Josep Borrell

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Josep Borrell (2020)

Josep Borrell i Fontelles (also known as José Borrell ; born April 24, 1947 in Puebla de Segur ) is a Spanish politician . He belongs to the Catalan social democratic party PSC and was Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Development Aid in the Sánchez cabinet from 2018 to 2019 .

He has been the EU's High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy in the von der Leyen Commission since December 1, 2019 .

Until 2009 he was a member of the European Parliament , whose President he was from July 2004 to January 2007. From 2010 to 2012 he was President of the European University Institute .

Since July 2019, he has had both Spanish and Argentine citizenship, as his father was born in Mendoza (Argentina) when the family was living there in exile.

Life

education

Borrell studied aeronautical engineering at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and obtained a PhD in economics from the Complutense University of Madrid . He also holds a Masters from Stanford University and the Institut français du pétrole .

Political career

Borrell was a member of the regional government of the Autonomous Community of Madrid from 1979 to 1982 , where he was responsible for financial policy. In 1982 he was appointed Secretary General for Budget and Public Expenses in the Spanish Ministry of Finance, and in 1984 Secretary of State for Finance. From 1991 to 1996 he was Minister for Infrastructure and Transport ( González III cabinet ) under Prime Minister Felipe González, and from 1993 ( González IV cabinet ) also for the environment.

EU parliamentarians

In the 2004 European elections , Borrell was elected to the European Parliament , of which he was President from 2004 to 2007. In the first ballot he was able to prevail against the Polish politician Bronisław Geremek with 388 against 208 votes . A corresponding agreement was reached beforehand between the two large political groups , the Christian Democratic EPP-ED and the social democratic PES . Part of this agreement was that Borrell was replaced halfway through his term of office, i.e. after two and a half years, by the German parliamentary group leader of the EPP-ED, Hans-Gert Pöttering . In January 2007, Poettering was elected as his successor. Afterwards Borrell was chairman of the European Parliament's Development Committee . In the European elections in Spain in 2009 he symbolically came in last on the PSOE / PSC electoral list and, as expected, was not re-elected.

Affairs

Since January 2010, Borrell has served as President of the European University Institute in Florence . Due to a controversy over undisclosed membership of the supervisory board of the Abengoa energy company, worth € 300,000 per year , Borrell had to give up his position as EHI president at the end of the academic year 2012.

2018 Borell was from the Spanish Securities Commission (CNMV) for insider trading , a penalty imposed by 30,000 euros, which he accepted and lodged no appeal. As a member of the Board of Directors of Abengoa, in November 2015, immediately before the company's bankruptcy, he sold 10,000 shares for the account of a third party, who was his ex-wife, for 9,030 euros.

Foreign minister

In the conflict over the political future of the region of Catalonia , the Catalan Borrell was active on the side of the opponents of a secession from Spain. After his inauguration as the new Spanish Foreign Minister in the cabinet of the socialist Pedro Sánchez in June 2018, he spoke out in favor of a stronger security of the external borders of the European Union and a consistent return of rejected asylum seekers.

EU foreign policy representative

After the European elections in 2019 , Borrell was nominated by the European Council for the position of EU foreign representative at the beginning of July 2019 . In October 2019, after Borrell's hearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament, his appointment was confirmed by the group chairmen of the European Parliament. Concerns expressed in advance about his conviction for insider trading did not come into play. He took up his new office on December 1, 2019.

In January 2020, a paper on the European Union’s Turkey policy addressed by Borrell to the EU Parliament caused irritation, which he published immediately before the Berlin Libya Conference and announced the cancellation of 75 percent of the so-called pre-accession aid for Turkey for 2020 . The decision to do so had already been taken in October 2019, which is why the timing of the publication in the run-up to the peace conference was criticized as awkward.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sebastian Schoepp: A Catalan for Unity. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . June 5, 2018, accessed June 6, 2018 .
  2. ↑ dpa: The new commissioners: From old hands and newcomers - the new EU Commission . In: The time . November 27, 2019, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed December 1, 2019]).
  3. ↑ Carmen de Carlos: Argentina tiene un nuevo ciudadano: Josep Borrell. In: ABC . July 19, 2019, accessed January 16, 2020 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ Dave Keating: Borrell forced to resign over energy interests ( English ) POLITICO SPRL. April 12, 2014. Retrieved May 25, 2019.
  5. ↑ Thilo Schäfer: Spain's Foreign Minister punished for insider trading. In: Börsen-Zeitung . November 29, 2018, accessed October 12, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Lucía Abellán: La CNMV multa a Borrell con 30,000 euros for usar información privilegiada al vender acciones de Abengoa. In: El País . November 27, 2018, accessed October 12, 2019 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ Thomas Urban : "Have to be careful that Schengen does not collapse" sz.de , June 14, 2018, accessed on June 14, 2018.
  8. ↑ EU summit nominated by der Leyen as head of the commission. In: Die Welt , July 2, 2019, accessed on the same day.
  9. ^ Eva Fischer: The new EU foreign affairs officer wants to make the international community more effective. In: Handelsblatt , October 8, 2019, accessed on November 29, 2019.
  10. ↑ But not a drastic cut in aid funds for Turkey? In: Der Tagesspiegel , January 19, 2020, accessed on February 9, 2020.
  11. ↑ EU pulls thumbscrews for Erdogan: "Cuts increased" - except in one sensitive area. In: Münchner Merkur , January 29, 2020, accessed on February 9, 2020.
personal data
SURNAME Borrell, Josep
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Borrell i Fontelles, Josep (full name); Borrell, José
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish politician (PSC), MEP
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH La Pobla de Segur