Stagnation

Abstract

After spending the first six months of 1977 in official negotiations to establish what were, essentially, procedural requirements, the rest of the year was taken up with actual bargaining but very limited progress was made. Through the course of the year, the Greeks came to realise, gradually, that their original assumptions about the speed and nature of the negotiations had little correlation with the reality of the Community’s internal politics, nor indeed with the substance of what the Nine put on the negotiating table. They also found out, to their dismay, that the real negotiations took place among the Nine and not between Greece and the Nine. Domestic concerns and electoral politics within the existing member states, France above all, became crucial factors in determining what would be discussed, when and how. What was to be even worse to the Greeks was their realisation that the formal Iberian applications for EEC membership in 1977 would inevitably complicate the enlargement question. This exacerbated the fears of the Community over the repercussions of what was looking increasingly like a Southern European enlargement rather than just the welcome of a lone Greece.