Greece’s historic choice to join the European Union 40 years ago is confirmed today with the understanding that Europe is its natural home and the safest guarantee of its future, European Commission Vice-President Margaritis Schinas said in a message late on New Year’s Eve, ANA reports.
In his message in Greek, Schinas noted that besides Greece’s 200th anniversary since the Revolution for Independence began in 1821, the year commemorates “another historic achievement of the Greeks, perhaps the greatest since 1821: the 40 years since Greece’s acceded to United Europe, which changed the country’s fate and definitively placed Greece in the first tier of European integration.”
Citing the country’s progress as an EU member, Schinas said “the last 40 years comprise the longest time of peace, democracy, and prosperity that Greeks came to know” and established Greece’s borders as those of Europe “before uncertain and dangerous neighbors.” The EU (then EEC) also helped rural Greece, infrastructures, and health and education sectors develop “with colossal funding” and supported the country at critical points when others turned their backs on it. “It opened unprecedented mobility and educational opportunities for thousands of young people,” he added.
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