year recession, keep a balanced budget, and effectively end a financial crisis that rattled the euro.
But concerns remain.
With most of the 240 billion euros ($330 billion U.S.) in bailout loans already paid out, Greece still has an unsustainably high national debt, faces the threat of renewed political instability, and has more than one-in-four jobless and steadily sliding into poverty.
Greeks greeted the New Year after many spent hours lining up in tax offices to pay austerity levies on time. And heavy smog has returned to the country's capital after decades this winter as households left with no heating throw scrap wood and garbage onto the fireplace to try to keep warm.
Greece's financial tailspin wiped out nearly a quarter of its economy and roughly a million jobs. From 7.2% before the recession in 2008, unemployment exploded, reaching 27% in the third quarter of 2013, giving Greece the worst job rating among the 34 advanced economies in the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
More than 70% of the unemployed have been out of work for more than a year, leaving most to rely on charity after losing monthly benefit payments and health insurance.
Worst affected, some say, are those with chronic illnesses, unemployed parents seeking vaccinations for their newborn children, and patients in need of expensive drugs including cancer treatment.
Pro-bailout governments have tried to stimulate employment by slashing the minimum wage and axing long-standing labour rights and market protection rules — liberalizing everything from truck licenses to permits for neighbourhood bakeries.
But unemployment numbers continued to get worse, and critics argue the system remains bogged down in excessive bureaucracy.
Greece is being run by its third pro-bailout government in two years, as unpopular austerity measures wear out public support for the parties backing them. Conservative Prime Minister Samaras heads the current coalition government and has seen his support in the 300-seat parliament dwindle in the past 18 months from 179 lawmakers to 153.
