Stavros Lambrinidis

Yale University

After graduating from the Athens College high school, EUSR Stavros Lambrinidis was admitted to the University of Chicago in 1980 and transferred to Amherst College in 1981, where he received his B.A. degree in economics and political science with the distinctions of Magna Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa and a scholarship for the rest of his studies. He completed his education in 1988, with a J.D. degree from Yale Law School.

At Yale University he worked as a Teaching Assistant in the School of Organization and Management, as well as the Managing Editor of The Yale Journal of International Law.

Early career

He trained in International Trade, Transactions and Arbitration, as a colleague of Lloyd Cutler (founder of Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C. and law advisor of the White House during Jimmy Carter's and Bill Clinton's Presidencies). He also served as president of the Committee for Human Rights in the Bar Association of Washington, D.C.

His career in Greece, started in 1994 as a special advisor to former Prime Minister and President of the Socialist International George A. Papandreou and continued as the chief-of-staff of the Minister of Foreign Affairs during Theodoros Pangalos's post in the Ministry in 1996. Between 1996 and 1999 he was Secretary General of the Greek Foreign Affairs Ministry responsible for Diaspora Greeks. He subsequently became an Ambassador at Large of the Hellenic Republic and, in 2000, the Director General of the International Olympic Truce Center (International Olympic Committee organization).

During this period, he was a visiting Lecturer at the International Olympic Academy in Athens as well as a lecturer in the Diplomatic and Police Academies of Greece. He was also a guest speaker in the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in the years 2003 and 2004.

European Parliament

European Union Special Representative Stavros Lambrinidis started his career in the European Parliament on 20 July 2004, as a Member of the European Parliament for the Greek Social Democratic Party PA.SO.K. A few months later he was elected as the Vice President of the Party of European Socialists and in April 2005, as head of the Parliamentary delegation of PA.SO.K. to the European Parliament.

During this term, he served as a Vice President of the Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), as a Member of the Delegation of Relations with the United States, as well as a Substitute-Member of the Delegation of Relations with Iran and the Committee of the Constitutional Affairs.

In July 2009, he was elected as a Vice President of the European Parliament, while in November 2010, he was a speaker of the European Data Protection and Privacy Conference.

As a popular politician, with a large experience in the diplomatic field, international trade, foreign relations and a political instinct, in 2012 European Union Special Representative Stavros Lambrinidis was reckoned as the leading candidate for the position of United Nations Under Secretary General for Public Information before the assumption of his European Union duties.

Minister for Foreign Affairs

Following a cabinet reshuffle that took place on 17 June 2011 in Athens, Greece, Prime Minister George A. Papandreou announced Stavros Lambrinidis as the new Minister for Foreign Affairs of Greece.

A month after the assignment of his new post, he signed a Cultural Memorandum of Understanding with the U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, on import restrictions for archaeological finds between the U.S. and Greece, in order to combat the illegal trade of Greek antiquities that have frequently turned up in foreign museums.

As Foreign Affairs Minister of the Hellenic Republic he visited numerous European countries, to explain the effectiveness of the reforms taking place in Greece and the investment opportunities in the country,. During his public engagements, he also made a number of proposals about the establishment of new international instruments to tackle economic inequalities and to generate funds for economic development projects, such as the financial transactions tax, and new political and economic governance instruments that would make the E.U. more united, in order to be able to prevent and tackle more effectively future financial crises.

In September 2011, he represented Greece on the 66th General Assembly of the United Nations, while a few days later he was the keynote speaker in the World Leadership Forum, which is annually organized by the Foreign Policy Association.

E.U.S.R. Stavros Lambrinidis was succeeded by M.P. Stavros Dimas in November 2011, after an agreement between the parties that participated in the Coalition Government.

Special Representative

A long-standing request for a representative that would be in charge of enhancing the effectiveness and visibility of E.U.'s Human Rights policy, based on the Strategic Framework and Action Plan on Human Rights and Democracy (officially adopted on 25 June 2012), led to the creation of the post of the Special Representative of the European Union for Human Rights . The post which is providing a strong, independent, flexible and sufficiently broad mandate, is aimed at increasing the European Union's effectiveness, coherence, and visibility in protecting and promoting human rights in the EU's foreign policy. It covers fields such as the strengthening of all Human rights, Democracy, International Justice, Humanitarian Law, anti-discrimination, and the abolition of the death penalty.

On 25 July 2012, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Baroness Ashton of Upholland, appointed him as the first European Union's Special Representative for Human Rights, with a renewable two years mandate.

During his mandate he has paid official visits for meetings with governments and civil society in numerous countries around the world, including China, Cuba, Myanmar, Bahrain, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Guatemala, Egypt, Morocco, South Africa, Azerbaijan, Russia, Norway, Belarus, the United States, and the United Nations in Geneva and New York. His work has been praised by European Union Foreign Affairs Ministers and the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini.

Awards and distinctions

Publications