Greece marks 36 years of EU membership on May 29

Friday marks the 36th anniversary of the signing of Greece’s membership in the EEC, the precursor of today’s European Union, by then Greek PM Constantine Karamanlis, the country’s pre-eminent statesman in the second half of the 20th century.
It’s difficult to imagine if the elder Karamanlis and his coterie of close aides and confidants could have imagined the political and economic quagmire that their beloved country finds itself in 2015.
Negotiations between Greece and the EEC began in earnest in 1976 and were concluded in May 1979. The accession agreement was ratified by Greece’s Parliament a month later, on June 28, 1979.