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Giorgos Kontogeorgis

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Giorgos Kontogeorgis
Γιώργος Κοντογεώργης
Official portrait, 1980
Minister of National Economy and Tourism
In office
13 February 1990 – 11 April 1990
Prime MinisterXenophon Zolotas
Preceded byGeorgios Souflias
Succeeded byGeorgios Gennimatas
In office
12 October 1989 – 23 November 1989
Prime MinisterIoannis Grivas
Preceded byGeorgios Souflias
Succeeded byGeorgios Gennimatas
European Commissioner for Transport, Fisheries and Tourism
In office
January 1981 – 1985
PresidentGaston Thorn
Preceded byRichard Burke
Succeeded byStanley Clinton-Davis
Personal details
Born(1912-11-21)21 November 1912
Tinos, Kingdom of Greece
Died9 November 2009(2009-11-09) (aged 96)
Political partyNew Democracy
Alma materSupreme School of Economics and Business

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.

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.

References

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  1. ^ Nedos, Vassilis (15 November 2009). "Υπόδειγμα τέλειου κρατικού λειτουργού". Kathimerini (in Greek). Athens. Archived from the original on 18 November 2009.
  2. ^ "ΚΥΒΕΡΝΗΣΙΣ ΚΩΝΣΤΑΝΤΙΝΟΥ Γ. ΚΑΡΑΜΑΝΛΗ Από 21.11.1974 έως 28.11.1977". General Secretariat of the Government (in Greek). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  3. ^ Accession Treaty of May 28, 1979, (signatures on p. 15) (PDF; 11.6 MB)
  4. ^ a b c "G. (Giorgios) Contogeorgis". Europa Nu (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 May 2020.