Spartan warrior.
THE INGRATITUDE OF GREEK POLITICIANS
Throughout his career, Dr. Angel ANGELIDIS has served with the rigor, objectivity and impartiality imposed
by his scientific training and in compliance with the provisions of the national and European public services for which he worked, without never bend or conform to the administrative or political pressures when they manifested to force him to go in a direction
contrary to his beliefs. His bravery and performance earned him the recognition of the personalities and authorities of different nationalities and political trends, reflected in countless invitations that he received to participate/intervene at conferences
and other events of very high level and in multiple honors which he was granted by organizations of various States and heads of State (see Curriculum Vitae).
Dr. ANGELIDIS has exercised by excellence his activities at the international level and the recognition of his contribution was therefore international. Greece, his native country,
unfortunately is a rare exception to this finding[1], Greek politicians having clearly failed to recognize his contribution which was decisive to conclude the accession negotiations in 1979 with very favorable conditions for Greece. Thus, once the negotiations completed, Dr.
ANGELIDIS - who had yet worked tirelessly for the interests of the country and without political affiliation - was not included in the list of the persons proposed in 1981/1982 by the Greek Government to hold high rank positions (A1, A2, A3) within the Community
administration (“Greek quota”). However, despite this "omission", Dr. ANGELIDIS could finally access in 1987 the A3 post (head of Division) in the European Parliament on own merit, following an external competition having been ranked first
in the recruitment list, which made impossible attempts to misuse of his appointment for other candidates supported by Greek political groups...
The lack of political support and the disinterest of the Greek Government for the areas within the jurisdiction of the Dr. ANGELIDIS (agriculture, fisheries, forest - which are of capital importance for the
Greek economy) have endured throughout his career within the European Institutions, which had the consequence that virtually all of its activities were conducted in connection / on request / for the benefit of other Member States of the EU namely France, Spain
and Portugal, or third English, French and Spanish speaking countries.
On the other
hand, the Greek authorities insisted on the access to senior European administrative positions by privileged candidates of the political groups in areas of no interest to the country, such as translation/interpretation, the administration of the buildings
of the European Parliament, etc.
However, the lack of political support in an strongly
political Institution - such as the European Parliament - has led to undermine the position of Dr. ANGELIDIS as head of Division, weakness that he was able to thwart only through an enormous personal performance reflected by the quantity and quality of the
documents he produced, an output rated higher than that of an entire Directorate-General (see list of drafted/published documents during the 1988-2011 period).
Whereas this outstanding performance has consolidated the interinstitutional reputation of Dr. ANGELIDIS as a confirmed expert in the agri-food and forestry areas, it has however attracted the hostility of
the administration which blocked his career advancement, assisted by the complacency of the Greek political groups. Dr. ANGELIDIS had recourse to the European Court of Justice on a procedural fault in a competition for a position of Director at the European
Parliament. The Court gave him reason, cancelled the appointment of another candidate (the favorite of the administration) and ordered the restarting of the procedure for the position in question. Eventually the administration still managed to nominate its
preferred candidate by another manipulation of the procedure and the connivance of the Greek vice-presidents on the Bureau of the Parliament.
Despite his bitterness for this lamentable behavior of Greek politicians and the great damage he has suffered, Dr. ANGELIDIS remained a fervent Patriot and promoter of the values of the Greek civilization
in the world. It is worth mentioning in this regard his unique contribution as Cantor of byzantine sacred music for the observance of traditional Greek Orthodox Matins in Tuesday morning at the plenary sessions of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
Dr. ANGELIDIS was supposed to go on retirement the 01.11.2011. His imminent departure would however leave
a vacuum of expertise in the administrative structures of the European Parliament concerning the fields of his competence. For this reason, Joseph DAUL, Chairman of the EPP Group, asked the General Secretary of the European Parliament to maintain Dr. ANGELIDIS
active in his service until the end of the year 2011.
From the 01.01.2012 onwards,
Dr. Angel ANGELIDIS is an independent Consultant/Expert in the fields of agriculture, fisheries and forests. He is also interested in military history, geopolitics and geostrategy. He is a member of the Royal Union of shooting societies of Belgium.
[1] This confirms the french proverb: “No one is prophet in his own country".