User:Georgiagiannakid/sandbox

ekyklos is a think tank policy initiative founded in December 2015. It is a non-profit organization, registered in Athens.

History
ekyklos is an independent of political parties and economic interest, non-profit think tank, founded by Evangelos Venizelos, a former Deputy Prime Minister of Greece and former leader of PASOK, and a number of high profile professionals and leading figures of the Greek political and socio-economic life. It is governed by a Board of Directors with seven members, chaired by Petros Kavassalis, Assoc. Professor of the University of Aegean and Christos Dervenis, MD PhD FRCS Head Department of Surgery Agia Olga Hospital Athens.

Vision
ekyklos is an independent think-tank, a public policy initiative and a web portal. It is a forum of public conversation and innovative thinking in the objective to define a new, strong and sustainable position of Greece within Europe and globally and to promote a coherent policy agenda that helps, in the aftermaths of the Greek turmoil, creating a society that can be productive and affluent. Ekyklos has, in particular, the goals to host fresh original ideas and produce policy insights for the transition of Greece to a new dynamic equilibrium; to translate policy into practice through political, institutional, social, economic and development initiatives that can introduce :
 * 1) A normal and functional, modern, social welfare state based on the rules of law
 * 2) A competitive and sustainable economy at the macroeconomic level which generates investment opportunities and creates jobs, because it accumulates wealth and prosperity via innovation, productivity and increased export capacity.
 * 3) A cohesive, inclusive, secure and open society
 * 4) A strong collective national identity culture that fully embraces European values and is not afraid to assert itself and claim a place in Europe and worldwide.

In this context, ekyklos: a) runs a full events programme bringing together top politicians and policymakers, academics and leading writers, people from business and other expert thinkers, from Greece and abroad, and b) developed and maintains a website (www.ekyklos.gr) to stimulate the expression of well-argued views and documented opinions (the site now hosts papers from more than 150 authors).

Activities
Main activities of ekyklos in the past two years include:
 * 1) Is there a solution to the Greek problem?, 29.02.2016, Athens (French Institute of Athens)
 * 2) Myths and truths about the Greek Public Debt Before and after the PSI, 12.04.2016, Athens (Karatzas Auditorium of the National Bank of Greece)
 * 3) Presentation of Evangelos Venizelos’ book: “State Transformation and the European Integration Project: Lessons from the financial crisis and the Greek paradigm”, 25.05.2016, Athens (Aliki Theater)
 * 4) A conversation over Constitution and Democracy, 30.06.2016, Athens (Pallas Theater)
 * 5) What future for Greece? In search of a national strategy, 25.9.2016, Thessaloniki (Chamber of Commerce and Industry)

"Greece After Crisis"
ekyklos held a major Conference on 12 and 13 June (in cooperation with Symeon G. Tsomikos SA) entitled "Greece After Crisis". This particular symbolic initiative attempted to synthesize a grid of groundbreaking ideas and proposals that can contribute to national reconstruction and help Greece return back to normalcy: "Just four years before the twentieth anniversary of the Revolution of 1821 and just five years before the anniversary of the one hundred years from the Asia Minor Catastrophe, Greece is looking for a project that unites the nation, that leads a tired, skeptical and pessimistic society to a generative future [...] All of this leads us to the central question of whether Greeks can rejoin and coincide with a new national narrative seven hundred years later." (

Following the "Greece after Crisis" Conference, ekyklos organized recently a discussion on "Justice and Investments in Greece" (in cooperation with Symeon G. Tsomokos SA)