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Hay & Menon: European Politics

Greece

Following the establishment of democracy in Greece in 1974, the EC was keen to welcome the country. The negotiation process lasted from 1975 to 1980 and on 1 January 1981 Greece joined the EC. In particular, the EC was keen to stabilize and show unequivocal support for the new democracies that emerged in Southern Europe during the 1970s. This meant that the existing member states were prepared to overlook economic difficulties with Greek accession in order to ensure the success of Greek liberal democracy. Within Greece there was a lack of consensus in support of accession, with a majority of the population actually against membership. One of the main institutional effects of Greek membership of the EC/EU has been the need for it to create a sub-national tier of government, in order to facilitate Greek applications for EC/EU structural funding. This is particularly important for Greece as it was one of the poorer member states following its accession up until the 2004 enlargement. Greece was unable to meet the Maastricht convergence criteria in time to join the single currency at the time of its launch. However, in 2000 it was agreed that Greece had met the criteria, and on 1 January 2001 Greece adopted the Euro.