The Conference was co-organized by the Institute for Justice and Growth of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO) in collaboration with the Constantinos and Artemis Kyriazis Foundation under and the valuable support of the President of the Council of State, Mr Michael Pikramenos, under the patronage of H.E. the President of the Hellenic Republic Ms. Katerina Sakellaropoulou on the topic “The Constitution – Europe – Greece” was held with great success on Friday, November 29, 2024 at the “Alkis Argyriadis” Amphitheater, with the kind hospitality of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
With the participation of internationally renowned professors of constitutional law and other academics, distinguished scientists, officials and other personalities of renowned prestige from the public sector and the market, a multifaceted, high-level dialogue was held on the possibility of adopting a “European” Constitution, on the forthcoming constitutional revision and on the concept, the correlations and the prospects of the Constitution in Greece in view of the rapid changes taking place daily in Greek and European society and economy.
The welcome speeches were delivered at the opening of the Conference by Mr Gerasimos Siassos, Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Ms Aikaterini Iliadou, Associate Professor of Public Law, Head of the Department of Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Mr Nicolas Kanellopoulos, Lawyer and President of the Institute for Justice and Growth, and Mr Nicolaos Kyriazis, Emeritus Professor of the Economics Faculty of the University of Thessaly, President of the Konstantinos and Artemis Kyriazis Foundation. It was a great honor for the European Public Law Organization that the Key note speaker of the Conference was Mr Panagiotis Pikrammenos, Former Prime Minister and Former Vice President of the Government.
The topic of the first session, which was moderated by Mr Vassilios Skouris, former President of the Court of Justice of the European Union, Professor Emeritus of Public Law, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, was “The European Constitution”, while presentations were made by Ms Anna Sarah Lind, Professor of Public Law at the Faculty of Law of the Uppsala University, Mr Evagelos Venizelos, former Vice President of the Government, Professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and Ms Lina Papadopoulou, Professor of Constitutional Law (Jean Monnet Chair) at the Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Mr Giuliano Amato, former Prime Minister of Italy, President Emeritus of the Constitutional Court of Italy, President Emeritus of the European Law & Governance School (ELGS) of the EPLO, could not eventually attend due to an extraordinary personal obligation, but we watched his very interesting presentation on video.
The second session dealt with the connection between the Constitution and the Economy and Development and was moderated by Professor Spyridon Flogaitis, Director of the European Public Law Organization (EPLO). The speakers in this session were Mr Nicolaos Kyriazis, Professor Emeritus of the Economics Faculty of the University of Thessaly, President of the Konstantinos and Artemis Kyriazis Foundation, who presented a joint paper he has prepared with Mr Emmanouil Marios Economou, Assistant Professor of the Department of Economics at the University of Thessaly, Mr George C. Bitros, Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at the Athens University of Economics and Business and Ms Charoula Apalagaki, Acting General Manager of the Hellenic Bank Association (HBA), Professor of Civil Procedural Law at the Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
The subject of the third session, which was moderated by Mr Konstantinos Menoudakos, President of the Hellenic Data Protection Authority, President of the Organization for the Promotion of Alternative Dispute Resolution Methods (ΟΠΕΜΕΔ), President Emeritus of the Hellenic Council of State, was “The Constitution and Human Rights”. The speakers in this session were: Mr Georgios Karavokyris, Associate Professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ms Lilian Mitrou, Professor at the University of the Aegean at the Department of Information and Communication Systems Engineering, President of the Institute for Private Law, Data Protection and Technology (IPL) of the EPLO, Mr Ioannis Drosos, Professor Emeritus of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and Mr Spyridon Vlachopoulos, Professor of Constitutional Law at the Faculty of Law of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens,
The last session touched upon the relationship between the Constitution and Politics. The extremely interesting discussion was moderated by Mr Miltiadis Papaioannou, Lawyer, former Minister of Justice with the participation of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Georgios Gerapetritis, Ms Anna Diamantopoulou, President of DIKTIO – Network for the Reform in Greece and Europe and Mr George Katrougalos, Professor of Public Law at the Department of Social Policy of the Democritus University of Thrace, Former Minister.
The event was concluded with a very interesting and informative summary of the proceedings of the Conference by Mr Michael Pikramenos, President of the Council of State.
The Conference was honoured with the presence of many Supreme Court Judges as well as a number of other representatives of the legal, judicial and academic world, students of the country’s law schools and many young lawyers and attorneys.
The Conference was sponsored by the Hellenic Banking Association.