George Papandreou

George A. Papandreou served as prime minister of Greece from 2009 to 2011 and is currently a member of the Greek Parliament with the Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK)/Movement of Change party. As an M.P., he represents Greece in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, and, over the years, has led the work of several committees in producing recommendations for the deepening of democracy, human rights and the rule of law across its 47 member states. He currently serves as the Council’s general rapporteur on democracy.

First elected as an M.P. in 1981, he has served in many governmental posts. As minister of education in the mid-‘90s, he founded the Greek Open University and promoted multicultural programs. As minister of foreign affairs from 1999 to 2004, he promoted peace-building and European integration in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Balkans, and managed a major breakthrough in Greek-Turkish relations. In 2004, he was elected leader of PASOK in the country’s first open primary – a move highly symbolic of his commitment to participatory governance. Throughout his political career, he has actively sought to maximize citizen participation in governance through information technologies.

From 2006 to 2022, he was the president of Socialist International, the largest global political family. Around the world, Mr. Papandreou has deployed ‘green diplomacy,' calling for the protection of the environment by placing sustainable development at the epicenter of policy-making and multilateral cooperation.

During his premiership, he applied a series of structural reforms in an attempt to modernize Greece while avoiding bankruptcy during the country’s debt crisis in 2010. For his achievements related to government transparency, he received the Quadriga Award in the “Power of Veracity” category. In 2010, he was named among Foreign Policy magazine’s Top 100 Global Thinkers. In 2017, he was honored with the International Leadership Association’s Distinguished Leadership Award.