Closing the Gap

Abstract

There had been a near-stalemate in 1977. In the first half of 1978, by contrast, a favourable confluence of five external events helped to create the necessary preconditions for the Nine and the Commission to move forward on the negotiations with Greece. Progress was also abetted by a fresh European tour by Karamanlis. This helped the Greeks to realise that the negotiating strategy that they had used up to then had undermined rather than enhanced their hopes for speed. They realised too that only by exhibiting efficiency at the technical level would they be able to transform the political ‘yes’ that their application had received into real progress on the details of the negotiations.