Georgios Papakonstantinou

Georgios Papakonstantinou

Director, School of Transnational Governance

European University Institute, Italy

George Papaconstantinou is an economist who has served government at the highest level and combines policy experience with technical expertise, gained in government, international organisations and academia. He is currently the Acting Director of the Florence School of Transnational Governance of the European University Institute (EUI). As the EUI Dean for Executive Education, he also coordinates the Institute’s executive education activities aimed at policy professionals. He holds a Chair at the Institute as Professor of International Political Economy and has a Ph.D in Economics from the London School of Economics.
 
In the early part of his career, he was a senior economist at the OECD, subsequently served in a policy advisory capacity for the Greek government, was a Board member of OTE, the largest telecoms company in Greece, taught at the Athens University of Economics and Business and consulted for the European Commission and international think-tanks.
 
After being elected to the Greek Parliament and the European Parliament, he was appointed Finance Minister and from that position played a key role in the Greek crisis, negotiating the first support programme and guiding implementation of wide-ranging governance reforms in budget and revenue processes, market liberalisation, publicly owned corporations and the divestment of state assets. Subsequently, as Minister of Environment and Energy, he pursued policies to modernise Greece’s electricity and gas markets, the transition to clean energy and advance Greece’s sustainable growth agenda.
 
His book Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis, has been published in Greek, English and German. His recently published book Whatever It Takes – The Battle for Post-Crisis Europe debates the lessons from the Eurozone crisis for EU governance in the context of current challenges. His current research focuses on the economics and politics of crises, the political economy of European integration and the transformation of global governance.