Project Advisory Board

Tassos Haniotis is an agricultural economist bringing more than three decades of professional experience in agriculture, especially in the areas of agricultural policy, US-EU agricultural trade relations, food security, farm policy evaluation, and commodity market analysis.

His present activities focus on the manner by which a wide array of best farm practices impact agricultural productivity not just in its purely economic or social dimension, but especially in its broader environmental dimension. His objective is to contribute to the better understanding of the interplay between positive and negative externalities of farm production, and its relevance for the debate of generating synergies of policy initiatives combining to climate change action and food security.

He retired in the summer of 2022, after a 33-year career in the Commission, as the Director of Strategy, Simplification and Policy Analysis in the Directorate General for Agriculture of the European Commission.

He previously held posts as Head of Unit in the Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives unit and the Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis unit in the same Directorate General, as Member and subsequently Deputy Head of the Cabinet of former European Commissioner for Agriculture Franz Fischler (with respective responsibilities the preparation of the 2003 reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, and the agricultural chapter of the Doha WTO Round and the EU-Mercosur negotiations), and as the Agricultural Counsellor of the European Commission’s Delegation in the United States.

He holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Agricultural Economics from the University of Georgia, USA, and a B.A. in Economics from the Athens University of Economics and Business, in his native Greece.