Eyripidis Stylianidis

Evripidis St. Stylianidis was born in Komotini on April 8, 1966. He is the child of a refugee family from the Forty Churches of Eastern Thrace. His parents, Stylianos Stylianidis and Georgia Petra, were educators. He is married to economist Youli Papachristou and is the father of three children: Stylianos, Elena, and Georgia. He is a lawyer at the Supreme Court of Greece, holds a Doctorate in Constitutional Law from the University of Hamburg, Germany, and is a Visiting Professor at the University of Nicosia, Cyprus. He was elected as the first Member of Parliament for Rhodope nine times from 2000 until September 2015. He led the Greek delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and was a member of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defense, the Committee on Cultural Affairs, and the Special Committee on European Affairs of the Hellenic Parliament. He participated in the Constitutional Revision Committee from 2000 to 2001 and represented the Hellenic Parliament at the Assembly for the European Constitution in 2001. He served as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2004-2007), Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs (2007-2009), Minister of Transport (Jan.-Sept. 2009), and Minister of the Interior (2012-2013). As the responsible Secretary, he prepared the governmental program of the New Democracy party (2011-2012). He was President of ONNED (1994-1995) and a candidate for the European Parliament (1994). He presided over the Law Students' Association of the Democritus University of Thrace (1984-1989), from which he graduated, and represented the Association in the Senate and the Central Council of the National Student Union of Greece. He has been awarded scholarships in Greece and abroad. He participated in young leaders' programs in the USA (German Marshall Fund of the United States), France (Ministry of Foreign Affairs), and Germany. He has been honored with several distinctions by the Presidents of Austria, Germany, Hungary, and the Kings of Denmark and Belgium for his contribution to the development of bilateral relations. He worked as a local associate at the Greek Consulate General in Hamburg (1991-1994) and as a researcher at the European Public Law Organization, where he taught in the postgraduate department of the Law School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (1996-2000). He speaks English and German. His publications include over 30 scientific articles and presentations in Greece and abroad.