Greece
Panos Koromantzos, Christos Gramatidis, Nikos Stavroulakis, Manto Charitos
Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners
Athens, Greece
Introduction
As a historian of the future may recognize, the embarkation of Greece to the
trilateral mechanism of financial support — European Union (EU), International
Monetary Fund (IMF), and the European Central Bank — which took place in
May 2010 seems to constitute one of the most important incidents of recent
Greek history since the restoration of democracy in 1974. From a financial
aspect, this was the rather unavoidable result of the global financial crisis, which
reached the country in 2009 and revealed specific weaknesses of the Greek
economy. Following some high growth rates during the previous years, the
country entered into recession in 2008; since then, the vast majority of the Greek
populace is facing serious hardship, compounded by the necessary (and also
unavoidable) austerity measures that seem to make things even more difficult in
the short term.
However, the need for change — not only in finance, but in every aspect — is
compelling. People understand that they cannot continue to follow the practices
of the past which have led to the current situation. Furthermore, it is clear that
the financial recovery of the country demands financial growth, which also
would provide solutions to the problem of the soaring unemployment rate.
Growth requires investments. And investments require not only a stable
financial environment, but also a reliable legal framework, providing safety to
the businessman or investor and protecting him from non-business risks.
There is currently an ongoing serious effort to improve the weaknesses in the
legal framework in order to further improve the investment and business
environment. Given that there are a lot of sectors of the Greek economy that are
attractive to investors, the future is rather promising. The conclusion after the
experience of the last three difficult years has to be Greece needs to change and
is changing.
Establishment of Enterprises
Legal Structures
In order to form a company in Greece, a suitable legal structure must be chosen.
There are a number of legal structures under which a business in Greece can be
Panos Koromantzos, Christos Gramatidis, Nikos Stavroulakis, Manto Charitos, Bahas, Gramatidis & Partners, Athens, Greece
