Aspects of Europeanization of Foreign Policy: The Case of Greece from 1996 Onward

    • IMG_5199
    • Presentation speakers
      • Giorgio Oikonomou, University of Athens, Greece
      • Manolis Assimakopoulos, University of Peloponnese, Greece
      • Ioannis Galariotis, Athens University of Economics & Business, Greece

    Abstract:

    The policies produced at the international level affect the national determinants of states’ policy-making formation. Examining the case in Europe, inevitable effects of Europeanization could be recognized in many areas of EU member states’ policy-making. To this extent, the foreign policy of EU member states could not be remained unbiased from the influence of Europeanization. Especially after the signing of Maastricht Treaty in 1992, the development of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) dramatically changed the way European member-states react in world affairs. The aim of this paper is to identify to what extent Greece’s foreign policy has influenced and most importantly shaped by the policies produced at the European level with regard to the issue of Turkey’s European perspective. Focus is given on various theoretical approaches (e.g. neo-institutionalism and constructivism) and aspects of the process of Greece’s foreign policy Europeanization (such as dimensions, mechanisms, misfits, mediating factors and the overall result of the European influence on Greece’s policy content). Based on these theoretical and methodological tools, the study tries to find out continuities and critical points of Greek foreign policy against Turkey’s EU candidacy from 1996 onward. The crisis of Imia in 1996 constitutes our starting point, when took effect a fundamental change in Greek foreign policy regarding Turkey’s accession to the EU. The official transformation of Greek foreign policy culminated in the European Council in Helsinki in 1999, a fact considered to be a major change as far Greece’s foreign policy behavior against Turkey is concerned. After 2004, the conservative government that took office in Greece reassessed the Helsinki conditions for Turkey’s EU candidacy giving priority to a less-Europeanized foreign policy political framework.