Chris Allen is Resident Economic Adviser in Athens for the European Commission. He has close personal experience of the Greek economic crisis and the subsequent recent strong recovery of the Greek economy. Mr Allen earlier contributed to the EU’s negotiating strategy on global climate change, was responsible for EU industrial and business policy making, and played an important role in the development of the EU Horizon 2020 programme on key enabling technologies. He was previously head of economic forecasting at the European Central Bank and was a university lecturer in the UK and the Netherlands. He has a PhD in Economics from London Business School and numerous publications in economic policy making.