Stavros Dimas: soft-spoken candidate for Greek president

(ATHENS) - Stavros Dimas, the former EU Environment Commissioner nominated for Greek president on Tuesday, is a soft-spoken veteran of the country's bruising political scene.

Dimas, who was a lawyer at Wall Street before embarking on a political career, was on the negotiating team that brokered Greece's entry to the European Economic Community in 1981.

Viewed as a safe pair of hands, the 73-year-old finds himself at the centre of Greece's rumble and tumble politics just as the country is creeping gingerly out of a crushing six-year recession that has destroyed tens of thousands of jobs.

Greece's president is elected exclusively by parliament, and the position is largely honorific. But lawmakers' rejection of the government's candidate would force early elections and could harm the country's fragile recovery.

Announcing the nomination, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras said Dimas is "highly regarded by Greek society and respected by the international community".

Born in 1941, Dimas studied law and economics at Athens University before obtaining a postgraduate degree at New York University.

He subsequently spent six years at a Wall Street law firm and the legal department of the World Bank before embarking on a political career in Greece spanning almost three decades.

First elected to parliament in 1977, Dimas initially served one-year stints as minister for trade, agriculture and industry between 1980 and 1991.

His job as minister for industry ended abruptly after a reported row with the wife of then Prime Minister Constantine Mitsotakis, the state agency ANA said Tuesday.

Dimas went on to hold senior party posts at the conservative New Democracy party before taking over as Employment Commissioner in March 2004, and as Environment Commissioner in November 2004.

As Environment Commissioner, Dimas headed an ambitious EU effort to set global carbon emission targets that was ultimately unsuccessful at the 2009 UN Copenhagen Summit on Climate Change.

On his watch, the EU also adopted a bloc-wide ban on seal products, jousted with Japan over whaling and took Greece, Italy and France to task over waste and water management.

Upon his return to Greece, he briefly served as foreign minister in 2011 in a caretaker administration headed by former European Central Bank vice-president Lucas Papademos.

Dimas has a daughter and two sons, one of whom is a parliamentary deputy with New Democracy.