December 2000December 2000Less than ten days after the Intergovernmental Summit in Nice Synaspismos took the initiative to organise a one-day event entitled "What happened in Nice?" The participants list comprised representatives of all Greek political parties, journalists who attended the Summit as well as experts on European affairs, representatives from the organisations that took part in the demonstrations, etc.
The views submitted were mainly negative as far as the outcome of the IGC was concerned. Even the government MEP, P.Avgerinos described it as a "good compromise" and professor Ioakimidis, who represented the Greek government at the IGC, while agreeing to the conclusion, defended the IGC saying that it was called in order to complete the Amsterdam Treaty.
N.Constantopoulos, the SYN President, gave the opening speech stating the three symptoms that epitomise the EU’s main deficiencies which were once more demonstrated during the Nice IGC:
N.Constantopoulos repeated Synaspismos support "to the prospect of political unification" that "will guarantee the democratic character of the Union while safeguarding conditions of participation on an equal footing for all member countries. Such conditions would guarantee a balance of power that would promote the concept of european interest and will create a common european conscience."
Nicos Hountis, member of the Political Secretariat and responsible for Foreign Affairs, coordinated the discussion and pointed out that "the united Europe lacks vision and vitality".
The event had widespread coverage and it was the only discussion fully devoted to the IGC in Greece.
