The Centre of International and European Economic Law is located in Thessaloniki, in Northern Greece. It was established in 1978 by Law 717/1977 on the initiative of Professor Dimitrios Evrigenis, an eminent law professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, an elected member of the Hellenic and the European Parliament, a Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, who was appointed as the first Secretary and then Director of the Centre.

CIEEL operates as a legal entity of private law. Although supervised by the Minister of Economy and Finance, it maintains full autonomy as far as administrative and financial matters are concerned.

CIEEL aims mainly to promote academic research and to provide advisory support to public authorities. Furthermore, since 1978 CIEEL is a national documentation centre as well as a ‘European Documentation Centre’ (Centre Documentation Européenne) according to a specific decision of the European Commission.