Angelos Pagkratis

Senior Policy Advisor; Advisor HC (with grade of Director General) to the European External Action Service (EEAS); Former EU ambassador to the World Trade Organisation

Mr Angelos Pangratis is since sept.2015 senior advisor HC (with grade of Director General) to the European External Action Service (EEAS) in Brussels Headquarters, in charge of the European Economic Diplomacy (EED). The EED was created in July 2017 by the Secretaries General of the EEAS and the European Commission. It is now actively implemented in more than 120 non-EU countries.

From January 2016 to April 2018 he was the EEAS participant to the Board of Directors of the European Investment Bank.

In March 2017 he joined the Bertelsmann Stiftung ” High-Level Board of Experts on the Future of Global Trade Governance”. The report of the Board was presented in February 2018.

From January 2011 to August 2015, he was the Ambassador and Head of the Permanent Mission of the EU to the WTO.　During this period the EU played a leading role in reviving the negotiation function of the WTO after the very serious impasse of the 8^th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Dec 2011. During the following years, at least two globally important negotiations were successfully concluded: First, the “Bali package” at the 9th Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Dec 2013 part of which was the Trade Facilitation Agreement, in fact the first Multilateral Agreement since the creation of the WTO. Second, in July 2015, the decisive break through on the expansion of the “Information Technology Agreement” that allowed its finalization at the 10th Ministerial conference in Nairobi (Dec 2015). This is the most important multilateral tariff reduction Agreement since the WTO creation itself in 1995, covering more that on trillion global trade annually.

From January to May 2011 he also headed, as Chargé d’Affaires a.i., the Delegation of the EU to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva and represented the EU in several international organizations including UNCTAD, WIPO, Human Rights Council and others.

He served, from August 2005, as Deputy Head of the Delegation to the USA. He was Acting Head and Chargé d’Affaires from October 2009 to July 2010. After the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty (Dec 2009), he initiated in Washington a political coordination process among EU Member States that became a model for the coordination action of the EEAS in other countries. During the same period he represented the EU as Permanent Observer to the Organisation of American States

He was the Ambassador and Head of the Delegation (HOD) to Argentina (February 2003 to August 2005), during the period of economic recovery after the national default where the role and activities of the EU expanded very significantly. He also served as Deputy HOD in South Africa (1995-1997), during the first Mandela administration where he launched the first ever EU private sector and SMEs support cooperation programme. He was Deputy HOD in Korea (1990-1994) during the transition from military to civilian presidents. He initiated the creation of the first ever EU chamber of commerce with direct membership of European companies that he replicated later in China and Argentina. In both Seoul and Beijing the EU chambers of commerce are still today extremely important pillars of the EU economic and commercial presence.

In Brussels, Belgium, he was the Head of Unit (HOU) responsible for relations with China (1998-2003) during the period where the EU-China relations expanded and deepened rapidly. He was the HOU for Personnel and Budget of the Directorate General for External Relations and Trade Policy (1997-1998) also responsible for the management of the network of Delegations. He was Head of Investigation Teams of the Anti-Dumping Division (1987-1990) where he led some of the most important investigations of the time. From 1981 to 1986 he served in the export credits and export promotion division. He headed several EU export promotion missions to Korea, to the Gulf countries and to South East Asian countries.

Mr Pangratis has lectured during the last 15 years to more than 50 Universities and many more think tanks and other fora including several times to the US Army War College in Carlisle, PA, USA. He has had interviews, speech and seminar materials and articles on EU matters published in several countries.

Angelos Pangratis was born on the island of Corfu, Greece (1956), is married and has three children. He speaks Greek, French, English and Spanish. He obtained a doctorate from the University of Paris I, Pantheon-Sorbonne in International Economics, Monetary Policies and Finance.