Kostas Hatzidakis was born in Rethymno, Crete, in 1965. In January 2009 he was appointed Minister of Development. Previously, from September 2007 until January 2009, he held the post of Minister of Transport and Communications. From 1994 until 2007 he was elected Member of the European Parliament with the New Democracy Party. In the European Parliament he was Chairman of the Committee on Transport and Regional Policy for two and a half years and Parliamentary Representative of the European Peoples’ Party on the same Committee. Before his election as a Member of the European Parliament, he served as General Secretary of DAP-NDFK and President of ONNED. He studied law at the University of Athens and continued his studies at the University of Kent, where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Communication and Image Studies. He is a lawyer in Athens and speaks English and French.