The Ambassador

VASSILIS PAPADOPOULOS

Born in Athens, Greece, on February 7, 1960
Marital status: Married to Mrs. Maria Dagli

Career

• 1986-1989 - Attaché, Protocol Directorate, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens.
• 1989-1990 - Promoted to Third Secretary. Diplomatic Cabinet of the Prime Minister.
• 1990-1994 - Consulate of Greece in San Francisco.
• 1992-1993 - Seconded to the UN General Assembly. Third Committee Issues.
• 1994-1996 - Promoted to Second Secretary. Embassy of Greece in Kiev.
• 1996-1999 - Promoted to First Secretary. Deputy Head of Mission, Embassy of Greece, Bangkok.
• 1999-2003 –Promoted to Counsellor. Deputy Head, Directorate of EU External Relations, MFA, Athens. In parallel, member of theDiplomatic Academy teaching staff, MFA.
• 2003-2007 - Counsellor at the Permanent Mission of Greece to the United Nations, New York. Representing Greece in the Security Council, the General Assembly and ECOSOC. Also dealing with UN reform.
• 2007-2008 - Counsellor at the Cabinet of the Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs, MFA, Athens.
• 2008-2013 - Head of Directorate of EU Institutional, Budgetary and Monetary Issues, MFA, Athens. Promoted to Ambassador (Minister Plenipotentiary). Dealing with the Treaty of Lisbon, the EU Budget and the financial crisis in Greece.
• 2013-2016 - Ambassador of Greece to Ukraine and to the Republic of Moldova
• 2016 - 2019- Ambassador of Greece to Romania
• 2019 - 2020 - MFA liaison with 2021 Committee.
• March 13, 2020to December 12, 2022  Secretary General of the Presidency of the Hellenic Republic.

Studies

• 1982 - Bachelor Degree (BA) in Law, National University of Athens
• 1983 - DEA in International Law, University of Nancy, France
• 1984 - DEA in European Community Law, University of Nancy, France, Centre Européen Universitaire

Languages :

• Greek, French, English, Spanish, Russian

Lectures and Seminars

Participated in many seminars on literature, language and foreign policy issues. Invited as lecturer by Greek and foreign Universities, private Foundations and Institutions on Foreign Policy, International Relations and Cultural issues.

Books
• To the Far East. Impressions of a Diplomat, published in Athens, 2003. Collection of short stories.
• Olya. Two winters and one spring, published in Athens, 2007. Novel translated to Ukrainian and Romanian published in Kiev, in 2014 and in Bucharest, 2017
• George Seferis, between Diplomacy and Poetry, Bucharest 2018, Essay in Greek with Romanian translation.
• Language as a vehicle for culture. The impact of the Greek language, Essay, Athens 2019
• Diplomacy and Poetry. The case of George Seferis, Essay, Athens 2019.

Other Publications:

• Diplomats and Poets, the Books Journal, Athens, January 2020
• The lasting influence of the Greek Language, Greek news agenda, February 2020
• Seferis and the part of God, the Books Journal, Athens, May 2022
• The irresistible tendency of Greeks to write poetry, International Poetry Festival, University of Rethymno, May 2022
• Nikos Egonopoulos, painter and poet, Theoharakis Foundation, April 2022
• War and Peace in Erotocritos, VitsentzosCornaros Foundation, Siteia, Crete, July 2022

TEACHING EXPERIENCE

2000 - 2013 Member of the Diplomatic Academy teaching staff. Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Athens. Teaching the course of “Diplomatic Practice”.
• Participating at annual seminars at theDiplomatic Academy of Vienna on preparing and improving simulations for teaching purposes.
• Teaching at the Diplomatic Academy of Cyprus (Nicosia )on EU issues (2011), as guest expert lecturer, in preparation for the first Cyprus Presidency of the European Union.

Decorations

• Grand Commander of the Order of Phoenix of the Hellenic Republic.
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany.
• Golden Cross of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Cyprus
• Grand Cross of the National Order of Merit of Romania
• Grand Officier de l’ordre de Leopold II, Belgique.
• Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of Egypt