At 11.30 am on Sunday, July 9, the Association Agreement between Greece and the European Economic Community (EEC) is signed in the Parliament’s Trophy Hall.

This agreement was concluded after two years of negotiations and made Greece the first “third country” to apply for association with the six countries of the Community (West Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg).

Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis has long put forward a political initiative to integrate Greece into the European Community, expecting that this will pave the way for a comprehensive reform of anachronistic institutions and attitudes that have hindered the country’s internal development.

The preferential trade regime that will be applied as a result of the association will provide an opportunity to improve infrastructure, as well as promote institutional and economic changes that will make the Greek economy more competitive.

As Kathimerini commented in a July 11 newspaper, “The association agreement aims to strengthen the political and spiritual ties that have traditionally united Greece after the six member countries of the Community, by creating new economic ties that will complete this union.

The agreement is also a recognition of Greece’s political and geographical importance in the free world. […]”.

At the meal that followed the signing of the Agreement, Konstantinos Karamanlis remarked: “Yesterday’s Treaty of Rome and today’s Treaty of Athens are nothing but milestones. There will be other stations after the completion of the work of the European Union. We believe that the moment will come when Europe will include in its bosom all the free European peoples without exception.”

Finally, although the Agreement provided for the full integration of the country in 1974, the establishment of a dictatorship in 1967 forced the EEC to stop integration procedures.

On June 12, 1975, after the fall of the junta, Konstantinos Karamanlis would formally apply for Greece to join the European Economic Community, and subsequently his aspiration would become a reality.