Integration and Convergence: Lessons from Greece’s Experience in the European Community

Despite the preponderance of political and strategic considerations in the decision to enlarge the European Community to include three new members from Southern Europe, the core of the academic writing, research and newspaper discussion has concentrated principally on the economic dimensions of this second enlargement. The concern regarding the economic consequences of enlargement — particularly among the nine other members of the European Community —focused on four main issues. First, the three Southern European countries appear to possess comparative advantages in activities which are declining and problem-ridden in the rest of the Community, notably textiles, clothing, steel and shipbuilding. One would then expect that as the customs union and other common policies are extended to the new members, a relative southward locational shift in these industries is likely to take place. Such developments are likely to pose a number of problems to the rest of the Community. Second, in the field of agriculture, fears have been expressed that surpluses of southern Mediterranean products were to be added to the already existing structural surpluses of northern products. Third, all Southern European countries have been regarded as potentially more demanding on the Community’s funds thus aggravating even more the fiscal crisis of the EEC.