Evangelos Venizelos (born in 1957, in Thessaloniki) is a former Deputy Prime Minister (2011 - 2015) and former President of PASOK (2012 - 2015). He was a governmental partner of the 2012 - 2015 coalition government (also known as the "Samaras-Venizelos government")
Between 1993 and 2015, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Finance, National Defence, Development, Culture, Justice, Transport, Press and Mass Media.
As Minister of Finance, he managed, among other things, the write-down and restructuring of the Greek public debt.
A member of the Hellenic Parliament from 1993 to 2019, he has been elected ten times as a member of parliament for the first electoral constituency of Thessaloniki.
He was the majority party Rapporteur General in the extensive amendment of the Greek Constitution in 2001.
He was the minister responsible for coordinating the country's preparations for the 2004 Olympics.
As a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, he served as rapporteur for monitoring the implementation of the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights in the 46 member countries. In 2022 he was appointed a member and elected rapporteur of the seven-member high - level reflection group on the future of the Council of Europe.
As Minister of Foreign Affairs, he chaired the work of the General Affairs Council of the European Union during the Greek Presidency in the first half of 2014, and the Council meetings in which he participated during the Greek Presidencies of 1994 and 2003.
Evangelos Venizelos is a Professor of Constitutional Law at the Law School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki since 1984. A detailed CV and a list of his scientific publications is available at www.evenizelos.gr
He is an attorney at law in the supreme courts.
In 2016, he founded the think tank “Kyklos Ideon” (Circle of Ideas).
He is married to Lila Bakatselou and has a daughter, Elvina.
He speaks English and French.
Most recent publications in English:
- 'The Prespa Agreement as an example of prevalence of the monist approach in the relationship between the national Constitution and International Law', Contribution to Liber Amicorum in honor of Prof. Svetomir Škarić (forthcoming) [PDF]
- 'Ultra Vires Review and the Shift of Legal Orders' in Hélène Gaudin, Eugenie Prevedourou, Christina Deliyanni (eds) Le droit européen, source de droits, source du droit. Etudes en l'honneur de Vassilios Skouris (Mare & Martin 2022) 675-688
- 'Greece's participation in the European integration as a national constitutional decision validated in the crisis’s cauldron' [2021] Hellenic Review of European Law, 2021 - special issue for the 40th anniversary of Greece’s accession of the European Communities, 1-16 [PDF]
- 'From the relativization of the Constitution to the “augmented Constitution” ' (autumn/automne 2020) vol 32, no 3, ERPL/REDP 973 [PDF]
- 'The impact of the financial crisis on the constitutions of Eurozone Member States under rescue programs - Greece as a laboratory of constitutional theory' (spring 2020) Vol 32, no. 1, European Review of Public Law 295-342 [PDF]
- 'The influence of the 2012 restructuring of the Greek public debt' (2020) 2 European Law Review 267-277 = (2020) 9 European Current Law 797
- 'Bible and Constitution: Thoughts on the political theology»' (2020) RdT 61 Rassegna di Teologia 115-124
- 'Democratic Legitimacy at National Level and Solidarity between Financially Unequal Member States. Two Structural Problems of European Integration' (2017) 1-2 European Politeia - EPLO Publications 281-302 [PDF]
- 'Crise grecque et zone euro' (Automne 2017) 159 Commentaire, 555-563
- 'Statehood and sovereignty: the difficult equilibrium between European Union and Member States in crisis management- Refugee crisis and Brexit' (2016) 1 European Politeia - EPLO Publications 17-39 [PDF]
- 'State Transformation and the European Integration. Project Lessons from the financial crisis and the Greek paradigm' (4 Feb 2016) no. 130 CEPS Special Report [link]
For more papers see here
Ev. Venizelos' latest Book: Εκδοχές Πολέμου 2009-2022 [Ekdoches Polemou] = Versions of War 2009-2022 see here