What Greek Political Elites Thought of European Integration before and after the Onset of the Economic Crisis

As the politics of European integration become more politicized in the wake of the on-going economic crisis, parliamentary elites had to make difficult policy choices. They mediated between EU institutions and citizens, a role which was particularly sensitive and vulnerable when economic adjustment programmes were agreed between the EU and Member-States, as in the case of Greece. The purpose of this paper is to discuss these roles by answering the following questions:1) How has the Eurozone crisis affected the attitudes of Greek political elites towards the EU? 2) How Greek political elites evaluate the role played by EU institutions in the management of the crisis? 3) How do they perceive the future of European integration?  And 4) Which factors explain the configuration of political elites’ attitudes towards the EU? This research, part of the comparative study, “European National Elites and the Crisis” (ENEC), partially replicates a similar study of Greek political elites which took place in 2007 under the INTUNE project. Research results are based on personal interviews, conducted n Athens in 2014, on the basis of  a structured questionnaire distributed to a sample of Members of Greek Parliament.