\ : WHAT PROBLEMS WERE POSED BY THE ACCESSION OF PORTUGAL, SPAIN AND GREECE TO THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC COMMUNITY (EEC)

Economic intergration has been associated with “removal of discrimination between the economic agents of the member countries and opening up of the market boundaries.” The European Economic Community (EEC) was formed in 1957 by the treaty of Rome and it consisted of France, Italy, Luxembourg, West Germany and Belgium. It is also known as the common market in some publications. Its founding principles consisted of the notions of democracy and political stability and liberalized market economy among others. Countries in Europe joined this community based on these principles and Greece applied for accession in 1975, Portugal in 1977 and Spain initially in 1962 and then in 1977. These 3 countries’ accession to the EEC had some difficulties. These problems were both political and economic. Democracy and political stability, were major political problems, whilst macro-economic problems such as economic level and performance, taxation, tariff policy, industrial protectionism policies, low agriculture production and socio-cultural differences among other problems. Some of these problems are general and others are unique to specific countries among these 3 countries.
The first problem to be analyzed is that of democracy and political stability. Among the founding principles of the EEC was demand of working democracy. Jennifer Lauren Popowycz asserts that the EEC had previously denied cooperation with these 3 countries because they violated human rights and did not have democratic governments. Greece’s history was marred by some despotic military regimes and a military coup d’état in 1962 was one of those moments which defined Greece’s future negotiations for accession. According to Popowycz, the EEC