After throwing off the regime of the colonels and restoring democracy, Greece applied to join the European Community in 1975Greece joined the European Community in 1981 because “we didn’t want to see Plato play in the second division”, the head of the European commission Jean-Claude Juncker said this week.This romantic view obscures Greece’s winding path to the European club. After throwing off the regime of the colonels and restoring democracy, Greece applied to join the European Community in 1975. It was not greeted with open arms. Although supporting Greece’s membership bid, the commission said Greece’s entry would “pose serious problems for both Greece and the community”. France was worried about the impact on farmers, Germany about cheap migrant labour and everyone feared getting embroiled in Greece’s dispute with Turkey. It didn’t help that leaders had only just emerged from renegotiating membership terms with the UK. Continue reading...
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