That was done with cooked books, and only helped out companies and other Eurozone nations trying to sell there. Greece had a completely impractical economic system, including a bloated bureaucracy and retirement at 55 for government workers with generous pensions. It was a socialist paradise built on the Utopian fiction that "the people" got everything they wanted from the government. It was all built on a fiction. The money used to "pay" for all this was the ever-devaluing drachma. If you keep devaluing your currency, or course, you can always offer more money as a government--just keep printing more of it. The tourist trade and export-based agriculture did just fine, because they took in Marks, Pounds, Swiss Francs, French Francs and Dollars. The tourists got ever more drachmae for their currency, and the Greek government never ran out of drachmae to hand out to the population.
All that changed when the Greeks joined the Euro. Now, the Greek central bank had no more control over their little devaluation scheme. The Euro was controlled by the European Central Bank, and the Greek government couldn't print all the euros they wanted to cover all their promises any more. No more 25% inflation to cover their money-printing tactic. No wonder they went broke in no time flat, and had to institute austerity measures. They could no longer pretend that the money they were handing out was really there. They couldn't print euros, only the ECB could do that. Portugal, Italy and Spain got their houses in order before joining the euro. Greece thought it would somehow get away with not doing that. Oops. Now they are stuck with explaining to their people why the old way of doing things doesn't work any more, and they are going to cope with economic reality. That's new, and the people aren't going to like it. When tourists come from Germany, their euro is now worth the same as it was last year: a euro. No more 25% increase in local buying power due to devaluation. Greece still hasn't adjusted to the new reality completely. They will in time, or else they'll have to abandon the Euro, which I don't think they will. The EU has been generous with handouts to members that have never been solid economically. In Spain and Portugal, 20 to 30 years ago, the people used to point to new highways and airports, and proudly say, "all paid for by the EU!" Countries like Germany and France used to grumble at financing all this national welfare, and Britain even used this as propaganda for the Brexit movement, which was (unfortunately successfully) used as propaganda to sway the vote to leave. Germany, France and Great Britain may be better off financially, but their taxpayers get hit in the gut with all the things they are asked to cover. They are OK with paying for some things, especially those that affect them at home (health, education, unemployment, etc.). But when it comes to paying for highways in Portugal and government pensions in Greece (at age 55, no less!), the point is reached, sooner or later, when that goes too far. If this continues, Putin will have it easy getting the larger countries of the EU to say, "what's the point?"
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