elative concept. Greece experienced considerable difficulties in adjusting to this new economic reality; much more so than the two Iberian countries which joined a few years later. Its maladjustment, which lasted for several years, at least partly explains the tensions created with European institutions and partner countries. Greece often asked for exceptions in order to protect its domestic producers; either deliberately or because of administrative inefficiency it was slow in implementing European directives and regulations; and it was sometimes accused of wasting the money spent through EU structural policies. In the meantime, trade deficits kept on growing, financed in part through EU transfers. Macroeconomic instability continued for many years. Tracking the process of compliance with the so-called convergence criteria set out in the Maastricht treaty, the admission ticket to the final stage of EMU, statisticians of the Union had to add little inserts to their graphs on inflation rates, budget deficits and interest rates in order to accommodate Greece, whose figures were for several years way above those of any other EU country.This difficulty in adjusting to EU membership – and international competition as well -requires some explanation. Of course, the challenge facing Greece was a formidable one, given the relatively low level of its economic development compared to that of its new partners and the long history of protection of domestic producers. Adjustment to EU membership was bound to create winners and losers inside the country; and the experience until now suggests that losers (or potential losers) were numerous - and that some of them were politically powerful.An incomplete list of losers from adjustment to EU membership would include a significant part of Greek business, accustomed to external protection and heavily dependent on state favouritism, especially through public procurement contracts. Who said that busine...
