Introducing Greece

Yá Sas (hello) and Hérete (welcome) to Greece, situated at the crossroads of three continents in the southern part of the Balkan peninsula in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is a beau tiful country, when you get to know it, encapsulated in this quotation from the novelist Henry Miller: ‘In one way or another, at some time or other, we have all been there, even if only in a dream.’

CONSIDERING ITS LOCATION

Greece has a total area in excess of 130,000 square kilome tres and consists of mainland and islands, which occupy approximately 20 per cent of the total area and contribute to Greece’s severely indented coastline of over 15,000 kilome tres. Greece borders on the north with Albania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria and on the north east with Turkey. It is Europe’s closest link to the Middle East. With the European Union operating as a single market, Greece is ideally situated as an entry port to the EU from the Middle East, North Africa and most of the north-east Balkan countries. Greece is surrounded on three sides by sea: the Aegean in the east, the Ionian in the west and the sea of Crete in the south.

EXPLORING THE COUNTRY

Over 80 per cent of Greece’s land space is covered by mountains, the highest of which is Mount Olympus at 2,917 metres in the east central region. The principal mountain range, Pindus, runs north to south in western Greece. Less than 30 per cent of the total land is cultivated. Expansive plains abound in Thessaly and Macedonia and to a lesser extent in the north west of the Peloponnese, a peninsula which was connected to the rest of the mainland by the Isthmus of Corinth. The Corinth Canal, completed in 1893, makes an artificial island of the Peloponnese.

Fig. 1. Map of Greece

Visiting the islands

There are more than 1,400 islands in Greece, but only 166 of them are recognised as ‘inhabited’, although only about 55 of these have permanent communities of any real significance. The islands account for less than 20 per cent of the total area of the country. The largest is Crete followed in size by Évvia. Other well known islands include:

• Aegean

– Lésvos
– Sámos
– Thássos

• Argo-Saronic

– Aegina
– Póros
– Spetse

• Cyclades

– Míkonos
– Náxos
– Páros

• Dodecanese

– Kálimnos
– Kos
– Rhodes

• Ionian

– Corfu
– Kefaloniá
– Zákinthos

• Sporades

– Alónissos
– Skíathos
– Skópelos

Pros and cons of life on the islands

Pros

• Stunning scenery – you are never far from the beach and sea.

• Seclusion – a real chance to get away from it all, espe cially outside the towns and main villages.

• Quality of life – a slower, more relaxed pace. Nothing is too much trouble.

Cons

• Communication – ferries will not run as frequently in the winter or in bad weather, or when they are on strike. You could be cut off from the mainland for weeks or months at a time.

• Transport – not necessarily always available, or when it is, it may not be regular or reliable depending on the size of the island.

• Water – fresh water is bound to be limited, and especially in the summer you run the real risk of having it severely rationed.

Enjoying the climate

The Greek islands are renowned for a balmy Mediterranean climate, with short mild winters and long, hot, dry summers. The mountain areas are much cooler, with considerable rain in the summer months. Frost and snow are rare on the main land, but the mountains are covered with snow in the winter. However, early January 2002 saw Greece’s worst snowfall for over 50 years, with the government announcing a state of emergency in four areas. For over three days snow drifts and sub-zero temperatures caused unprecedented chaos to air, rail, road and shipping. It was reported that over €60 million in value of crops and livestock were lost in the freak condi tions. In fact the London Times newspaper carried a picture of deep snow in Athens and children snowboarding on Christmas day. The aftermath caused problems as there were no snow ploughs available in the city – why should there be when it hadn’t snowed for years? Greece boasts 300 sunny days a year on average.

Fig. 2. Average rainfall/temperature chart

Looking at the people

Greece contains approximately 10.9 million inhabitants according to the national census taken in 2001, with a densi ty of approximately 80 people per square kilometre. The available labour force is about 4.5 million, but almost ten per cent of this working population is unemployed. Around one third of the inhabitants live in the Attica area, which is large ly Athens and Piraeus, where more than half of Greek indus try is located. Thessalonikí in northern Greece houses approximately one million and Pátras in the west Peloponnese, Heraklion on the island of Crete, mainland Latisse and Vólos are the other major cities with a population of over 250,000.

According to the latest census, over half of all immigrants (56%) were Albanians.

Greeks living abroad

In addition to the domestic population, it is estimated that there is a diaspora of about 11–12 million Greeks living abroad, although no official figure is recorded. The main countries are USA, Australia, Russia and Cyprus.

In addition to the main centres, there are estimated to be about 5,000 working Greeks together with around 8,000 stu dents living in the UK.

HOW IS GREECE GOVERNED?

Greek civilisation dates back to ancient times, and is reput edly the birthplace of democracy. Despite the fact that at various times Greece has been under foreign rule, it has, since the 19th century, emerged as an independent nation, and despite the many years of foreign occupation has managed to maintain its traditions, roots and its own language.

Greece is a presidential parliamentary democracy. The head of state is the president, who is elected for a five year period by the Parliament. The functions of the state are separated into three divisions: legislative, executive and judicial.

Examining legislative affairs

The legislative authority is vested in Parliament and the pres ident. Parliament comprises 300 members elected by popular vote for a four-year term. Laws are voted on by Parliament and ratified by the president in order to be enacted.

Karolos Papoulias, a former foreign minister under a PASOK government, who served more than 20 years in parliament, is the current president of Greece. He was sworn in during March 2005 as Greece’s sixth president since the collapse of the country’s military dictatorship in 1974. The post is largely ceremonial.

Considering the executive

The executive division, the government, is headed by the prime minister, who is normally the leader of the political party with the majority of Parliamentary seats, and the cabi net members who function as heads of the various ministries. A national referendum held on 8 December 1974 abolished the monarchy and established a republic, following the seven year ‘junta’ or military dictatorship.

Greece has had three major political parties since 1974. The cen tre-right Nea Demokráti (New Democracy) party ruled between November 1974 and October 1981 and returned to power in April 1990. The centre-left PASOK (Panhellenic Socialist Movement) party ruled between October 1981 and June 1989. The KKE (Communist) party is also significant. During a brief period between June 1989 and April 1990, the country was ruled by coalition governments, as elections in both June and November 1989 failed to provide any party with an absolute majority in Parliament.

The present Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis, now in his second term of office, is the leader of Nea Demokrati, the New Democracy (Conservative) party that took 152 (41.9%) of the 300 seats at the September 2007 elections. George Papandreou’s socialist party, Pasok, claimed 102 (38.1%) seats in second place. The election was overshadowed by forest fires that killed at least 75 in the summer, leading to heavy criticism of the government for failing to adequately respond to the crisis. The Papandreou and Karamanlis families have dominated the Greek political scene for most of the past 50 years.

The government has pledged to use its second four-year term in office to improve the economy, build a stable pensions provision, create a sustainable social state for the future and combat poverty. It has indicated that it will make a final effort to divest Olympic Airlines, the national carrier, or shut it down due to heavy losses over recent years. According to the 2006 accounts, the company has accumulated losses of almost €1.6bn. Olympic employs 5250 staff permanently and 3600 seasonally. With only four more seats than the combined opposition Mr Karamanlis may have trouble pushing through the proposed reforms.

Looking at judicial matters

The judicial division is independent of Parliament and govern ment and is divided into civil, criminal and administrative sec tions. For administration purposes Greece is divided into a number of nomi (districts) which are governed by nomarches (local administrations) appointed by the government.

International relations

Greece is a member of a number of international bodies including the Council of Europe, the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), the Organisa tion of Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Since 1981 Greece has been a full member of the European Union (EU) after being an associate member since 1962. The Treaty of Accession provided for transitional periods of var ious lengths so that the local legislation could be smoothly integrated with that of the EU in areas such as the movement of labour, customs duties and exchange controls. Greece has a pro-European bias and was one of the first EU member states to ratify the Maastricht Treaty through the almost unanimous vote of the Greek Parliament.

The latest move towards international harmony came in October 2005 when Greece supported the opening of European Union negotiations with its neighbour, Turkey.

The economy

Over the last ten years the Greek economy has taken tremen dous strides forward and, as a result, Greece finally joined the European Monetary Union (EMU) on 1 January 2001 fol lowing ratification at the European summit held in Portugal on 16 June 2000. Inflation is now under control at 2.8% following the heady days of the 1980s when it averaged 25%. Contrary to expectations of a post-Olympics slump, the economy has continued to grow briskly. The Games created 65,000 new jobs between 2002 and 2004 as well as generating a net surplus of €8.8 billion. Consequently, the government deficit has been substantially cut from a peak of 7.75% of GDP in 2004 to an estimated 2.5% in 2006. This is the first time the deficit has been brought below 3% since the adoption of the Euro. Real GDP growth in 2006 was 4.3%. Strong growth of around 4% is expected to continue for some years.