Giorgos Kontogeorgis
Greek politician and economist (1912–2009)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Giorgos Kontogeorgis (Greek: Γιώργος Κοντογεώργης; 21 November 1912 – 9 November 2009) was a Greek economist who became a civil servant and politician. He played a crucial role in planning Greece's accession to the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1981, and he became Greece's first European Commissioner.
_(cropped).jpg)
Giorgos Kontogeorgis | |
|---|---|
Γιώργος Κοντογεώργης | |
Official portrait, 1980 | |
| Minister of National Economy and Tourism | |
| In office 13 February 1990 – 11 April 1990 | |
| Prime Minister | Xenophon Zolotas |
| Preceded by | Georgios Souflias |
| Succeeded by | Georgios Gennimatas |
| In office 12 October 1989 – 23 November 1989 | |
| Prime Minister | Ioannis Grivas |
| Preceded by | Georgios Souflias |
| Succeeded by | Georgios Gennimatas |
| European Commissioner for Transport, Fisheries and Tourism | |
| In office January 1981 – 1985 | |
| President | Gaston Thorn |
| Preceded by | Richard Burke |
| Succeeded by | Stanley Clinton-Davis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 November 1912 |
| Died | 9 November 2009 (aged 96) |
| Party | New Democracy |
| Alma mater | Supreme School of Economics and Business |
Born in Tinos, Kontogeorgis studied economics at the Supreme School of Economics and Business in Athens, and took a master's degree in the United States.[1] He joined the Greek civil service, rising to become General Director of the Ministry of Commerce, but resigned from that post when the Greek junta took power after a coup in 1967. When civilian rule was restored in 1974, the Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis appointed Kontogeorgis as Deputy Minister of Coordination and Planning.[2]
At the 1977 elections, Kontogeorgis was elected to the Hellenic Parliament as a candidate of Karamanlis's New Democracy party. In 1979, he was one of the signatories of the treaty by which Greece acceded to the EEC,[3] and in May 1980 the new prime minister George Rallis appointed Kontogeorgis to his cabinet as a minister without portfolio, with responsibility for relations with the EEC.[4]
In January 1981, Kontogeorgis took office as the European Commissioner for Transport, Fisheries and Tourism in the Thorn Commission.[4] He held that post until the next Commission took office in early 1985. He later served for two brief periods as Greece's Minister of National Economy and Tourism,[4] in late 1989 and early 1990.