Loukas Th. Apostolidis

Loukas Th. Apostolidis studied at the Law School of Athens and then completed his postgraduate studies in Labor Relations Law at Nanterre University Paris-X. He also attended seminars on the forms of the Popular Movement at Ecole Pratique in France.

Loukas Apostolidis’ postgraduate studies in Paris on matters of employment and insurance later contributed to the specialization of the law office on these, along with other matters. From 1982 to 1989 he was the legal counsel of the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE), during an intense period of democratization and modernization of the labour movement in our country.

As an initiator of the GSEE's Centre for Educational Search and Documentation that evolved into today's GSEE Labour Institute/ GSEE- Civil Servants' Confederation, Loukas Apostolidis was the founder of labour and trade union training and attended hundreds of trials on labour, insurance and administrative employee matters.

He has written many books and articles on social, labour and insurance issues and on civil rights.

As head of the GSEE’s Centre for Educational Search and Documentation, from 1982 to 1989, when he was elected as Minister of Parliament, he organized many international conferences with the participation of distinguished professors from abroad and Greece. In 1989 the Centre for Educational Search and Documentation was transformed into the GSEE- Civil Servants' Confederation (ADEDY) Institute of Labour.

Today, this center is an important institution for our country’s labour movement.

Loukas Apostolidis, through his books, articles and speeches proposed to the central trade unions (GEDE - ADEDY), the Local Government representatives (KEDKE) and the cooperatives (Panhellenic Confederation of Unions of Agricultural Cooperatives (PASEGES) and the scientific associations of the Athens Bar Association and Technical Chamber of Greece (TCG) to jointly establish a Labour Institute, an Academy of Economics and Social Sciences in Athens and Thessaloniki, with regional departments for staff training (self-administration, trade union, cooperatives).

He also recommended to organize, and promote scientific research on the major issues of regional development, social problems, working conditions of employees, social security, industrial relations, etc.

During the period of suspension of practicing law due to legal conflicts as Deputy Speaker of Parliament and Deputy Minister of National Defense (1996 - 2003), his office continued to work with his associates. In 2005 to 2007 he contributed to the establishment of the Supreme General Association of Pensioners of Greece (AGSSE).The highly acclaimed 1st conference of the Association took place in the presence of the President of the Hellenic Republic, Karolos Papoulias.

He has proposed and still fights to set up a Centre for Social Insurance Studies, in the scientific field, freelancers and farmers, in order to contribute to scientific research and documentation of social and insurance issues as well as to inform all citizens about insurance and social problems that concern them.

He is a legal counsel to many trade unions and professional associations.

He was the first and till today the only lawyer in Greece who appealed to the Committee of the European Social Charter against the provisions of the first Memorandum.

The seven judgments handed down by Loukas Th. Apostolidis (65/2011, 66/2011 and 76-80 / 2011) of the European Social Charter Committee in Strasbourg, following the appeals of national, professional and trade union organizations, have blocked the memorandum onslaught of pension and wage cuts.

The "Loukas Th. Apostolidis and Associates" Law Firm has contributed significantly to the national and European courts for the defense of constitutional order and regularity in our country throughout the current memorandum period.

He is also specialized with many years of experience in administrative, tax and corporate law, providing legal services to the Chamber of Commerce, the banking sector and large companies. He cooperates with the audit firm SOL SA and Forin on issues of considerable important pertaining to delayed loan repayments (red loans), the bankruptcy code and tax law related issues.

As head of the "Loukas Th. Apostolidis & Associates" Law Office since 1976, and then of the "Loukas Th. Apostolidis & Associates" Law Firm, founded in 2011, he continues to provide active legal services.

Loukas Th. Apostolidis was born in 1951 in Agia Anna, Viotia.

He was elected MP with PASOK in November 1989 and since then has been elected Member of Parliament in all elections until 2004. He was Vice-President of the Hellenic Parliament from 1996 to 2000 and Chairman of the Intergroup Audit Committee of the Balance Sheet for the Economics of the Parties (Committee of the “Asset Means Declaration” for political persons).

As president of the Commission, the audit was set up by chartered accountants, and proposed to the Commission to involve judges who, in the most objective way, would guarantee transparency regarding party and deputy finances. It was also proposed that assets and any asset modification regarding civilian staff of the House and local government, be constantly posted on the Internet, and in the event of undeclared property, the MP be deprived of the post and confiscated of the undeclared asset.

Furthermore, during the crucial EU integration period and the creation of the Eurozone, he participated as chair of the European Affairs Committee in all the inter-parliamentary processes organized in the Member States, making key and important interventions. At the heart of these interventions was the acceleration of procedures pertaining to the Federal Union and the strengthening of the democratic and social dimension of the EU. As for the European social model, he firmly believed that he embodied a human-centered approach to European culture. As regards legislative work, he participated in Constitutional Revision Committees and focused on his interventions to improve the protection of social rights and strengthen the social rule of law.

From 2001 to 2003 he served as Deputy Minister of National Defense. He placed emphasis on the reorganization of the person, and the potential of the officer, and was a warm supporter of a flexible and well-trained professional army with a reduction of military service to six months. During his days the multi-branch began to become a reality. He was a warm supporter of meritocracy, not of favoritism and partisanism.

During the Greek presidency, he also tried to promote the idea of the European defense industry and the EU's common foreign policy, which unfortunately, even until today, constitutes the Achilles’ heel of the European Union. In 2007, he was a candidate in the second district of Athens and, since 2009, has ceased to be a politician. To this end, though, he is keen to be an active citizen for social and local developments, and Europe. As such, he continues to support a rebuilding of the Democratic Party and the center-left joint action.

During Greeces’s crisis, as a litigation lawyer, but also a politician, he strives to ensure the protection of social rights and the rule of law. He supports that Democracy without social rights cannot exist, and strongly advocated major trade unions in the trials of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd MoUs.

He approached the Committee of the European Social Charter in Strasbourg. The seven decisions (65/2011, 66/2011, and 76-80 / 2011) of the Commission unanimously condemned Greece on the grounds that the memorandums are in breach of the European Social Charter. At the same time, Loukas Th. Apostolidis participates in the initiative of an extensive network of lawyers (professors, lawyers, etc.) in Europe, who jointly fight for social rights and social justice.

According to an earlier Financial Postoffice survey, he is among the dozens of politicians who prolifically write. He has published many trade union, labor and legal books. Indicatively: “Eyewitness Accounts from the Bloody Student Movement 1967-1974", "The Dilemma", "Lost Treasure", "The Holes", "The Octopus", "Trade Union Education and Labor Institutes", "Unions and Socialist Transformation", "Technical Vocational Education, Training, Employment", "Workers in the Spotlight", "Labor Games - New Social Plan", "Center Left and Social Europe"

"The Provinces on the Path of Development", "Voluntary Movement and Civil Society", "The Amphictyonic League of people of Central Greece", "Modernization", died, "I wish modernization", "The New Trade Union in a Knowledgable Society", "Knowledgable Society and Regional Development", " Insurance Law Law 3655/2008 (Government Gazette A '58 / 3.4.2008)", "The Legal Order of the Memorandum", "The European Social Charter in Crisis-stricken Greece”, "Ideology, Law and Politics” and others.