As said below - it was a power grab. In the 1940s they used guns and bullets, now they are trying with monies.

Here is a piece of interesting EU history - does it sound like democracy?

1. The leaders of Europe wants to move EU closer to an actual union, and they therefore craft what is intended basically as an EU constitution. As all bureaucratic works it is crap. Nonsense. Unwanted. The countries of Europe are going to hold referendums to validate it.
2. It quickly becomes clear that there are very few, if any, countries in Europe that will approved it through a referendum, so they alter it. In reality they change the headlines and the color of paper it is printed upon. No real changes.
3. Since the constitution, sorry, agreement, is no longer really a constitution, though it has basically not changed, the EU concludes there is no longer a need for the countries to have a referendum.
4. Some countries protest, Ireland in particular, so the Irish hold a referendum also on the new agreement. Ireland says "NO" to the document.
5. "Sorry", says EU, "that't the wrong answer. Try again." The Irish are not amused by the EU response and tells them to go fuck them selves. EU then starts building up the pressure on Ireland.
6. There is then a "sudden" economic disaster in the world. Ireland is hit really hard. In Brussels they smile and go "Now we've got the bastards". Again they start the pressure on Ireland to have a new referendum to correct the bad answer from the previous one. One of the things they make abundantly clear is that if Ireland votes wrong again, they are going to fuck them over badly. If Ireland will not fall in line the EU threatens severe economic sanctions on the Irish economy, which is already in free-fall.
7. Unsurprisingly Ireland votes "yes" this time, and the leader of the German people goes back to the her bathroom and shaves off the small patch of hair that's been growing underneath her nose.

EU is the strongest threat to democracy in Europe since before Napoleon.

So the only thing EU has done is to give Greece a line of debt? Really? Why don't you google "greece austerity". The austerity measures basically guarantee that Greece will be unable to get out of their recession and thereby never be able to eve think about paying back their debt.

These measures and the threat of EUR exit has made sure Greece never pulled an "Iceland", which is what they should have done before accepting any "aid" whatsoever. For Germany this was never an option though. If Greece had pulled an "Iceland" in 2010 rather than receive "aid", a number of very large German and French banks would have toppled over night. EU has spent the five years in between moving toxic private sector debt to public sector debt and Greece was a significant part of the tool chest. Nobody gave a rats ass about the Greek, who everybody knew would suffer tremendously.

No, giving it a credit line is not. Enforcing austerity measures such as those enforced on Greece, is. Thousands of Greeks have died as a direct result of these austerity measures. HIV infections are up 200% in Greece as a direct result of austerity measures. Mental care facilities are moving towards non-existing. Many hospitals have had to stop using surgical gloves since they can not afford them. More than 200 types of medicine previously available in Greece are no longer stocked.

Austerity is not the same as shooting people, but it is the same as killing people. Thousands of people are dead due to the austerity measures. I am sure the families of those people do not give a rats ass whether it was a German bullet or a Germany-imposed austerity measure that killed them. It's a bloody war all the same.

All of this was designed to get Greek health-care spending down to less than 6% of GDP. Six percent. A number significantly lower than German, UK, France, the US etc. Why is this important? To make sure Greece suffers? Greeks die?

Iceland pulled, obviously, an Iceland in 2010. Today that economy is booming with a real growth of more than 4%. Greece should pull an "Iceland" and extend the middle finger to the German without the funny mustache.

There are many problems in Greece, all of them exacerbated by being in the EUR. Some of your assumptions are faulty though. Yes, Greece appears to have a very low pension age, but that applies to public sector employees. Also, these have taken a 40% cut in the past few years.

The problem for Greece now is that they accepted the bail-out in 2010. That was a bail out, not of Greece, but of European banks exposed to massive amounts of toxic debt after these banks had made some seriously retarded investments. Greece was the tool to enable the transfer of billions of EUR of bad private sector debts to the public sector. Every economist in Europe knew this was a good deal for German and French banks and bad for Greece. Most of them said so, particularly in UK and US media.

The bail-out was never sustainable for Greece, but they were threatened with expulsion from the EUR if they did not accept it. Since then the ECB, IMF and Germany in particular have foisted austerity measures on Greece that are guaranteed to make economic growth in Greece nigh impossible, Good idea right? You increase Greece's debt to unsustainable levels then you severely hampers Greek ability to recover from their recession so that they are guaranteed to be indebted forever. Finally you allow German and French interests to purchase Greek assets that you have forced them to privatize.

The EU basically took a knarly stick of wood, stuck it up the ass of the Greek and told them to smile.

Of those EUR 300bn, somewhere around EUR 240bn went to rescue German (and other European) banks with toxic debts. You should ask them to pay it back.

By staying in Greece is probably going to be under German administration forever. Since Germany does a terrible job of administrating Greece, that's probably not a good idea. If Greece exits now, declares bankruptcy, it will probably take two to three years of really bad times, but then they will again experience real growth. Greece should look to Iceland who told Europe to go fuck themselves, imposed massive currency restrictions and who are now back at one of the strongest economic growths in Europe.

Five years of the "medicine" prescribed by the IMF, ECB and Angela Markel has not worked. The patient is sicker than ever. There is no doubt that a continued treatment of this kind will kill the patient. It's time for another treatment. It is also time for Greece to stop taking the blame for the misadventures of European banks.

They could have, but they were pushed really hard not to. Had Greece restructured its debt back then several German banks could have toppled. Massive pressure were put on Greece to follow the course they did, despite advice from rational economists not to. The loans to Greece were then used, actively by EU, to move toxic debt from the private sector to the public sector (the vast majority of funds were used this way).

The "loans" given to Greece were never used to fix any Greek problems, they were used to fix a (mostly) German problem. Now Germany wants the Greek citizenry to keep paying for rescuing German banks. That's insane.

You have, without looking at facts, swallowed the German War Ministry's PR entirely.

Some reality - most of the "loans" issued to Greece (about 80%) have been used, not to assist Greece, but to shift German and to a degree French banks debt from the private sector to the public sector. In other words, the money didn't go to help Greece but to support failing European banks and their bar private sector investments.

There are two main goals behind this, to salvage what was basically bankrupt European banks that were "too big to fail". In addition, by forcing Greece to use the "loans" to purchase to a high degree German the funds have also been used to support low unemployment in Germany. No, Germany hasn't escaped the horrors of the financial collapse mostly unscathed due to German financial sobriety but through blackmail of poorer countries who wants to stay in the EUR.

Imagine - when Germany wants sobriety within Greek spending, that does not extend to the point where Greece does not buy five German submarines. It also does not extend to the point where Greece does not spend money on French frigates or military helicopters. According to EU-MPs, the Greek bail out was contingent upon Greece purchasing military supplies from Germany and France.

Let's try a more real example.

You are a movie star with bad economy. You are wanted in this new high-cost neighborhood due to your celebrity status. You are audited by a firm that reports to the Home Owners Association (HOA), and the firm finds you do not qualify to live there. The HOA tells the firm doing the analysis to go eff them selves, they want you in their neighborhood. The HOA muddles the rules (as they have done for everybody in that neighborhood) and eventually you are let in. After being let it, you forge some debt numbers to impress your new neighbors. You also rent some of the rooms in your house to try to keep up with HOA fees and your mortgage.

It quickly becomes clear that your lack of qualifications might become a problem, and when there is a insect infestation and you can not afford to share the cost of pest control, its out in the open. You are not qualified. At this point, one of the attractions of the neighborhood is that it has a genuine (but broke) celebrity living there. so the HOA is unwilling to see you move out. Therefore they give you a few options.

Firstly they lend you some money at higher than market rate, so that you can pay, for a while, the HOA fees and your mortgage. You are not thrilled, but realize that it beats moving out. You are hoping for some decent paying jobs down the line, so it doesn't seem like a bad idea.

After agreeing, the HOA comes to you with a list of "austerity" measures they have. Firstly, the rooms you are renting will from now on be owned by the head of the HOA. Income goes to him. Also, that movie deal that you see coming, forget it, the movie is not according to HOA standards, so you will be not allowed to do that. Your protestations that cutting your possibility of gathering an income by 40% is going to make you even less qualified falls on deaf ears. Subsequent problems on your part and the HOA part leads to higher loans and more restrictions on your income possibilities.

Finally you point out to the HOA that you, with your current (forced upon you) levels of debt, paired with your severely restricted abilities to earn an income, now there is not even a theoretical possibility of you ever getting out of debt. The HOA director shrugs his shoulder and tells you that you are wrong, and that going forward you are to take on some more debt, and also, there will be more restrictions on your ability to earn an income. He is entirely surprised when you shoot him in the head.

You have swalloeed the PR from the German Ministry of War hook line and sinker. Stop being a useful idiot. The base cause of the problems of Greece is that they are members of the Euro zone. They never should have been. They wanted it, of course they wanted it, who wouldn't. They never qualified though, and all the governments of Europe knew. Hell, even I knew back then. Not suspected. Knew, and I'm just a regular guy.

Goldman Sachs did no such thing. The number cooking Goldman Sachs did occurred after the qualifications and had no impact on whether Greece qualified or not.

From the wiki:
An error frequently made in press reports, is the confusion of the discussion regarding Greece’s Eurozone entry with the controversy regarding usage of derivatives’ deals with U.S. Banks by Greece and other Eurozone countries to artificially reduce their reported budget deficits. A currency swap arranged with Goldman Sachs allowed Greece to 'hide' 2.8 billion Euros of debt, however, this affected deficit values after 2001 (when Greece had already been admitted into the Eurozone) and is not related to Greece’s Eurozone entry.

One more thing to note - yes, the calculations made to justify the Greek entry into the EUR were "creative" to put it mildly. Greece never did actually qualify. Interestingly though, neither did a number of other countries, for example Italy, Spain and Portugal (who are often mentioned) but also France and Germany (who are usually not mentioned as being creative with their accounting). Some of the countries took a while to formally (if not actually) get in line with the rules. Germany took longer than most.

Sorry, you are wrong. Eurostat stated, again and again, that Greece didn't qualify. Eurostat was told, again and again, by mainly German and French politicians, that this was an unacceptable conclusion no matter what relationship it had with the truth. Don't start talking about Goldman Sachs, the magic of Goldman Sachs took place after Greece was already admitted to the EUR, and had no impact on its admission.

You have swallowed the PR from the German Ministry of War hook, line and sinker and are now what Stalin used to call "a useful idiot".

The Eurocrats (represented by Eurostat) never believed Greece, or, they did, since the reports out of Greece always said that Greece was unqualified. The politicians of Germany and France would not accept that that was the answer though. The politicians felt that it was important to let Greece in no matter what. The "rules" where therefore altered again and again, and even though Eurostat clearly stated Greece was not qualified, they were let in.

There is in fact no reason to think that Greece lied, the rules were so muddled and riddled with exceptions etc that it is quite probable that the Greek ministry of finance actually thought they qualified. Perhaps they even did.

Some might bring up Goldman Sachs at this point and how they helped Greece hide about 2.8bn in debt, but that move is irrelevant since it occurred after Greece was admitted into the EUR.