GAME OVER – THE INSIDE STORY OF THE GREEK CRISIS (Greek Edition)

George Papaconstantinou, born October 30, 1961 in Athens, Greece, is a Greek economist and politician and former Minister of Environment and Minister of Finance of Greece.He graduated from theLondon School of Economics (LSE). He later obtained a Master of Arts in Economics from New York University and a PhD in Economics from LSE. After his studies, he worked as a senior economist at the OECD in Paris from 1988 to 1998. In 1998 he returned to Greece and was appointed an adviser to then-Prime Minister Simitis. Between 2004 and 2007, Papaconstantinou served as economic advisor to George Papandreou, the president of the PASOK social democratic party. Between 2003 and 2007, Papaconstantinou also taught economics at Department of Management Science and Technology of the Athens University of Economics and advised the European Comisison on research and information society issues, participating in various international research projects. In May 2005, Papaconstantinou was elected a member of the National Council of PASOK. In September 2007, he was elected Member of the Parliament to represent the district of Kozani and was subsequently appointed PASOK's Press Spokesman in March 2008. Papaconstantinou headed PASOK's list of candidates for the European Parliament in the 2009 European Elections and was elected MEP in June 2009. In October 2009 he was appointed Finance Minister in the government formed by Prime Minister Papandreou. As Finance Minister, he revealed that the Greek deficit was much larger than what was reported by the previous government, and when Greece was shut out of international markets, he negotiated a 110bn€ loan with the EU and the IMF, together with a programme of severe fiscal consolidation and structural reforms. During his tenure, he overhauled the budget process, instituting a medium-term fiscal framework with expenditure monitoring and assessment mechanisms, and an independent statistical authority; In June 2010, Prime Minister Papandreou reshuffled the government and appointed him Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Change, a post he kept in the government of Lukas Papademos until he handed over to a caretaker Minister in May 2012. He was one of a number of Papademos' cabinet who failed to be re-elected in the May 6, 2012 General election that saw PASOK lose almost 120 seats in the house. Following the elections, Papaconstantinou has faced a parliamentary investigation into the handling of the so-called Lagarde list, containing information on the deposits of roughly 2,000 Greek citizens at HSBC bank's Geneva branch, In 2015, a Special Court convened for this case and composed of 13 judges drawn from the two highest Greek courts unanimously cleared him of the breach of faith charge, concluding that there had been no damage to the State from his actions. At the same time, with an 8 to 5 majority by the court, he received a suspended misdemeanour conviction for the tampering charge. Papaconstantinou is married to travel writer Jakoline Vinke. They have two sons, Nicolas and Stefanos.