Why we entered the European Union

“As of today, Greece irrevocably accepts this historical challenge and its European destiny while preserving her national identity. We have confidence both in Europe and in Greece. We have decided to all be Europeans, as Churchill would say, and to all remain Greeks, as Shelley would say. For, to quote Isocrates, the Greeks are not those who are born in Greece but those who espouse the Classical spirit.”

~Constantine Karamanlis, Why Greece Joined the European Union
Speech on the Entry of Greece into the EU, January 1, 1981