Manolis Kefalogiannis was born in Crete. He has studied Political and Economic Sciences at Athens University. He holds a Master Degree in Finance and European Political History from Reading University and London School of Economics. He is the author of the below mentioned books: “Problems of Democracy” 2000, “Greek Economy in crisis: A political approach” 1989,and “Comparative Study of Eleftherios Venizelos and Konstantinos Karamanlis policies in Cyprus until the Independence of Cyprus” 1986. He started his political career in 1974 as Member of the Youth Organization of New Democracy, ONNED, and he was President of the DAP-NDFK organization in Great Britain. Since 1990 he was elected as a Member of the Hellenic Parliament within the Political Party New Democracy and in 2004 he was appointed as the Minister of Maritime Affairs. He also served as Secretary General of New Democracy. Since 2014 he is Member of the European Parliament. He is elected Chair of the Joint Parliamentary Committee EU-Turkey (2014-2019 & 2024-2029) and Chair of the EU Albania Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committee (2019-2024). He is Member of the following European Parliament Committees: Constitutional Affairs, Agriculture, Foreign Affairs, Security and Defence.