Κώστας Β. Mποτόπουλος

I was born in Athens in 1962. My father was a judge (the third generation in the family to deal professionally with the law and probably the last) and my mother was an archaeologist, both of Peloponnesian descent. My brother Dimitris, a former artist and current interpreter, is 4 years younger than me. I spent all my school years at Moraitis School, at a time when Antonis Moraitis still imposed his personal mark.

I entered Athens Law School in 1980 and was awarded, through the old system of exclusively oral exams, my degree in 1985. I completed a Masters in Paris I- Sorbonne, from where I also obtained a PhD in Constitutional Law in 1991. My dissertation, a precursor and a forerunner of my future path, bore the tile The Socialists in the trial of power and was completed under the supervision and guidance of Lecturer and later on (another omen) MEP Olivier Duhamel. Upon returning to Greece I served in the Military Navy, where I undertook the compilation of its Internal Regulation, whilst I simultaneously translated my dissertation in Greek. In 1993 I entered politics in an indirect way, due to the then Presidency Minister Anastasios Peponis, for whom I worked as an advisor, and in 1994 I entered married life in a direct way, due to Eleonora Andreadaki, whom I had, naturally, met in Paris.

My relationship with PASOK began with the still-born but nonetheless interesting experiment of the thematic branch dealing with institutions and rights, whilst since 1995 I have also been a practicing lawyer, for the Bank of Greece and in the Trifon Koutalidis Cabinet. In 1999 my father died and my son was born- one Vasilis succeeding another in my life and in my heart. My first public post was that of General Secretary of Tourism, during the period 2003-2004, under Prime Minister Costas Simitis and Minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos. In 2005 I was elected in the National Council of PASOK and a bit later appointed head of the Committee of Human Rights, Migration and Social Integration, member of the Administrative Council of the Institute of Education and PASOK's representative at the National Committee of Human Rights. In October of 2007, after the national elections, I became a Member of the European Parliament and I have since been sitting in the Constitutional Committee, Budget Committee and Legal Committee. I speak English due to necessity, French due to education, Italian due to love and Spanish due to its proximity with the last two languages (my German remains stubbornly insufficient despite my sporadic efforts). I hope that I will continue to read literature, to write (mainly non-literature), to play basketball, and to travel, irrespective of the future of my political career, to which I am drawn mainly out of my need for public expression and communication.