Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos
Prime ministers, ministers and politicians who are not members of the Commission or the Club are invited to attend the annual meetings. Several years ago, the then Greek Minister of Economy and Finance, George Alogoskoufis, and the present Minister of Education Anna Diamandopoulou attended such a meeting. For years, the professor of history at the English University, Ioannis Karas, was a standing senior member of the Club and actively participated in outlining the policy of consent and cooperation in the Balkans (Macedonia, Greek-Turkish relations, relations between the Balkan countries, Southeast Europe, the former Eastern Bloc, etc.). There were also specific initiatives for measures to create confidence in the Balkans after the fall of the Berlin Wall, to found an Institute for Balkan and Eurasian Studies (Caucasus, Middle East, Far East, Arab countries, Israel) based in Thessaloniki.
The Trilateral Commission marks the end of the philosophy to weaken the state government. It believes that business is able to deal with "current" issues, including societies, more effectively, hence at lower prices and mostly, without any restrictions. This was the time, when states and governments placed obstacles in the way of the absolute and uncontrolled expansion of the power of private interests of companies, multinational consortia and banks. The Commission’s founder David Rockefeller clearly stated, "somebody has to take the government’s place, and business seems to me to be a logical candidate."
It has become clear over time, that governments and politics have lost their power. The dominance of the banking sector, the huge rise of the non-banking sector, in which rating agencies have the power to impose their findings and change them according to market requirements, the spread of bank and non-bank toxic products, i.e. the institutionalized emergence of speculators, have contributed to the development of today's financial environment.
Impressive is the fact that theorists like Samuel Huntington, the author of the highly conservative and threatening work Clash of Civilizations - the Holy Grail of the dominance of the Bush dynasty and Protestant evangelicals in the American political scene – were the original inspiration for the Commission’s prospects.
Much later, when Western intellectuals found out that the U.S. and subsequently other Western societies have been led to approve the democracy limiting process, they engaged actively with the logic of the Rockefeller’s initiative. It is also impressive how European countries like France and Germany are following this logic. Their leaders are those who take the responsibility to determine when, how and with whom the provinces of Greece and Italy will be taken to elections. Typical is the statement of Nicolas Sarkozy: "We will show the right way to Greece and Italy."
This new trend in Berlin and Paris needs the people who will implement it. The experiment continues with two specific factors that are accidentally members of the Trilateral Commission. The first is Mario Monti, whose relations with the dark past of the main players in the scandal of Christian-democrats "P2", i.e. the mixture of extreme right, mafia, Catholics, Masonic lodge and banking corruption, are the subject of debate in Italy. The other one – Lucas Papademos – is one of the most prominent participants in the "Technocrats" operation.