• Our Embassy in Athens
• British Consulates
• Working with Greece
• UK Foreign Policy
• Defence relations
• Prosperity
• Joint events
• Speaker's of the House of Commons visit
• Archbishop of Canterbury's visit
• Lord Mayor's visit
• Nation screening
• The study of Modern Greek History: An Oxford perspective
• International conference on e-government
• Economic Forum - Growth: Why and how?
• Greek-British Shipping Forum 2011

Speaker's visit

The Rt Hon John Bercow MP, Speaker of the House of Commons, will be on an official visit to Athens from 31 May to 1 June at the invitation of Mr Philippos Petsalnikos, Speaker of the Hellenic Parliament.

During his visit, Mr Speaker will meet Prime Minister Papandreou, the President of the Hellenic Parliament, Foreign Minister Droutsas, and the Vice President of New Democracy, Mr Avramopoulos.  Mr Speaker will address MPs, MEPs and other distinguished guests in the Senate Room of the Hellenic Parliament on the subject of “Greece & Britain: Old democracies, new challenges” on 31 May.

Notes for Editors

• About the House of Commons

The House of Commons has four core roles; it scrutinises the work of government, proposes and amends legislation, represents the citizens of the UK within the Parliament system and has the ability to amend taxation.

The House of Commons has a variety of ways to ensure that the government is working for the benefit of the country. MPs may question government ministers. They can do this directly on the floor of the Houseduring the regular question times throughout the week. Each government department will regularly send Ministers to the House of Commons to answer questions of MPs.

They can also ask questions in writing. Through careful questioning of Ministers, MPs can become better informed as to how government policy is working in a variety of policy areas. More detail on how the Parliamentary questions work can be found in factsheet P1 ‘Parliamentary Questions’. The House of Commons has a broad range of committees through which it also scrutinises the government. Read more here.

• Speaker of the House of Commons

The Speaker of the House of Commons chairs debates in the Commons chamber. The holder of this office is an MP who has been elected to be Speaker by other Members of Parliament. During debates they keep order and call MPs to speak.
The Speaker is the chief officer and highest authority of the House of Commons and must remain politically impartial at all times.

The Speaker also represents the Commons to the monarch, the Lords and other authorities and chairs the House of Commons Commission. The current Speaker is John Bercow, MP for Buckingham.

Visit British Embassy in Athens website, ukingreece.fco.gov.uk for more information, photos and footage of the Speaker’s visit.