G8 members

European Union

MR ROMANO PRODI, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION

Nationality Italian Personal details Born 9th August 1939, Scandiano, (Reggio Emilia) Italy Married, two sons Education Degree in Law, Catholic University of Milan Postgraduate studies at the London School of Economics

Academic career
1963-1971 Assistant in Political Economics at the University of Bologna
1971-1999 Professor of Industrial Organisation and Industrial Policy at the University of Bologna
1963-1964 Researcher at the Lombard Institute of Economic and Social Studies (ILSES)
1968 Researcher at Stanford Research Institute
1973-1974 Professor of Economics and Industrial Politics at the Free University of Trento
1974 Visiting Professor at Harvard University

Political career
1978-1979 Minister for Industry
1982-1989 Chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI)
1993-1994 Re-appointed Chairman of the Institute for Industrial Reconstruction (IRI)
1995 Chairman of the Ulivo, the centre left coalition
1996-1999 Member of Parliament
1996-1998 President of the Council of Ministers of the Italian Republic
September 1999 - President of the European Commission


Source: Official website of the European Commission

MR KONSTANTINOS SIMITIS, PRIME MINISTER OF GREECE, PRESIDENT OF THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL

Born in Piraeus on 23 June 1939. He studied law at the University of Marburg in Germany and economics at the London School of Economics. He taught as an appointed lecturer at the University of Konstanz in 1971 and as Professor of Commercial Law and Civil Law at the University of Giessen from 1971 to 1975. In 1977, he was appointed Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Political and Social Sciences (Panteion).

In 1965, he co-founded and became secretary of the Alexandros Papanastassiou political research society.

In 1967, following the colonels' coup, the Alexandros Papanastassiou political research society became a resistance organisation and was renamed Democratic Defence. Seven years later, this organisation helped found the Panhellenic Socialist Movement, PASOK.

He fled Greece in 1969 and was convicted in absentia by a court martial for arson and use of explosives.

He 1970, he joined the Panhellenic Liberation Movement (PAK) and became a member of its National Council.

In 1974, he was a founding member of PASOK. He co-authored the party's charter and was on the first Executive Bureau and the first Central Committee.

He was elected Member of Parliament for Piraeus for the first time in the 1985 elections and has always been re-elected to this seat since. His differences of opinion with Andreas Papandreou led to his resignation from the Executive Bureau in 1979, his exclusion from the list of candidates for the 1981 elections and his resignation as Minister of Industry, Energy, Technology and Commerce in 1995.

On 18 January 1996, the PASOK parliamentary group elected him Prime Minister following the resignation of Andreas Papandreou for health reasons. On 30 June 1996, the PASOK parliamentary group elected him party chairman following the death of Andreas Papandreou, and re-elected him in 2000.

He has been Vice-President of Socialist International since 1996.

He has published a number of political and economic works.

He has held the positions of Minister of Agriculture (1981-1985), Minister for the National Economy (1985-1987), Minister of Education (1989-1990) and Minister of Industry, Research, Technology and Commerce (1993-1995).

He is married with two daughters.

Source: Embassy of Greece in Paris