Stavros Lambrinidis

Stavros Lambrinidis is the ambassador of the European Union to the United States, as of March 1, 2019.

From 2012 to 2019, he served as the European Union special representative for human rights. In 2011, he was foreign affairs minister of Greece. Between 2004 and 2011, he was twice elected member of the European Parliament (MEP) with the Greek Social Democratic Party (PASOK). He served as vice president of the European Parliament (2009-11), vice president of the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (2004-09) and head of the PASOK Delegation (2005-11). Between 2000 and 2004, he was director-general of the International Olympic Truce Centre, an International Olympic Committee organization.

He served as ambassador ad personam of the Hellenic Republic (1999-2004) and as secretary-general of the Greek Foreign Ministry responsible for Diaspora Greeks (1996-99). Between 1988 and 1993, he was an Attorney at Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering in Washington, D.C., specializing in international trade, transactions and arbitration.

He has received numerous recognitions for his work on human rights and privacy, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center’s “Champion of Freedom Award” in 2020 and the Boston Global Forum’s “World Leader in Artificial Intelligence Award” in 2021. He is a member of the President’s Council on International Activities at Yale University and a former president of the DC Bar Association’s Human Rights Committee.

Lambrinidis was born in Athens, Greece, in 1962. He received his B.A. degree in Economics and Political Science from Amherst College (1984) and his J.D. degree from Yale Law School (1988), where he was also managing editor of The Yale Journal of International Law. He is a 1980 graduate of the Athens College High School in Greece. He is married and has a daughter.