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The capital of Greece is Athen, its area measures 131,957 square km, the population is made up of 10,665,989 inhabitants, the the gross domestic product is 153 billion Euros; the inflation is 3.1%, the unemployment rate is 9.1%, the deficit is –5.3% and the national debt is equivalent to the 112.2%. After 7 years of military dictatorship, in 1974 Greece became a Democratic Republic and the constitution was promulgated in the following year. Greece has a form of parliamentary government, the President of Republic appoints the Prime Minister and on his/her proposal he appoints and revokes the Ministers. The Prime Minister warrants the Government’s unity and leads its actions, unless the Parliament revokes the confidence of the Executive. In Greece the Parliament is a mono-cameral one. The only Chamber “Boule ton Ellinon” is made up of 300 members in office for 4 years. The election system for the Chamber is very complex, of a mixed kind, with a majority prize for the party that gets the relative majority of votes. Dissolveng the Parliament is up to the President of Republic, at Government’s request. The present Prime Minister is Karolos Papoulias, elected on the 7th February 2005 at his first mandate. The Prima Minister is Kostas Karamanlis, leader of the Conservatory Party, New Democracy, that gained the national political elections, carried out in March 2004. After 22 years of supremacy of the Socialist Party Pasok, in the 2004 elections New Democracy, with the 45% of votes, gained 165 out of 300 seats. The Pasok get 117 seats, with the 40% of votes, the Communist Party 12 seats, with the 6% of votes and an extreme-leftist Party, “Sinaspismos” 6 seats with 3% of votes. Greece became a member of the EU in 1981, after a vote of the National Parliament, without a popular referendum. On the 1st January 2002 Greece joined the only currency area and, the Treaty dealing with the European constitution, has been ratified by the Greek Parliament on the 19th April 2005. Due to the new distribution of seats after the enlargement, 24 members of the European Parliament are for Greece, one less compared to those it used to have in ’99. In Greece you must exert the right to vote, as the Constitution orders, yet the endorsements system isn’t applied anymore. For the European elections, the whole Greek territory constitutes only one district and the vote is carried out with a proportional system and a blocking clause fixed at 3%. In the last European consultations the 62.5% of the voters went to the polls: this percentage is higher than the European average, yet at the same time it is lower than the percentages of voters in the previous consultations, when the percentage has never been lower than 70%. The 13th June 2004 elections confirmed the Conservatory Party’s victory. New Democracy, infact, gained 11 seats with the 43% of the votes and the Euro-deputies joined the European Popular Party. The Socialist Party confirmed its fall, as it get the 34% of votes and just 8 seats that joined the Socialist group. The extreme left just get the 4% of votes and one seat, that joined the Left group. The Greek Communist Party achieved a good affirmation, toching the 10% of the votes and confirming 3 seats, whereas a nationalist party –Laos- achieved an important result, with the 4% of votes and one seat. The Greek Commissary within the European Commission is Stavros Dimas, Commissary for the Environment.
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