4th Chairman of the JCC :: Brief history :: About SECI

Georgios Ch. Kounadis
Chairman of the JOINT COOPERATION COMMITTEE
elected at the 20th JCC Meeting

Mr. Georgios Ch. Kounadis was born in Athens.

Graduate of Political Sciences, Panteion University Athens (1973) and of Philosophy, Department of Archaeology and History of National and Kapodestrial University, Athens (1980).

In December 2002 he assumed his responsibilities as Head of International Economic Relations Directorate, of the Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance. Responsible for coordinating international activities of the Hellenic Fiscal and Customs Administrations at European and International level, for negotiating international agreements on Avoidance of Double Taxation, on Mutual Assistance on Customs matters and certain types of international agreements having Tax and Customs content.

Under this status he represented both Tax and Customs Administrations. Over his 28 year career Mr. Kounadis served important and sensitive sectors of the Hellenic Customs, mainly in the Tariff and Excise Duties Directorates of the Hellenic Ministry of Economy and Finance. Since 1980, year of accession of Greece to the European Community, he has represented Customs Service and Ministry of Finance at various meetings of the European Commission and Council.

In 1993 he was detached as a National Expert in Brussels, after a written demand of the European Commission to the Greek Customs Administration, for the period starting June 1993 and ending August 1996. At this post he was responsible for the implementation of Community legislation relating to excise duties applied on mineral oils.

Of particularly importance, Mr. Kounadis has provided considerable contributions to the discussions on the harmonisation of excise duties legislation at European level, in the frame of the integration of single internal market, as well as to the proposals to the control of movement of excisable products. Moreover, he dealt with the codification of excise legislation, the drawing up of texts regarding Community Regulations, Directives and Decisions, the establishment of European marker on rebated mineral oil products, the promotion of the proposal of Directive on biofuels, the revision of excise duties legislation of Hungary and the negotiation of the agreement with the USA regarding Containers Security Initiative.

Chairman of the Joint Cooperation Committee of the SECI Center