The Greek Ombudsman
Andreas I. Pottakis studied Law at the Universities of Athens and Oxford where he was awarded a doctorate (D.Phil.) in EU Public Law. He has lectured at various European Universities, in the UK, in Italy, in Turkey and in Greece where he has also pursued a career as a lawyer before the Supreme Court. He is a professor and the Provost for postgraduate studies at the European Law and Governance School (ELGS), and the Alternate Director of the Academy of European Public Law. From 2011 until 2015, Andreas Pottakis served as legal advisor to the General Secretariat of the Hellenic Government, while from 2015 until early 2016 he was appointed at the position of Head of the Legal Office. He has published extensively on a wide range of areas, including, inter alia, European Public Law, Comparative Law, Constitutional and Administrative Law, and the legal protection of Human Rights (view list of recent publications by Andreas I. Pottakis - pdf file).
Andreas Pottakis was elected by Parliament to the position of the Greek Ombudsman in late July 2016 and serves a term of 6 years. In late 2017 he was elected Regional Director at the International Ombudsman Institute (IOI-Europe) and in 2018 President of the Association of Mediterranean Ombudsmen (AOM), effective from 2019. In the elections of the IOI-Europe in 2019, he was elected first among his counterparts in IOI’s European region, leading to his automatic participation in the Board of the International Network IOI, while in 2020 he was elected to the position of President of IOI-Europe.
e-mail: ombudsman@synigoros.gr
Former Greek Ombudsmen:
Calliope Spanou, Professor of Administrative Sciences – Public Administration at the University of Athens, from May 2011 until October 2015.
Yorgos Kaminis, Assistant Professor of Constitutional Law at the University of Athens, from April 2003 until September 2010.
Nikiforos Diamandouros, Professor of Political Science at the University of Athens, from October 1998 until April 2003, when elected as the European Ombudsman.
