Former Director at the European Commission, Anastassios Haniotis, joined IIASA as a senior guest research scholar in the Integrated Biosphere Futures Research Group earlier this year. We want to take this opportunity to share his journey to IIASA, as well as to highlight the unique expertise he brings to the institute.
Anastassios Haniotis prefers if you call him Tassos. He is an Agricultural Economist, who specializes in the areas of agricultural policy, US-EU agricultural trade relations, food security, farm policy evaluation, and commodity market analysis.
He brings more than three decades of professional experience in those spheres to IIASA, with his current work at the institute mostly focusing on the impact of best farming practices on agricultural productivity, as well as their interconnectedness with economic, social, and environmental dimensions. His objective is to contribute to broadening the understanding of the interplay between positive and negative externalities of farm production, as well as their relevance for policy initiatives, combining climate action and food security.
Most recently, he participated in the 17th congress of The European Association of Agricultural Economists (EAAE), where he acted as one of the key speakers, sharing their experiences and insights into baseline development processes and their significance in policymaking in the context of the European Green Deal. At the same congress, he received the 2023 EAAE Fellow Award in recognition of his groundbreaking work and scientific excellence in the sphere of agricultural economics.
Prior to joining IIASA, Haniotis spent many years at the European Commission, which he first joined back in 1989. Most recently, he acted as Director for Strategy and Policy Analysis in the Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development (DG AGRI) of the European Commission, taking up the position in 2009. During this period, he also served as Acting Deputy Director-General and Acting Director for Direct Payments. Previously, he served as Head of Unit in the Agricultural Policy Analysis and Perspectives Unit and in the Agricultural Trade Policy Analysis Unit of DG AGRI.
Haniotis holds a degree in Economics and Business from the Athens University, as well as a master's degree and a PhD in Agricultural Economics from the University of Georgia in the US, with respective focus on production economics and agricultural trade policy. An active member of international and European academic associations in his field to this date, he received the Outstanding Alumni Award of the College of Agriculture at the University of Georgia and an Honorary Doctorate Degree from the School of Agronomy at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.
