Articles

Apostolos Katsifaras was born in 1959 at Kalentzi of Achaia, Greece. He is married and father of two children. After graduating in Management and Economics from the Technological Institute of Patras, he was executive at the Greek National Tourism Organisation (GNTO).

He was first elected as member of the Prefectural Council of Achaia in 1994, and then, he was re-elected in 1998 and 2002. During his mandate, he was appointed twice Vice-Prefect (1997-2000 and 2003-2004). In the national elections of 2004, 2007 and 2009, Mr. Katsifaras was elected Member of the Greek Parliament with PASOK (Socialist Party). From October 2009 until the regional elections in November 2010 he was member of the Greek Government as Vice-Minister of Justice, Transparency and Human Rights (in November 2010 he resigned from his office in order to be candidate President for the Region of Western Greece). After winning the regional elections of November 2010, he served as the first elected President (Regional Governor) of the newly formed Region of Western Greece, from January 2001 till August 2014.

During his first mandate as President of the Region of Western Greece, Mr. Katsifaras was:

• Vice-President of the Union of Regions of Greece.
• Full member of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).
• Member of the CoR’s Commission for Education, Youth and Research (EDUC).
• Member of the CoR’s Commission for the Environment, Climate Change and Energy (ENVE). [till December 2013]
• Member of the CoR’s Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy (COTER). [from December 2013]
• 1st Vice-President of the CoR’s Interregional Group “Adriatic-Ionian”.
• Vice-President for Sustainable Development of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions.
• Member of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR).
• Vice-President of the CPMR’s InterMediterranean Commission (represented by the Vice-Head for Regional Development, Mr. Giorgos Aggelopoulos).

In May 2014 he won again the regional election and re-elected as President of the Region of Western Greece for a 5 years mandate (1 September 2014 – 31 August 2019).

During his second mandate as President of the Region of Western Greece, Mr. Katsifaras is:

• Member of the Board of the Union of Regions of Greece.
• Full member of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR).
• Member of the CoR’s Commission for Social Policy, Education, Employment, Research and Culture (SEDEC).
• Member of the CoR’s Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy (COTER).
• 1st Vice-President of the CoR’s Interregional Group “Adriatic-Ionian”. [till April 2015]
• President of the CoR’s Interregional Group “Adriatic-Ionian”. [from April 2015 till October 2017]
• Vice-President of the PES Group in the Committee of the Regions.
• Member of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR).
• Vice-President of the CPMR’s InterMediterranean Commission (till June 2016, represented by the Deputy for European and International Affairs of the Region, Mr. Konstantinos Karpetas).
• President of the CPMR’s InterMediterranean Commission (from July 2016 till June 2018).