Giorgos Kontogeorgis ( el, Γιώργος Κοντογεώργης; 21 November 1912 – 9 November 2009) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

economist who became a civil servant and politician. He played a crucial role in planning Greece's accession to the

European Economic Community The European Economic Community (EEC) was a regional organization created by the Treaty of Rome of 1957,Today the largely rewritten treaty continues in force as the ''Treaty on the functioning of the European Union'', as renamed by the Lisb ...

(EEC) in 1981, and the became Greece's first

European Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...

. Born in

Tinos Tinos ( el, Τήνος ) is a Greek island situated in the Aegean Sea. It is located in the Cyclades archipelago. The closest islands are Andros, Delos, and Mykonos. It has a land area of and a 2011 census population of 8,636 inhabitants. Tinos ...

, Kontogeorgis studied economics at the

Supreme School of Economics and Business Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB; el, Οικονομικό Πανεπιστήμιο Αθηνών, ''Oikonomiko Panepistimio Athinon'', abbrev. ΟΠΑ, OPA) was founded in 1920 in Athens, Greece and is the oldest university in Gre ...

in Athens, and took a masters degree in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

. He joined the Greek civil service, rising to become General Director of the

Ministry of Commerce A Ministry of Trade and Industry, Ministry of Commerce, Ministry of Commerce and Industry or variations is a ministry that is concerned with a nation's trade, industry and commerce. Notable examples are: List *Algeria: Ministry of Industry and M ...

, but resigned from that post when the

Greek junta The Greek junta or Regime of the Colonels, . Also known within Greece as just the Junta ( el, η Χούντα, i Choúnta, links=no, ), the Dictatorship ( el, η Δικτατορία, i Diktatoría, links=no, ) or the Seven Years ( el, η Ε ...

took power after a coup in 1967. When civilian rule was

restored ''Restored'' is the fourth studio album by American contemporary Christian music musician Jeremy Camp. It was released on November 16, 2004 by BEC Recordings. Track listing Standard release Enhanced edition Deluxe gold edition Standard ...

in 1974, the Prime Minister

Konstantinos Karamanlis Konstantinos G. Karamanlis ( el, Κωνσταντίνος Γ. Καραμανλής, ; 8 March 1907 – 23 April 1998), commonly Anglicisation, anglicised to Constantine Karamanlis or just Caramanlis, was a four-time prime minister and List of he ...

appointed Kontogeorgis as Deputy Minister of Coordination and Planning. At the 1977 elections, Kontogeorgis was elected to the

Hellenic Parliament The Hellenic Parliament ( el, Ελληνικό Κοινοβούλιο, Elliniko Kinovoulio; formally titled el, Βουλή των Ελλήνων, Voulí ton Ellínon, Boule (ancient Greece), Boule of the Greeks, Hellenes, label=none), also kno ...

as a candidate of Karamanlis's

New Democracy New Democracy, or the New Democratic Revolution, is a concept based on Mao Zedong's Bloc of Four Social Classes theory in Chinese Communist Revolution, post-revolutionary China which argued originally that democracy in China would take a path ...

party. In 1979, he was one of the signatories of the treaty by which Greece acceded to the EEC,Accession Treaty of May 28, 1979, (signatures on p. 15)
(PDF; 11.6 MB) and in May 1980 the new Prime Minister

George Rallis Georgios Ioannou Rallis ( el, Γεώργιος Ιωάννου Ράλλης; 26 December 1918 – 15 March 2006), anglicisation, anglicised to George Rallis, was a Greece, Greek conservative politician and the 2nd Prime Minister of Greece from 198 ...

appointed Kontogeorgis to his cabinet as a

minister without portfolio A minister without portfolio is either a government minister with no specific responsibilities or a minister who does not head a particular ministry. The sinecure is particularly common in countries ruled by coalition governments and a cabinet w ...

, with responsibility for relations with the EEC. In January 1981, Kontogeorgis took office as the

European Commissioner for Transport The European Commissioner for Transport is a member of the European Commission whose portfolio includes the planning and development of homogeneous transport policies and regulations across the Union, of the Trans-European Transport Network as we ...

, Fisheries and Tourism in the

Thorn Commission The Thorn Commission was the European Commission that held office from 6 January 1981 until 5 January 1985. Its President was Gaston Thorn. Work It was the successor to the Jenkins Commission and was succeeded by the Delors Commission. With ...

. He held that post until the next Commission took office in early 1985. He later served for two brief periods as Greece's Minister for Minister of National Economy and Tourism, in late 1989 and early 1990.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kontogeorgis, Giorgios 1912 births 2009 deaths People from Tinos 20th-century Greek economists Greek civil servants Athens University of Economics and Business alumni Economy ministers of Greece Ministers of Tourism of Greece Greek European Commissioners European Commissioners 1981–1985 Greek expatriates in the United States