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The first meeting for the selection of future ministers in the interim Greek government just ended. Representatives of PASOK, New Democracy and LAOS attended it, not party leaders as originally announced. They presented their proposals to Lucas Papademos, who earlier today was given a mandate to form a government.

So far, there is no official information about each party’s candidates for ministers. The only candidate from PASOK, considered certain, is that of former Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Evangelos Venizelos. According to sources, he is very likely to remain in the financial institution. They substantiate this with the fact that today he headed the operational meeting in the ministry, at which the budget for 2012 was discussed.

Some commentators believe that Lucas Papademos would not change the heads of many ministries, because any new ministers would not have sufficient time to get acquainted with the current affairs. On the other hand, it is considered very likely that the heads of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Citizen Protection, Ministry of Defence, Ministry of the Interior and Ministry of Justice will be changed.

After the meeting, the political secretary of New Democracy, Andreas Likourentzos said that senior members in the party hierarchy, who are not members of Parliament today, would present the "blue" in the new cabinet. A while ago, the party officially announced the names of its candidates. These are: deputy chairman of the party and former member of European Parliament, Stavros Dimas, professor of international relations and chief of Antonis Samaras’ staff, Konstantinos Arvanitopoulos, professor of macroeconomics and businessman, Ioannis Mourmouras, and chairman of the association of retailers, Theodoros Vardas.

The lawyer, Makis Voridis, and deputy chairman of the party and a former diplomatic representative of Greece in several countries and international organizations, Ambassador George Georgiou, are tipped as ministers from LAOS. After the meeting, he had hinted that the LAOS party might participate in the new cabinet with more than two representatives.

Lucas Papademos will discuss the candidates party representatives have submitted with party leaders and will announce the composition of the cabinet on Friday.

But who is the man whose candidacy for Prime Minister has been the most preferred by all, not only in Greece but also in Europe and the rest of the world? Economist Lucas Papademos was born in Athens in 1947. He studied physics and engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he received his doctorate degree in economics.

From 1975 to 1984, Lucas Papademos taught economics at Columbia University in New York. During that time, he was working as Senior Economist at the US Federal Reserve Bank. In 1984-1985, he became guest professor at the Economic University of Athens, and in 1988 was elected Professor of Economics at Athens University.

After returning to Greece, he became a member of the Council of Economic Experts at the Ministry of Economy and a member of various boards and commissions too. From 1985 to 1993, he was Chief Economist at the Bank of Greece, and from 1988 to 1992, he was head of the Economic Analysis Department of the central banking institution.

In December 1993, he was appointed Deputy Governor of the Bank of Greece, and ten months later – its Governor. In 1994, Lucas Papademos became a board member of the European Monetary Institute and Chairman of the Monetary Policy Subcommittee and the Committee of Central Bank Governors of the European Community. From 2002 to 2010, he was Vice-President of the European Central Bank and after the end of his term, he became adviser to Prime Minister George Papandreou.