File Photo: Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis speaks to reporters in Athens during a news conference December 14. File Photo
ATHENS (Reuters) -Former Greek prime minister Costas Simitis, who led the country into the European Union's single currency in 2001, died on Sunday aged 88 at his summer house in the Peloponnese.
Simitis, a law professor and a reformist, assumed leadership of the PASOK socialist party in 1996 and was prime minister until 2004.
“With sadness and respect, I bid farewell to Costas Simitis, a worthy and noble political opponent, but also the Prime Minister who accompanied Greece in its great national steps,” conservative Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said in a statement.
The government proclaimed four days of mourning and said his funeral on Thursday, Jan. 9 will be at the state's expense.
While Simitis had been credited for reducing bloated government spending, critics say he did not do enough to rein in corruption.
Five years after he left power, Greece fell into an unprecedented, decade-long debt crisis that nearly saw it exit the euro zone. Economists trace back the roots of that crisis to graft and corruption during the years of Simitis’ rule and earlier.
Simitis had been vacationing at his summer residence close to Athens in the Peloponnese in recent days. He was transferred unconscious to the hospital early in the morning where his death was confirmed, the director of the Corinth hospital told local media. He was survived by his wife and two daughters.
During his government, Simitis reduced the budget deficit and public debt to make Athens qualify for euro zone membership.
In 2012, three years after the Greek debt crisis erupted, he published a book criticising the handling of the crisis by Greek politicians and the EU.
In that book, called "Derailment", he also accused the European Commission of turning a blind eye to overspending by his conservative successor.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Mark Potter, Tomasz Janowski and Jan Harvey)
