Dimitris Avramopoulos | |
|---|---|
| Δημήτρης Αβραμόπουλος | |
_(cropped).jpg) Avramopoulos in 2015 | |
| Member of the Hellenic Parliament | |
| Assumed office 21 May 2023 | |
| In office 7 March 2004 – 31 December 2014 | |
| In office 10 October 1993 – 31 December 1994 | |
| European Commissioner forMigration, Home Affairs andCitizenship | |
| In office 1 November 2014 – 30 November 2019 | |
| Commission | Juncker |
| Preceded by | Cecilia Malmström (Home Affairs) Martine Reicherts (Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship) |
| Succeeded by | Ylva Johansson |
| Deputy Leader ofNew Democracy | |
| In office 2 July 2010 – 8 March 2015 Serving with Stavros Dimas | |
| Leader | Antonis Samaras |
| Preceded by | Position established |
| Succeeded by | Adonis Georgiadis |
| Minister for National Defence | |
| In office 25 June 2013 – 31 October 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Antonis Samaras |
| Preceded by | Panos Panagiotopoulos |
| Succeeded by | Nikolaos Dendias |
| In office 11 November 2011 – 17 May 2012 | |
| Prime Minister | Lucas Papademos |
| Preceded by | Panagiotis Beglitis |
| Succeeded by | Frangoulis Frangos |
| Minister for Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 21 June 2012 – 25 June 2013 | |
| Prime Minister | Antonis Samaras |
| Preceded by | Petros Molyviatis |
| Succeeded by | Evangelos Venizelos |
| Minister of Health and Social Solidarity | |
| In office 15 February 2007 – 7 October 2009 | |
| Prime Minister | Kostas Karamanlis |
| Preceded by | Nikitas Kaklamanis |
| Succeeded by | Mariliza Xenogiannakopoulou |
| Minister of Tourism | |
| In office 18 March 2004 – 15 February 2006 | |
| Prime Minister | Kostas Karamanlis |
| Preceded by | Akis Tsochatzopoulos (Development) |
| Succeeded by | Fani Palli-Petralia |
| Mayor of Athens | |
| In office 1 January 1995 – 31 December 2002 | |
| Preceded by | Leonidas Kouris |
| Succeeded by | Dora Bakoyannis |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1953-06-06)6 June 1953 (age 72) |
| Political party | New Democracy |
| Spouse | Vivian Spanoudi |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | University of Athens Université libre de Bruxelles |
Dimitris Avramopoulos (Greek:Δημήτρης Αβραμόπουλος; born 6 June 1953) is aGreekpolitician of the conservativeNew Democracy party, and former careerdiplomat. He has served in various high-level cabinet posts, includingMinister for Foreign Affairs andMinister for National Defence, and wasMayor of Athens from 1995 to 2002. He served asEU Commissioner forMigration, Home Affairs andCitizenship in theJuncker Commission between 2014 and 2019.
Avramopoulos was born in Athens in 1953, into a family which had originally come fromIlia andElliniko inArcadia. He served his 26 monthsmilitary service from 1978 to 1980 in theHellenic Air Force.[1]
He is married to Vivian, with whom he has two sons, Filippos and Iasonas. Apart from his nativeGreek, he speaksEnglish,French andItalian fluently.
In 1980, Avramopoulos joined theMinistry of Foreign Affairs inAthens, where he worked until 1993. From 1988 to 1992, he served as GreekConsul to Belgium inLiège. At the same time he was a Special Adviser toKonstantinos Mitsotakis, President and Leader of theNew Democracy. During this time he also represented Greece inVienna at theConference for Security and Co-operation in Europe. In 1992 he became official spokesman of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was appointedConsul General of Greece inGeneva. In 1993 he was promoted to director of thePrime Minister of Greece's Diplomatic Office.[2]
In 1993, Avramopoulos resigned from Greek diplomatic service to enterparliamentary politics as a member ofNew Democracy and was elected a member of its Central Committee. From 1993 to 1994 he served as aMember of the Hellenic Parliament. In 1994 he was electedMayor of Athens, and was re-elected in October 1998 in a historic first-round landslide victory. From 1995 to 1999 he served as chairman of theCentral Union of Local Authorities of Greece.
In 1995 he founded the “Permanent Conference of the Mayors of the Capitals of South-East Europe” and served as its first President. From 1996 to 2000 he served as vice-president of the executive committee of theInternational Union of Local Authorities (IULA) and from 1997 to 2002, as a member of theCommittee of the Regions of the European Union. Elected as president of theSummit Conference of the Mayors of the World in 2000, he served until 2002, during which time he founded the "World Union of Olympic Cities", "Athens’ International Prize for Democracy", and “World Institute of Global and Cities’ Diplomacy”,Rome.
In March 2001, he split from New Democracy with hisMovement of Free Citizens (KEP), but in a surprising move merged back in June 2002. When in 2004 New Democracy won theparliamentary elections, Avramopoulos was appointedMinister of Tourism, serving until 2006, and afterwards, from 2006 until 2009, asMinister of Health and Social Solidarity.[3]
In theOctober 2009 election, Avramopoulos was re-elected to theHellenic Parliament representing the constituency ofAthens A. After the election ofAntonis Samaras to the “New Democracy” Party Presidency he was appointed President of the Organizing Committee of the 8th Party Congress held at Athens in June 2010. In July 2010, he became Vice-President of “New Democracy”, serving until 1 November 2014.
On 11 November 2011 he was appointedMinister for National Defence in the coalition government ofLucas Papademos, resigning from hisparliamentary seat, thus adhering to the New Democracy policy that no serving Opposition PartyDeputies may holdministerial office.
At the 6 May 2012 election, Avramopoulos was returned as Deputy for Athens A, being re-elected in the 17 June 2012 general election. On 21 June 2012 he was appointedMinister for Foreign Affairs. After the Cabinet reshuffle of 25 June 2013 he became Greek Minister for Defence again, serving until his nomination as Greece'sEuropean Commissioner in November 2014.
.jpg)
On 27 July 2014, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras nominated Avramopoulos as Greece's next member of theEuropean Commission.[4] Before the nomination,Dora Bakoyiannis was widely seen to be a strong contender for the Commission post.[4] Samaras also defied calls from the centre-left Pasok party forMaria Damanaki to continue as European Commissioner.[4]
Jean-Claude Juncker then nominated Avramopoulos as European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs. In this capacity, Avramopoulos shares competency over cyber-security matters withGünther Oettinger.[5]
In the aftermath of the victory of the left-wingSYRIZA party in the25 January election in 2015, Avramopoulos' name was widely circulated in Greek media as the most likely choice for SYRIZA's candidate in the second round of theelection for thePresidency of Greece. According to the Greek media reports, the nomination would be seen both as a gesture of conciliation with the right, but would crucially also enable SYRIZA to nominate its own European Commissioner.[6] On 30 January Samaras phoned Avramopoulos and assured him thatNew Democracy would support his eventual nomination.[7]
Avramopoulos criticized the2019 Turkish offensive into north-eastern Syria. He said that "the European Union remains committed to the unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian state".[8]
Avramopoulos was elected to theHellenic Parliament inElis at theJune 2023 Greek legislative election.
From the outset of his political career, Avramopoulos served for twenty years as Honorary President of theAthens’ International Prize for Democracy forUNESCO inParis (until 2013). He has also been Chairman of the Steering Committee on Cities´ Diplomacy, established by the Global Forum (Rome) and the World Bank Institute (Washington D.C.). He was elected President of the “World Institute of Global and Cities’ Diplomacy”, an independent NGO based in Rome as well as Executive President of the “World Union of Olympic Cities”, anOlympic Games NGO.
Avramopoulos has a friendly relation with the Turkish PresidentRecep Tayyip Erdoğan since they were Mayors of Athens and Istanbul respectively.[9] He is deemed one of the main proponents ofGreek-Turkish rapprochement.Also this year the two former Mayors came together to discuss topics regarding Migration, Borders and Security on European and EU-level inIstanbul on 3 June 2019.[10]On the same day, Avramopoulos also met with Turkish Interior MinisterSüleyman Soylu to discuss about the same topic.[11]
Avramopoulos read Public Law and Political Science atAthens University Law School, graduating with the degree ofBachelor of Arts (BA).He then undertook postgraduate studies receiving aMaster's degree in European Studies at the Institute of European Affairs,Université libre de Bruxelles.He has been conferred honorary doctorates byAdelphi University (Long Island, New York),Deree College (Athens),Drexel University (Philadelphia) andKingston University (London), and has been elected Honorary Professor ofPeking University (Beijing) and of the European College of Parma (Italy).[1]
Avramopoulos has received numerous honors from European States as well as many countries around the world for his diplomatic, public and charitable service:
Grand Cross,Order of the Phoenix (Greece)
_GC.svg)
Grand Cross,Order of Civil Merit (Spain)
Grand Cross,Order of the Crown (Belgium)
Grand Cross,Order of Leopold II (Belgium)
_-_Commander_Grand_Cross_BAR.png)
Grand Cross,Order of the Polar Star (Sweden)
Grand Cross,Order of the Lion (Finland)
Grand Cross,Order of Merit (Portugal)
1st Class,Order of the White Star (Estonia)
Commander,Order of Merit (Poland)
Commandeur de l’Ordre de la Couronne de Chêne (Luxembourg)[12]
Grand Decoration,Honour for Services to the Republic (Austria)
Companion,National Order of Merit (Malta)
Officer,Legion d'Honneur (France)
Officer,Order of Merit (Luxembourg)
Knight,National Order of Merit (France)
Commander,Order of Merit (Germany)
_Ribbon.png)
Grand Cordon,National Order of the Cedar (Lebanon)
1st Class,Order for Civil Merit (Bulgaria)
Knight,Order of Makarios III (Cyprus)
Grand Cross,Order of Diego de Losada (Venezuela)
1st Class,Order of the Star (Yugoslavia)
And, from the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate ofConstantinople, the Patriarchate ofJerusalem and the Patriarchate ofAlexandria:
Avramopoulos received, in 2006, the “Vincitore Assoluto” Award of the Premio Internazionale “Giuseppe Sciacca”, and has been presented with distinctions by many foreign Cities and Municipalities: Famagusta,Barcelona,Beijing,Beirut,Berlin,Boston, Brooklyn N.Y., Bucharest, Caracas,Chicago,Crotone,Florence,Genoa,Jakarta,Havana,Istanbul,Kyiv, Ljubljana,Los Angeles,Miami -Florida,Massachusetts,Montreal,Moscow,New Jersey, New York, Nicosia, Paris,Philadelphia, Providence, Rhode Island,Rome, Sofia, State of Illinois,Sydney,Tbilisi,Tirana,Toronto,Valletta,Washington D.C.,Xi'an,Yerevan. He has been honoured with the Honorary Freedom of 40 Greek and foreign cities. In November 2017, he became Honorary Member of the Propeller Club of the United States Port of Piraeus and he received the Award of Excellence of the Propeller Club of the United States Port of Piraeus for his strenuous effort and impact on developing a new European Policy on regular Migration. In December 2017, the Department of International and European Studies of theUniversity of Piraeus awarded Mr. Avramopoulos the first "Themistocles" prize for his contribution to the management of the EU migration and security crisis.[1]
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Mayor of Athens 1995–2002 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byasMinister for Development | Minister for Tourism 2004–2007 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Health and Social Solidarity 2007–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for National Defence 2011–2012 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for Foreign Affairs 2012–2013 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister for National Defence 2013–2014 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Greek European Commissioner 2014–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas European Commissioner for Home Affairs | European Commissioner forMigration, Home Affairs andCitizenship 2014–2019 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded byas European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship | ||
 | ||
