Simos Daniilidis | Heinrich Böll Stiftung

Simos Daniilidis

mayor of Neapoli-Sikies, chairman of the Social Policy Committee of KEDE (Central Union of Municipalities of Greece), vice-president of the Regional Union of Municipalities of Central Macedonia (PED-KM)

He was born and raised in Thessaloniki and has one daughter, Efthymia-Maria.
He is a graduate of the Higher School of Business Administration and the School of Management of Economics, with studies in the School of Marketing and Advertising.
He has served as administrative and financial director of the Mental Health Centre of Thessaloniki.
He was the director of the Macedonia-Thrace Office of the newspaper "Exormisi" and a contributor to other newspapers and magazines.
He was a founding member of the Students’ Union of Higher Schools of Thessaloniki and its first Central Council and a member of the Central Council of the National Students’ Union of Greece (ESEE).
From 1982 to 1994 he was continuously elected as the first municipal councillor of Sykies.
As mayor, he is serving his city for 28 consecutive years, since 1994, for seven consecutive terms, four of which in the former municipality of Sykies and the other three in the current unified municipality of Neapoli-Sykies.
He is currently vice-president of the Regional Union of Municipalities of Central Macedonia (PED-KM) and chairman of the Social Policy Committee of KEDE (Central Union of Municipalities of Greece), while he was president of PED-KM from 2011 to 2014.
He has served for several years as chairman of the Committee for Social Policy, Solidarity and Employment of the KEDE and for many years he was responsible in a national level for the Health, Social Policy and Welfare sector of the KEDE.
He was the initiator and founder, in 1998, of the first Drug abuse prevention and health promotion Centre PYXIDA and the Centre for the support of employment and enterpreneurship of women ERGANI.
Since January 2020 he is the President of the European Group for Territorial Cooperation "ELIKAS".
He is a pioneer of many successful initiatives in national level, which turned the municipality of Neapoli-Sykies into a reference point in the Local Self-Government field, in areas such as the Municipal Medical Centres for outpatients; the Centres for the Creative Employment of Children (KDAP); the Day Care Centres for the Elderly (KIFI); and also the school buildings and the areas of Education, Culture and Sports. In particular, the Day Care Centres for the Elderly (KIFI) and the Centres providing "Help at Home" for the Elderly were launched in the former municipality of Sykies. The municipality was a pioneer in the creation and nationwide establishment of the Centres for the Creative Employment of Persons with Disabilities (KDAPmeA), while it is the municipality with the largest network of Primary Health Care (4 Municipal Medical Centres for outpatients with the most modern medical diagnostic equipment and 44 doctors of 17 specialties). In addition, it is the first municipality in the country in the number of places offered under the programme "Reconciliation of family and professional life", in which the municipality of Neapoli-Sykies participates with more than 30 structures (Kindergartens, KDAPmeA and culture, sports and education KDAP), which accommodate 4.679 children free of charge per year.