Loukas Tsoukalis at the Centenary Conference of the Academy of Athens

The President of ELIAMEP, Professor Loukas Tsoukalis, participated as a speaker at the centenary conference marking 100 years of the Academy of Athens, held on March 31 under the theme “Governance: National Re-hierarchisations – International Constraints.” Mr. Tsoukalis spoke in the second panel alongside Konstantinos Papanikolas, Emeritus Professor at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Founding President of the Cyprus Institute and founding member of the Cyprus Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, and Panos Tsakloglou, Professor at the Athens University of Economics and Business, former Deputy Minister and member of the Monetary Policy Council of the Bank of Greece, under the moderation of journalist Xenia Kounalaki.

The discussion highlighted geopolitical shifts, the technological revolution, and climate change as key factors reshaping the policy-making landscape.

Mr. Tsoukalis emphasized that a defining feature of our time is that major problems are increasingly acquiring a global dimension, while politics remains primarily a national affair. This contradiction—and the constraints it imposes—is felt more acutely by smaller countries, whose choices are more limited. Yet democracy without choices cannot exist.

He further noted that globalization is now being instrumentalized by the major powers—primarily Trump’s America—while existing rules are being dismantled and replaced by the law of the strongest.

Regarding Europe, Loukas Tsoukalis pointed out that Europeans were not prepared for such a world. The European Union is now facing an existential threat, appearing hesitant and fearful, with weak leadership at the level of European institutions and, in most cases, weak national governments.