Greek corporate affairs professionals are not only concerned about the geopolitical unrest in the world and the regulatory uncertainty, as are their peers abroad, but also about domestic political uncertainty, having the experience of the decade-long crisis of the 2010s, a survey by About People researchers has found.
The poll, presented on Thursday at the 4th AGORA-Corporate Affairs Forum in Athens, found that the biggest risks that corporate affairs officials in local companies perceive are geopolitical uncertainty at 60.4%, political instability in Greece at 51% and regulatory uncertainty at 45.1%. A remarkably low 2% are concerned about artificial intelligence.
“A change in government means ‘back to zero,’ creating insecurity in the corporate environment,” explained Marieangela Economopoulou, head of external affairs & patient value access for Greece, Cyprus and Malta at TAKEDA Hellas, speaking at one of the event’s panels.
Similarly, 66.7% of corporate affairs professionals say 2026 will be a year of geopolitical uncertainty, and for 51.9% say it will be a year of domestic political developments.
“The predictability of the regulatory framework has improved significantly in recent years,” argued Andreas Yannopoulos, the founder of AGORA and head of the Public Affairs and Networks company, before conceding that this does not apply to the pharmaceutical sector that TAKEDA belongs to. From the same sector, Antonis Karokis, corporate affairs director at MSD, said “we have many markets with serious distortions that we do not fix.”
Economopoulou admitted that “over the last two or three years there have been some efforts for stability in our sector by the government with some success, particularly in the field of communication.” In fact the majority (51%) of respondents said the country is heading to the right direction, against 43.1% who believe the opposite, while in the general public percentages are reversed, said About People CEO Petros Ioannidis.
While instability worries corporate officials, the crisis of the previous years has prepared them: “We have learned from the crisis to operate more strategically. There will always be surprises. It takes strength and resilience to safeguard our companies,” said Katerina Sipitanou, head of corporate and regulatory affairs for Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Malta at BAT Hellas.