Born 1957; graduated in law from the University of Athens (1980); awarded DEA (diploma of advanced studies) in public law by the University of Paris I, Panthéon-Sorbonne (1981); awarded diploma by the University Centre for Community and European Studies (University of Paris I) (1982); Junior Officer of the Council of State (1985-92); Junior Member of the Council of State (1992-2005); Legal Secretary at the Court of Justice of the European Communities (1994-96); Supplementary Member of the Superior Special Court of Greece (1998 and 1999); Member of the Council of State (2005); Member of the Special Court for Actions against Judge ...[+++]s (2006); Member of the Supreme Council for Administrative Justice (2008); Inspector of Administrative Courts (2009-10); Judge at the General Court since 25 October 2010.

The two sides exchanged views on the current state of play in the field of governance in Africa based on the AU’s priority activities in the area of enhancing more transparent, participatory and democratic practice in public life.

I agree with the Commission’s suggestion that greater responsibility should be given to the Member States’ administrations and that procedures should be simplified, based on the adoption by the Member States of best practice, together with suitable training for administrative staff entrusted with these tasks.

2. By way of derogation from Article 7, a Member State may provide that a holder of a university degree or equivalent qualification in one or more of the subjects referred to in Article 8 may be exempted from the test of the ability to apply in practice his theoretical knowledge of such subjects if he has received practical training in them attested by an examination or diploma recognized by the State.

In practice, the Member State must take into consideration the diplomas acquired in another Member State, by comparing the abilities certified by those diplomas with the knowledge and qualifications required by the national rules.

That the main aim of the updated eEurope 2005 Action Plan is to fine-tune the existing actions and strengthen the implementation mechanisms in order to speed up progress in five key areas (broadband, on-line public services, e-business, e-inclusion and benchmarking) as part of the Lisbon strategy. That following the commitment at the 2003 Spring European Council, the 15 Member States have all drawn up national broadband strategies. Broadband deployment and take-up are increasing rapidly and are mainly market-driven. That to address circumstances where there is clear evidence of market failure, the strategies stress to various degrees the ...[+++] need of increasing coverage of under-served areas through e.g. public support, demand aggregation and public private partnerships. That the strategies also stress to various degrees the need of stimulating demand through financial incentives and increased usage by the public sector; and of developing innovative applications and services supporting the introduction of broadband technologies in a technologically neutral way. In all these actions, the Guidelines on the use of Structural Funds in electronic communications should be followed so as not to distort competition nor thwart private commercial incentives. That on-line public services (eGovernment, eHealth and eLearning) make an important contribution to the Lisbon process by acting as a catalyst for growth, efficiency and innovation, and that there is a need to increase the impact of bringing public services on-line by enhancing interoperability, the exchange of good practice and pan-European co-operation. That interoperability, including open standards and open platforms, is of utmost importance for the effective deployment and use of ICT in all sectors, notably in the pan-European and national work for the development and implementation of eGovernment services. The importance of strengthening trust and security through the general development of a culture of network and info ...