ABSTRACT
This chapter presents Greece, a southern member state of the European Union (EU), and a net recipient from the EU budget affected by the public debt crisis. The chapter starts with a general introduction to Greece and the country’s path to EU membership. It further gives a compact overview of Greece’s political system and key figures on its population and economy. The chapter continues with key highlights of political and public debates in Greece about European integration. The substantive third section of the chapter outlines the common patterns that emerged in the focus group discussions in Greece, particularly across the discussed scenarios presented to the participants and also between and within the three sociodemographic groups. The findings show that, overall, the Greek participants expressed some disappointment with their EU membership and felt that their country was in a disadvantaged position within the EU. Nevertheless, their support for the idea of transnational solidarity was strong and the common line of reasoning was that whenever possible, Greece should commit to it.
