CSE | Citizens’ Europe

Tag: kapodistrias

  • Greece–Switzerland relations

    From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
    Greek-Swiss relations
    Map indicating locations of Greece and Switzerland

    Greece
    Switzerland

     

    Greek-Swiss relations are foreign relations between Greece and Switzerland. Both countries established diplomatic relations in 1830. Switzerland opened its consulate in 1865. Greece has an embassy in Bern, a general consulate in Geneva, and two honorary consulates in Zurich and Lugano. Switzerland has an embassy in Athens and four consulates (Thessaloniki, Corfu, Patras, Rhodos).

    Relations

    Greece and Switzerland have a long tradition of relations. Before and during the Congress of Vienna in 1815 Ioannis Kapodistrias, a native of Corfu in the service of Tsar Alexander I of Russia, laboured successfully for reorganisation of the Swiss Confederation and for the international recognition of Swiss neutrality.[1] In 1816, he became the first honorary citizen of the city of Lausanne[2] and in 1827 the first Governor of the Hellenic State. Switzerland was one of the nations that supported the creation of the Greek nation in 1830. Two natives of Geneva exercised important functions in the newly constituted Greek monarchy: Jean-Gabriel Eynard as one of the founders of the National Bank of Greece (1842) and Louis-André Gosse was involved in fighting the plague epidemic of 1827 and was a commander in the Greek Navy.[1]

    During the Second World War, Switzerland represented the interests of numerous countries in occupied Greece and supported the civilian population. During the military dictatorship (1967-1974) in Greece, many opposition figures found refuge in Switzerland. The Swiss Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Greece was formed in Bern in 1967.[1]

    Greece and Switzerland have a number of treaties between the two countries, mainly dealing with commerce.[3] Some of the major treaties between the countries deal with Social Security and the avoidance of double taxation in respect of income tax.[4]

    Trade

    The balance of trade between Greece and Switzerland is generally toward Switzerland, with Greece having a constant trade deficit. Between 2006 and 2007 Swiss exports to Greece increased 12.9%, while Greek exports to Switzerland increased 26.4%.[5] The main Swiss products imported into Greece are pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, watches, clocks and other luxury goods, machinery and high technology products, electronic equipment, and specific types of food. The main Greek products imported into Switzerland are food and beverages, chemicals, construction materials, and textiles.[4] There are about 48 Swiss companies in Greece[4] which employ about 10’000 people in Greece.[1] Around 300,000 Swiss vacationers visit Greece every year.[1]

    Balance of Trade between Greece and Switzerland (in millions of Swiss Francs)[4]
    1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2007[5]
    Swiss exports to Greece 928.4 852.7 848.7 910.2 948.8 1091.9 1180.7 1306
    Greek exports to Switzerland 120.4 126.4 136.1 153.0 134.8 151.9 150.3 316
    Balance of Trade -808.0 -726.3 -712.6 -757.2 -814.0 -940.0 -1030.4 -990

  • Capodistrias – Spinelli Today

    European Union: disintegration or a new beginning?

    This is the question posed by the crisis we are living through, which has triggered so much speculation (!) over the fate of Greece.

    Ioannis Capodistrias, Altiero Spinelli: two emblematic personalities of pan-European stature marking two different phases of the course towards a united citizens’ Europe. Anyone who has visited the European Parliament will be well aware that Spinelli plays the same symbolic role for the political circles of the European Union as Capodistrias plays for the majority of Greeks who regard the establishment of the modern Hellenic state in 1828, at Aegina, as a historic advance not just for the citizens of this country but for Europe as a whole.

    Today in the midst of crisis the European Union seems vis-à-vis Greece and other EU member countries to be introducing policies that are extremely problematic for the peoples of Europe. Is it possible in this conjuncture for anyone to believe that the ideas of these two visionaries, Capodistrias and Spinelli, have any chance of influencing the reality of our days and opening new prospects for the European Union?

    Our three speakers will attempt to provide an answer to this.

    Andreas Koukos


    koukos

    Andreas Koukos was born in Chania, Crete. He studied at the law school of the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki and the Officers’ Military Academy and holds a post-graduate diploma in Naval Science and Strategy from the Naval War College. He is also a graduate of the National Defense College. In 2012 he completed his doctorate in the Philosophical Faculty of the University of Athens. He is a professor of modern history at the National Defense College and the Naval War College, has participated in numerous scholarly symposia in Greece and abroad and has published articles in scholarly journals. He has been consultant to the Capodistrian Cities Network has won a number of awards and distinctions. He is a Brigadier in the the Corps of Legal of Consultants of the Greek Armed Forces.

    On 21st September 2010 he founded the “Association for the Study of the Work of Ioannis Capodistrias”, currently serving as its first president.

    Giulietto Chiesa

     

    chiesa
    Giulietto Chiesa was born in 1940 in Piedmont. In the 1980s during the Berlinguer period he was a correspondent for the L’Unita newspaper and then for La Stampa, experiences which transformed him into one of the world’s best “Sovietologists”. He has written for a number of different newsagencies of Russia, the USA, Switzerland and Germany, as well as broadcasts for Vatican Radio. In his articles, which are required reading for comprehension of the USSR in its last years, he examines globalization, the international system and the media, and the wars of recent decades. From 2004 to 2008 he was a Europarliamentarian. In the 2009 European elections he was a candidate for the Party of Human Rights in Latvia, a member of the parliamentary grouping of the Greens which promotes the human rights of Russian speakers in Latvia. He is a member of the New Policy Forum of the former president of the USSR Mikhail Gorbachev.

    Panagiotis Paspaliaris

     

    paspaliaris
    Panagiotis Paspaliaris was born in Nafplion in 1975. He studied history and archaeology at the Aristotelian University of Thessaloniki. He is the author of “The Drachma” (2007), “Great Hellenes: Ioannis Capodistrias” (2008), “Great Hellenes, Pericles” (2009). “The History of Mediaeval Hellenism in Asia Minor” (2010). He works in the private sector and is a regular contributor to the magazine Hot Doc on historical and other subjects.

    The meeting will be co-ordinated by Zoe Georgiadou.

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