World Report

Greece is backing the efforts of its neigbours including those of its old rival Turkey to move closer to the EU

Greece has received major funding from the EU to help develop its infrastructure

reece has been committed to the European Union for almost a quarter of a century, joining the European Community, as it then was, in 1981. Strengthening Greece’s role within the EU and maximising the advantages of its participation constitute Greece’s prime strategic goal.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Petros Molyviatis says: “Participation in the European Union, for over twenty years now, constitutes the basic grounds for the strong position Greece has today in the international community, in Europe, and in our wider region.”

Greek exports hit record levels in 2003, reaching 12 billion euros (£8 billion) for the year, a rise of 28 per cent, according to the Panhellenic Federation of Exporters. The country’s principal export destinations are its fellow EU-member states German and Italy, the UK and France.

Greece is a major beneficiary of funds from the EU, which has provided huge sums to help the country to modernise and develop its infrastructure ahead of the Olympic Games; in 2003 EU transfers accounted for almost 3 per cent of GDP.

Greece’s success in reducing budget deficits and inflation were key factors in enabling it to join the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU) in January 2001. A year later the euro replaced the drachma. Participation in EMU has provided Greece with a stable economic and financial environment, although the cost of the Olympic Games has recently put the country’s commitment to balancing its budget in line with the growth and stability pact under strain.

Both major parties support the idea of a more federalist union

In the first half of last year Greece successfully held the EU presidency at a time when the EU was in the process of completing the largest expansion in its history. Greece believes that the European perspective is a path to peace and prosperity for the wider region and actively supports the efforts of its neighbours towards closer relations with the EU.

Greece’s isolated geographical location as currently the only member state on the Balkan peninsular appears to imply the eventual extension of an integrated Europe to the southeast. The EU has already backed a target date of 2007 for Bulgaria and Romania to join and Greece has declared its support for Turkey’s membership bid.

Relations between Greece and Turkey have improved enormously in recent years, although the problem of the divided island of Cyprus, which joined the EU in May, remains to be solved. “It is our hope that Turkey’s European perspective and the progress on the Cyprus issue will act as catalysts for the further improvement and eventual normalization of our relations,” says Mr Molyviatis.

“We believe that a democratic Turkey, oriented towards a European future and the opening of accession negotiations with the Union, will be a European neighbour with whom we will be able to develop relations of real cooperation in the mutual interests of our peoples.”

Support for the EU is strong in Greece, and voter turnout in the recent European elections, at 62 per cent, was well above the European average. Both New Democracy, which won 43 per cent of the vote, and their socialist rivals PASOK are staunchley in favor of a more federalist Europe.