Liberian Registry: A Recognition of Longevity, Credibility, and Contribution April 2024 – Dr. Michalis Pantazopoulos, Senior Vice President & General Manager of the Liberian International Ship & Corporate Registry’s (LISCR) Piraeus office, managers of the Liberian Registry The Liberian fleet evolution within Greek shipping is testament to the strong links which have existed between Greek shipping and the Liberian flag, dating back to the day in 1949 when the Stavros Niarchos-owned oil tanker World Peace became the first [...]

“Europe at a crossroads”: to put some content in a phrase   Europe is at a crossroads: this may sound as quite a platitude, but it is nonetheless quite true. The Euro area grew at a 0.1% pace in 2023, while the US achieved 3.1% and China 5.2%. Moreover, just 52% of Europeans are content with the functioning of democracy in the EU (42% are of clearly negative opinion); the lowest contentment is in France, with just 3.9%, [...]

A family of initiatives promoting women's empowerment As part of International Women's Month 2024 Athena40 hosted the 'Women’s Interventions for a Sustainable Future' Awards in partnership with the London Press Club, KNOCK Inc. and the City of London under the auspices of the Lady Mayoress Elisabeth Mainelli, and with the support of ROKH Global. The evening showcased the extraordinary accomplishments of seven remarkable women across various categories, honouring their commitment to driving positive change and inspiring others to follow [...]

Signaling – messaging – guessing   The way in which the Iranian attack to Israel, the international system’s (especially so the US) exhortations to the latter to keep quite a measure of restraint in its forewarned counter-attack, the subsequent Israeli rather controlled strike (along with Iranian official played-down impact of such strike) show that a carefully orchestrated global game is underway in the Middle East. This most combustible area where the vicious Hamas attack of [...]

Delphi take-aways of morality in international relations, of public and private cooperation for climate governance Most of this year’s Delphi Economic Forum was grounded in a decidedly realist reading of things evolving. Still, there were moments that brought back glimpses of earlier times; times when a sense of purpose for politics/for political action was sought in what used to be considered the high moral ground. Thus, George Papandreou and Stefan Loefven (former PMs of Greece [...]

Old sins have long shadows   An eavesdropping scandal in 2021-23, involving the surveillance of the phone of Opposition leader Nikos Androulakis (then a MEP, and candidate to the leadership of PASOK – unfriendly to the Government) is coming back to haunt this same Government, however much effort was expended to defuse it. Androulakis was spied upon both by the (official) National Intelligence Service, under the permission of a special public prosecutor “for reasons of [...]

Strengthening competition The need to strengthen competition in several sectors of the Greek economy is increasingly pointed out by the Governor of Bank of Greece (BoG), Yannis Stournaras, who attributes to such absence of competitively higher prices in Greece than the rest of the Eurozone. In an interview he referred, in fact, to research by the BoG, which examined price spreads and profit margins and identified oligopolies in sectors of food, fuel, banks and private hospital care. The latest quarterly [...]

Stournaras in outspoken mode   Under the seemingly sedate title “The global economy in the 21st century: From globalization to a multi-centred world”, an academically-minded conference gave the floor to Bank of Greece Governor Yannis Stournaras (for an opening address). The result was somehow unexpected since Stournaras took the opportunity to dig into important political economy ground. For one, he made the point to the – largely non-economist – audience that one should never bypass the main difference between the [...]

Manufacturing phase-outs, investment trouble   The closing of the “Yioula Glassworks” – the last such factory left in Greece – was decided by its owner (Portuguese) conglomerate BAGlass Group. According to the BA Glass announcement, the decision is due to “persistent lack of demand” that led to increased storage costs – but the root cause, one shouldn’t be fooled, is the ever-higher energy costs of manufacturing in Greece. Family-owned Yioula was sold to BAGlass seven years ago, having managed to [...]

When confidence lays in tatters   You wouldn’t term it easily “social unrest”. Nothing comparable to the days and weeks of anger and revolt in Athens and all around Greece in 2010-11, when the hard landing of the economy under the first EU/IMF Adjustment Programme rocked the political system – and, most importantly, the man in (literally) the street. Still, the feeling of political-cum-judicial cover-up following the train accident at Tempe with 57 casualties under horrible conditions, resulted in massive [...]

Three months away from European Parliament elections: North Macedonia and Turkey as looming issues As the elections for the European Parliament get nearer, two fields of special interest to Greece are in progress. Both involve – albeit in different ways – “Europe”, meaning the EU but also the wider European institutions; both may well influence the way in which the Euro-elections are run in Greece and how they may determine the future set-up of the Greek political landscape. The first [...]

50 years of achievement and failure: Democracies may slide to a slow death if we do not pay attention, if there is no social participation to the political process  The star-studded, three-day Conference “50 years of the Metapolitefsi” (thus is known in Greek political parlance the country’s post-dictatorship course starting with the fall of the dictatorship the restoration of democracy and lasting until now) had several high points. From one who made it a habit to attend most of its [...]

Hard to understand Foreign journalists – be they correspondents based in Athens, stringers or just visiting during one of Greece’s multiple crises – often have an issue with understanding the inner workings of the Greek political system, the circumvolutions of its seasoned practitioners and occasional newcomers. Of the latter, one might remember the near-Grexit architect Yanis Varoufakis, more recently the resolutely off-the-beaten-track Stephanos Kasselakis. The ten years of economic and social upheaval marked by three successive EU /IMF Adjustment Programmes [...]

From the Archipelago to the Oceans The perspectives, challenges, achievements and also the history of Greek-French cooperation at sea were highlighted during the conference entitled "From the Archipelago to the Oceans" held in Paris. The conference took place in the context of a scientific initiative undertaken by professors Michel Foucher and George Prevelakis and under the auspices of the Sorbonne Ocean Institute and the Delphi Economic Forum. Cradle to the western civilization, since the ancient world the sea has played [...]