Giorgios Dalakouras ( el, Γιώργος Δαλακούρας; 8 July 1938 – 8 July 2021) was a Greek politician,

shipowner A ship-owner is the owner of a merchant vessel (commercial ship) and is involved in the shipping industry. In the commercial sense of the term, a shipowner is someone who equips and exploits a ship, usually for delivering cargo at a certain frei ...

and businessman. He served in the national

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 ...

from 1974 to 1981 as a member of the

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 January 1981, he became one of the first Greek

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

following Greece's ascension into the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

. Dalakouras served as the

Civil Administrator of Mount Athos The Civil Administrator of Mount Athos ( el, Πολιτικός διοικητής του Αγίου Όρους) is the civil head of government of the territory of the monastic community of Mount Athos, an autonomous region in northern Greece. ...

, the civil

head of government The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a gro ...

for the

monastic community of Mount Athos The monastic community of Mount Athos is an Eastern Orthodox community of monks in Greece, enjoying the status of an autonomous region holding the combined rights of a decentralized administration, a region and a municipality, with its territo ...

, from 2004 to 2010.

Biography

Dalakouras was born in 1938 in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

Kingdom of Greece The Kingdom of Greece ( grc, label=Greek, Βασίλειον τῆς Ἑλλάδος ) was established in 1832 and was the successor state to the First Hellenic Republic. It was internationally recognised by the Treaty of Constantinople, where ...

. He graduated from the former Supreme School of Economics and Business (ASOEE), which is now known as the

Athens University 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 ...

. He entered the Greek shipping industry. Dalakouras gradually established his own shipping fleet and founded Dalex Shipping Co S.A., which became a major Greek

shipping line A shipping line or shipping company is a company whose line of business is ownership and operation of ships. Shipping companies provide a method of distinguishing ships by different kinds of cargo: # Bulk cargo is a type of special cargo that is ...

. He is credited with establishing new Greek-Iranian and Greek-Turkish economic relations through the shipping industry. Dalakouras also worked in real estate and the Greek tourism industry. He helped to restore the historic centre at Chora and the

Monastery of Saint John the Theologian The Monastery of Saint John the Theologian (also called Monastery of Saint John the Divine) is a Greek Orthodox monastery founded in 1088 in Chora on the island of Patmos. It is named after St. John of Patmos, the author of the Christian Book o ...

- both located on the Aegean island of

Patmos Patmos ( el, Πάτμος, ) is a Greek island in the Aegean Sea. It is famous as the location where John of Patmos received the visions found in the Book of Revelation of the New Testament, and where the book was written. One of the northernmos ...

. These Patmos locations were later declared to the UNESCO World Sites. Dalakouras was elected to the

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

as a member of the

party. He won re-election in 1977 and served as an MP until January 1981. In January 1981, he became one of the first Greek

following Greece's ascension into the

. He served as a Greek MEP from January 1981 until October of the same year. Dalakouras was a member of the

European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism The Committee on Transport and Tourism (TRAN) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its current chair is the French MEP Karima Delli of the Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance. Research service The Committee is directly supported by ...

from February 1981 to October 1981 during his tenure in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

. Dalakouras was appointed the

, the civil

for the

, on 17 September 2004. He served until 2010, when he was succeeded by

Aristos Kasmiroglou Aristos Kasmiroglou ( el, Αρίστος Κασμίρογλου) is a Greek jurist and the former Civil Administrator of Mount Athos, the appointed civil head of government of the monastic community of Mount Athos, from 2001 to 2004 and again fro ...

, who had also preceded him. Dalakouras became head of the "Bicephalus 1924" company in 2013, which was responsible for the renovation of

AEK Athens A.E.K ( el, AEK , formally Αθλητική Ένωσις Κωνσταντινουπόλεως; Athlitikí Énosis Konstantinoupόleos, ''Athletic Union of Constantinople''), known as A.E.K, is a major Greece, Greek multi-sport club based in Nea ...

Olympic Stadium ''Olympic Stadium'' is the name usually given to the main stadium of an Olympic Games. An Olympic stadium is the site of the opening and closing ceremonies. Many, though not all, of these venues actually contain the words ''Olympic Stadium'' as ...

in Athens. Giorgios Dalakouras died on 8 July 2021, at the age of 83. He was survived by his wife, Eleni Dalakura, and their four children: Katerina, Dimitris, Vassilis and Michalis. Several of children also work in the shipping industry or became academics in London.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dalakouras, Giogios 1938 births 2021 deaths Civil Administrators of Mount Athos MEPs for Greece 1981–1984 New Democracy (Greece) MEPs Greek MPs 1974–1977 Greek MPs 1977–1981 New Democracy (Greece) politicians Greek businesspeople in shipping Greek company founders Businesspeople from Athens Politicians from Athens