Greek Foreign Ministry: Vasiliki Loizou is the new Secretary General of International Economic Relations and Outreach

Vasiliki Loizou is taking over the role of general secretary of International Economic Relations and Outreach of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a position previously held by Yiannis Smyrlis who submitted his resignation a few days ago.

According to information, Mrs. Loizou had started a pre-election campaign months ago to run as a candidate in the prefecture of Cyclades, however she “quietly” stopped and will not run. Thus it was decided to appoint a general secretary of International Economic Relations and Outreach.

Who is Vasiliki Loizou?

Ms. Loizou is a political scientist – international relations specialist with postgraduate studies in European politics and administration at Panteion University. She specializes in strategic planning and reforms – in particular the planning and implementation of economic and market reforms.

She has extensive experience in public administration, holding positions of responsibility successively in the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Development.

Especially, at the Ministry of Development she was responsible for monitoring and coordinating all reforms as well as for cooperation with the European Union and international organizations, such as the OECD and the World Bank.

She was Deputy Secretary of Strategic Planning and Communication of New Democracy since January 2016, while – emerging victorious from a difficult battle she fought with a rare form of cancer – she focused on health policy issues and health system reforms, as an advisor to the president of New Democracy.

Also, in 2020 she served as general secretary of Tourism Policy and Development.

It is worth noting that in the past she participated in the tough negotiations with the Troika on the hot topics of the memorandum obligations and had assumed the responsibility of the contacts with the representatives of the EU, the IMF, the ECB and also the Task Force.