GREEK MP LIKELY CANDIDATE FOR OSCE COMMISSIONER ON

C O N F I D E N T I A L ATHENS 000194

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2017
TAGS: PREL PGOV OSCE GR
SUBJECT: GREEK MP LIKELY CANDIDATE FOR OSCE COMMISSIONER ON
NATIONAL MINORITIES

REF: COUNTRYMAN-SCOTT E-MAILS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR CHARLES RIES. REASON: 1.4 (B) AND (D).


1. (C) On January 23, Greek MP Nikos Georgiadis told DCM
that he had received approval from Greek FM Bakoyiannis to
present himself as a candidate for the job of OSCE High
Commissioner on National Minorities. Georgiadis is scheduled
to meet with OSCE Secretary General de Brichambault (who will
be critical to the selection of the new Commissioner) during
de Brichambault's visit to Athens on January 29.


2. (U) Born in 1964, Georgiadis holds a law degree from the
University of Athens, as well as a BA in Economics and
Sociology from the American College of Greece. He earned an
M.Phil in Development Economics from the Institute of
Development Studies in Sussex in 1990. After working at the
EU Commission in Brussels, he worked as a business consultant
(Ernst and Young) and in that role traveled to and worked
with clients in nearly all of the former Soviet republics.
Georgiadis was recruited by Karamanlis as a candidate of the
center-right governing New Democracy party in the 2004
elections and was elected to the Parliament from the island
of Corfu. He is fluent in Greek, English and French, with a
passable knowledge of Spanish and German and minor
familiarity with Russian. On the side, he was one of
Greece's top ten tennis players in his youth and still
occasionally sings and records with his jazz band.


3. (C) COMMENT: Georgiadis is one of the brightest people
in the Greek Parliament (the Vouli). We conclude this
because it took him barely a year to realize that being a
junior MP was a waste of time for someone with energy and a
desire to make a difference. He told DCM in the spring of
2006 that neither the Prime Minister nor the Vouli President
were interested in having new members show any initiative in
crafting legislation. Georgiadis found it stultifying, but
was unable simply to resign, because this would create a
perception of a split within the ND, when in fact he is loyal
to Karamanlis. Moving to an international position of status
equal or higher than an MP would both give him a meaningful
job and avoid that political loss for ND.


4. (C) In our view, Georgiadis would make a good candidate
for the job, despite his relative youth. He and Bakoyiannis
are fully aware that a Greek candidate for the position would
face automatic suspicion from its neighbors. (Indeed, the
very title of the position clashes with the official Greek
line that there are no "national minorities" in Greece, only
a "Muslim minority.") Fortunately for Georgiadis, he is not
a typical Greek politician. He has cultivated
extraordinarily close ties with politicians in Skopje, Tirana
and (especially) Ankara beginning from his days as a leader
of the youth wing of the ND. In 2006, he was the first MP to
argue in print that Greece should simply recognize its
northern neighbor as "Republic of Macedonia." Although he
was virulently attacked for it, he also received thousands of
messages from ordinary Greeks supporting his view.


5. (C) Between his outspokenness and his political contacts
in Greece's neighbors and in Central Asia, we are not willing
to bet against Georgiadis' chances of neutralizing the
knee-jerk opposition and convincing de Brichambault to select
him. Georgiadis was told by the MFA that, in mid-December
(after he had decided to pursue the position but before he
had the Foreign Minister's blessing),the current High
Commissioner Rolf Ekeus approached the Greek Permrep in
Vienna to suggest that Greece should offer a candidate for
the position. If Georgiadis actually got the job, it could
only help us in our persistent, low-key efforts to get Greece
to modernize its own approach to national minorities. END
COMMENT.
RIES