MP Konstantinos Karagounis is a Greek Member of Parliament and former Deputy Minister of Justice, Transparency & Human Rights. He has also served as Chairman of the Parliamentary Friendship Group of Greece and Israel.
He is a graduate of the Law School of the University of Athens and holds a postgraduate degree from the University of London UEL, with specialization in the field of International Law. He continued his postgraduate studies at the University of Edinburgh, specializing in the field of intellectual property.
MP Karagounis as a practicing lawyer has also trained at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He was elected as a Member of Parliament for the first time in 2009 at the age of 34. In 2015, he was appointed as the spokesperson for New Democracy, which belongs to the EPP political family.
As Deputy Minister of Justice, Transparency & Human Rights who held the position for one year and during this time was pivotal in initiating and passing the first bill outlawing racial, religious, ethnic and homophobic incitement in Greece. The bill included punishment for Holocaust denial and Nazi salute.
As Chairman of the Greece-Israel Parliamentary Friendship Committee he was able to nearly double the number of active members to about 70. He has strong ties with the AJC, WJC, ADL and has participated in several conferences on Anti-Semitism. He has also visited the Nazi Death Camps in Poland and has travelled to Israel both on a personal and professional basis.
Highlights of his work on Greek- Jewish relations include his participation in the 4th Conference of the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in May 2013, Jerusalem. He also visited the USA in March 2014, where he addressed a crowd of 300 people during a conference held by the Congressional Hellenic Israeli Alliance, co-chaired by Congressmen Gus Bilirakis and Ted Deutch.
