Section3.Greece

** 1.History/Background of E.U. Country **


 * [[image:http://sabin.ro/d/38572-3/athens.jpg width="222" height="132" caption="Athens / Atena" link="http://sabin.ro/greece/athens/"]]

|| A major event in history that impacts even us today, occurred in 776 B.C., when the first Olympics ever were held in Athens, Greece. Greece was, for a very long time, a huge empire in Europe. The peak of ancient Greek civilization was in 400 B.C. Then, sixty-two years later, Philip of Macedonia conquered Greece in 338 B.C. Philip's son, Alexander the Great, led Greeks to conquer many an empire that is now the entire middle east of Europe. But, after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., the Greek empire declined. By 146 B.C. the entire Greek empire had become the Roman Empire, and centuries later, Greece was a part of the ByzantineEempire. But, eventually, that fell too in 1453 A.D., and by 1460 A.D., most of Greece was part of the Turkish Empire. After four centuries of being ruled by Turkey, Greece, backed up by Britain, France, and Russia, started a war to become independent. In 1832, Otto of Bavaria was elected as the Greek king. In World War II, Greece was occupied by Germans and Italians and lost 1/8 of its population due to fighting and hunger. A civil war in 1944 between Greece's government and communist soldiers cost another 120,000 lives, and eventually, the government won with the assistance of the United States. In 1990, Constantine Mitsotakis and the New Democracy Party gained power in the government, but in 1993 PASOK regained parlimentary leadership, and Andreas Papandreou returned to office as prime minister. In 1996 however, Papandreou resigned his position due to poor health and was replaced by Costas Simitis. On January 1, 2001, Greece adopted the Euro, the official currency of the E.U. and replaced there old form of money, the drachma. Today, Greece wants to develop closer ties with its neighbors, especially its enemy Turkey, although the continued dispute over control of Cyprus keeps relationships strained between them. ||
 * 2. Year of Admission to E.U. History and General Information about the E.U.**
 * [[image:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/flags/large/ee-lgflag.gif width="251" height="200" caption="Click on the European Union's flag to look inside the court of the European Union parliament." link="@http://www.360cities.net/image/inside-court-of-the-european-parliament-in-strasbourg-alsace-france"]] || The E.U. or European Union is set up mainly to end common wars between countries, and, in 1950 the European Coal and Steel Community started to unite countries and secure peace. and in order to show that Europe really is a united country, the E.U. created Europe Day which is celebrated in May. In 1951, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands created the E.U. and are the six founders of the organization, and in 1957 the Treaty of Rome creates the European Economic Community, ECC, or a common market. Then, in 1973 the United Kingdom, Denmark, and Ireland join the E.U., and are the first 3 countries to join besides the six founders, and in 1981, our country Greece became the 10th member of the E.U. In 1987, the Single European Act is signed, which creates a six year contract for free trade across E.U. country borders. And in 1993, the single market is completed ensuring freedom of movement of goods, services, people, and money across E.U. borders. On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall was pulled down, ending communism in East Germany, and uniting East and West Germany again. The end of communism then results in all the countries of Europe becoming closer neighbors, and in 1995 3 more countries join the E.U. In 1999 the E.U. put there own currency the Euro on the market, where it was the official currency of the E.U. In 2004, 10 new countries joined the E.U., and in 2007 Romania and Bulgaria joined making the total amount of countries in the E.U. today 27. ||


 * 3. How does the E.U. and your country feel about global temperatures/climate change? (//environmental issue)// **

This picture shows a forest fire happening in Greece, which are now occuring more often due to global warming. || Because Greece itself has air and water pollution, we are committed to reducing greenhouse gases in our own country and all across the world, so we are working with the E.U. and its members to decrease pollution and greenhouse gases across Europe. We are working on global warming in our own country right now by trying to reduce reliance on coal, and oil, and by giving tax breaks on natural gas. Greece is also investing in sources like wind power, hydropower, biomass, biofuels, and solar power because these sources can be used again and again. For example, the sun never goes away, and day after day it can be used because once you use solar power, or the sun's energy to heat the earth, it doesn't mean that there is less of the sun on earth, so we can always keep on using solar power as long as the sun rises in the sky. Greece feels that global warming is very bad, and we are trying to stop it with the little money we have. The E.U. also thinks that global warming is bad and are trying to help prevent it too. During an E.U. conference, the president of the E.U., Nicholas Sarkozy, stressed that the E.U. needs to stop carbon emissions, and they have set a goal to try to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020. Also, the European Commission chief Jose Manuel Baroso said that "We are not going to let up on the battle against climate change," and the rest of the E.U. leaders push for climate control too. media type="file" key="Caroline 1.wav" width="300" height="50" Click on the link to hear our view! ||
 * [[image:http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44082000/jpg/_44082716_heli203x152.jpg width="203" height="152" caption="Click on the picture to learn more about global warming in Greece." link="@http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6966822.stm"]]

media type="file" key="Caroline 2.wav" width="300" height="50" Click on the link to hear our view! ||
 * 4. How does the E.U. and your country feel about supporting the war in Afghanistan? //(political issue)// **
 * [[image:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/flags/large/af-lgflag.gif width="196" height="168" caption="Flag of Afghanistan" link="@https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/flags/flagtemplate_af.html"]] || The E.U. feels very strongly about supporting the war in Afghanistan, and is one of Afghanistan's largest money givers. On November 16, 2005, the E.U. and Afghanistan created a joint declaration which confirms the E.U.s long commitment to Afghanistan. The Afghanistan compact provides an outline for cooperation between the national community, which includes the E.U., and Afghanistan for 5 years. Also the E.U. has a strong commitment for stability and development in Afghanistan which shows the E.U.s readiness to support the Afghan president in his commitments and decisions, and the E.U.s readiness to work with Afghanistan to solve the problems that they have. The E.U. also showed that they supported Afghanistan when they said that they are ready to work to fix problems in Afghanistan, and when they welcomed the announcement by the U.S. president to have commitment between the U.S. and Afghanistan. The E.U. is already helping support Afghanistan by spending close to 1 billion euros a year to give more soldiers to fight, supply food to the soldiers, and using it to fix other issues in Afghanistan. Our country of Greece also wants to help Afghanistan in the war, but because we are very poor and we do not have enough money to use to pay for supplies, or to use to support soldiers, we cannot help as much as we would like to.

Greece is one of the five poorest countries with the weakest economy in Europe. || Greece's economy is not very stable at all, and now about 12% of jobs are agriculture. Agriculture produces wine, wheat, corn, wood, cotton, olives, raisins, and tobacco, but it does not provide as much money as needed to keep the economy strong. Greece's major business industries are tobacco, textiles, chemicals, metal products, and petroleum. Although Greece has other exports too, like manufactured goods, foods fuels and raw materials, they are not as major or successful as their others. Another main part of Greece's economy is tourism. Because Greece has a beautiful landscape and over 2000 islands, tourism provides Greece with a little bit of money, although it is not nearly enough to stabilize their economy enough to increase the citizen's standards of living, or to get Greece out of bankruptcy. Although Greece is using ways to earn money, they are still bankrupt, so many problems are now occurring such as public debt, which means that the cost of living has gone up, unemployment rates are higher, and finally inflation problems, such as more taxes, making it harder for people living in these areas to get by. Due to low cuts on pensions, Greece doesn't have any money to use on solving problems or fixing things as a country. Pensions are the percentage of money a person receives once he or she retires, and while Germany, for example, takes 57% of pensions for the country, and only gives 43% to the person that is retiring, Greece gives the retiring people 95.7% of the pension, taking almost no money for itself as a country. Because our country is broke we feel that the wealthier countries in the E.U. should support the economies of poorer and weaker countries in the E.U. If the European Union is really an organization that helps to solve countries problems, then they should help the E.U. countries with problems going on. Although we feel that countries that are in the E.U. and that are our neighbors should help us, other countries, like Germany, have helped us before, but we have either stayed or gone back into our recession, which is the reason why other wealthier countries in the E.U. don't want to help us this time. media type="file" key="Caroline 3.wav" width="300" height="50" Click on the link to hear our view! ||
 * 5. What is the economic background of your country and how does your country feel about supporting the economies of weaker countries in the E.U? //(economic issue)// **
 * [[image:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/graphics/flags/large/po-lgflag.gif width="71" height="50" caption="Flag of Portugal"]]