Greece met the challenge of the rotating six-month EU presidency at January 2014 with its economy and politics in turmoil. Nonetheless, the country met the challenge and is ready to hand over the presidency to Italy today.

Specifically, during Greece’s presidency, there were 267 luncheons and dinners attended by 21,756 officials at venues such as Zappeio, the Acropolis Museum and restaurants around the Acropolis. During the entire six months there were 496 translators to and from 23 languages. The country’s police force drafted 13 business plans, used 161 patrol cars, 15 motorcycles, two helicopters, 12 magnetic gates, seven screen devices and 30 metal detectors.

There were 160 councils held around Greece, with 45 of them being in Athens with a total of 12,000 people attending and 21 of these had MPs participating. Furthermore, there were 1,400 councils and meetings in Brussels.

Overall, there were a total of 6,000 offical overnight stays – most during the off-peak tourist season.

Greek Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Evangelos Venizelos was the politician that holds the record for 58 flights over teh six-month presidency, whereas Prime Minister Antonis Samaras had only 14 flights on account of the fact that he welcomed most of the dignitaries in Greece.