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added the prospects of overftow–
ing wine and olive oil "lakes."
Still, Gre eks Want In
The government of the EC's
newest member is aware of the
traumas its economy can expect,
especially in manufacturing.
Greece's industry is predominant–
ly small scale, most of it consist–
ing of on ly one to four people.
For this reason, its industrial sec–
tor will have a grace period of five
years to gradually adjust to the
EC tariff structure and expected
competition.
According to public opinion
polls, most Greeks appear to be in
favor of the EC link. !Vlany are
phi losophical about the changes
and challenges. T hey feel they are
at last "joining Europe," which
they are a par t of geographically,
of course, but not until now as a
state of mind. Newspaperwoman
Helen Ylachos, editor and pub–
lisher of
Kathimerimi
in Athens,
wrote:
"The Greek people have a deep
wish to belong at last to a group,
to a fami ly of familiar countries.
And Europe is the one and only
that qualifies for that part.
Europe is ... a special, admired,
envied, and in many ways, an
imaginary continent."
"For better or worse," contin–
ued Mrs. Vlachos , "Greece
becomes a part of an affluent, civ–
ilized, respectable family ....
Why not accept the challenge.
What have we to lose? "
The board chairman of a large
Athens bank adds: "Today, most
Greeks probably fee l that if the
Community had not al ready
existed for them to join, they
would have had to invent it for
that purpose. And is there,
indeed, any other alternative?
Greece does not want to become a
communist country, neither does
it have the economic clout of
countries like Sweden or Switzer–
land enab l ing it to 'go it
alone.' ... Going Eu ropean for
Greece also means helping to
make the dream of a politically
uni ted Europe come true. "
Common Market officials, in
tur n , are very pleased over
Greece's accession (though not a
4
few have reservations about nego–
tiations with the l berian coun–
tries).
" T he entry of Greece into the
Community is a major political act
that constitutes a turning point in
the Common Market 's life," said
Gaston Thorn of Luxembourg,
who on January 1 took over as
Commission president, the EC's
chief executive post. "T he enlarge–
ment of the Common Market
southward is a key date in history
ofEuropean civilization. "
More Brussels Bureaucrats
Greece's entry certainly compli–
cares the Community's Iinguistic
and decision-making processes.
Greek becomes the EC's seventh
official language (with Spanish
and Portugese looming just
ahead). One of the biggest organi–
zational changes involves the small
army of interpreters and transla–
tors who already account for one
third of the total staff employed at
the EC Commission.
For the instantaneous transla–
tions needed at Common Market
meetings, the EC employs 303
full-time interpreters plus 200
freelance interpreters. This is
even more than at the United
Nations.
One of the big problems now is
to find interpreters who can simul–
taneously translate between two of
the Community's minor tongues,
such as from Danish to Greek and
vice versa. Such persons are hard
to find, meaning that interpreters
often have to work by way of a
relay from an intermediate major
tongue. This naturally increases
the chance of error.
The written translation head–
ache also is growing. The Mar–
ket's 580 translators have to
translate into the various official
tongues 500,000 pages of official
documents every year. (T his total
was determined before Greece's
membership added to the burden
and forced the h iri ng of yet
another 120 interpreters and
translators.)
Common Market translation
officials shake their heads at hav–
ing to provide, someday, services
into the difficult T urkish Jan–
guage.
The Greek government , for its
part, has only 120 official transla–
tors. Yet it will need 650 just to
translate EC documents and reg–
ulations.
T oo Many Chiefs?
This linguistic babel is bad
enough. Each new country also
complicates the political machin–
ery necessary to run the Commu–
nity. The publication
Europe
comments on this problem:
"The addition of Greece as the
1Oth member state will put extra
steam on the Community's deci–
sion-making process. The EC
Council of Ministers will now
have 1O members-which will
make it that much more difficult
to reach unanimous agreement on
major issues, especially anything
to do with Turkey [Greece's arch
rival). On lesser issues, where
decisions are taken by qualified
majority, Greece will have five
votes out of a total of 63. T he
num ber of votes necessary to
make a decision will be raised
from 41 to 45. "
T here wil l also be an EC com–
missioner from Greece at tbe
Commission headquarters in
Brussels- raising the number of
commissioners to fourteen.
A committee of "Three Wise
Men" is presently studying what
institutional changes will be
needed to take account of the
entry not only of Greece but a lso
of Spain and Portugal so that the
Community can continue to func–
tion efficiently.
A Two-tie red EC?
The heartland countries of the
EC- West Germany, France ,
Italy-are understandably con–
cerned over the Community's
shift to include the poorer nations
of southern Europe.
Politically, the move has
advantages. A more stable Greece
and Turkey helps shore up
Europe's sou thern flank. But
many social and economic prob–
lems are expected. Will citizens
of all the poorer members, for
example, be able to circulate free–
ly throughout the enti re Commu–
nity, having the right to work in
(Continued on page 39)
The
PLAIN TRUTH