The Service of Diplomatic and Historical Archives of the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs published the second volume of its trilogy entitled “The Participation of Greece in the Process Towards European Integration” (Papazisis, Athens 2006 – in Greek).

This volume refers to the exceptionally difficult period for the country that started in the first year after the imposition of the military dictatorship and lasted until the accession of Greece to the European Communities (1968 -1981), as the subtitle of the volume indicates (“From the Freeze of the Association Agreement to the to the Accession to the European Communities 1968 – 1981”). The publication of the volume also coincides with the completion of 25 years since the country became the tenth member of the European family.

83 diplomatic documents are published. They were selected after laborious research as the most representative ones among a big amount of archival resources of the period. They refer to the diplomatic efforts of the government of Konstantinos Karamanlis, to whose determination and political prestige the positive result of the Greek application for immediate accession is owed.

The volume, besides the diplomatic documents, the bibliography, the chronological table and the biographical notes of Greek and European personalities, also contains introductory notes written by some of the main political actors of the period: the ex-Minister of Foreign Affairs and Prime Minister Georgios Rallis, who is no longer among us, the former Minister and first Greek EEC Commissioner Mr Georgios Contogeorgis, and ambassadors MM Vyron Theodoropoulos and Stefanos Stathatos.

The volume is to be released in English by the end of 2007.

The preparation of the last, third, volume that covers the period from the accession to the European Communities until the entry in the Monetary Union (1981-2001) has already begun.