Miguel Arias Cañete

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Miguel Arias Cañete (2013)

Miguel Arias Cañete (born February 24, 1950 in Madrid ) is a Spanish politician ( PP ) and was EU Commissioner for Climate Protection and Energy from 2014 to 2019 .

life and career

Miguel Arias Cañete was born to Alfonso Arias de la Cuesta, a prosecutor with strong ties during the Franco dictatorship to public corporations overseen by the Instituto Nacional de Industria (INI). Arias Cañete studied law at the Complutense University of Madrid and worked as a public prosecutor in Jerez de la Frontera from 1974 . Arias Cañete is married to Micaela Domecq y Solís-Beaumont, daughter of Juan Pedro Domecq Díez and Matilde de Solís-Beaumont y Atienza (daughter of the Marquise de Valencia). The couple has three children.

As a MEP, Arias Cañete campaigned for the continuation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies in 1996 . As one of the largest landowners in Andalusia, his wife and her family benefit from these funds and are said to have received 1,800,000 euros in subsidies from the EU between 2011 and 2014. He was a member of the Spanish Senate for the province of Cadiz for two legislative terms (1982 to 1986 and 2000 to 2004). Between 1982 and 1986 he was a member of the Parliament of Andalusia and from 1986 to 1999 in the European Parliament .

From 2000 to 2004 he was Minister of Agriculture under President José María Aznar . Since 2004 he has been a member of the Congreso de los Diputados .

On December 22, 2011, he was reappointed Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment . Under his direction, the government approved the exploration of oil and gas by fracking . The expansion of renewable energies , on the other hand, was hindered by levying taxes and fees on the private consumption of solar energy. In addition, there is a risk of fines of up to 60 million euros if a system is not registered. In addition, Arias Cañete gave the green light for oil test drilling off the Canary Islands.

On April 9, 2014, he was elected by his party to top the list for the European elections , after which he was released from his duties as minister on April 28. With the election victory of the PP on May 25, 2014, he moved into the European Parliament as the top candidate.

Arias Cañete's nomination by Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in September 2014 caused great unrest in Brussels. Some MEPs and lobbyists accuse Arias Cañete of extensive links with the energy industry and thus of a conflict of interests .

Before taking over the office, he had given up his shares in the companies Petrolífera Ducar and Petrologis Canaris, but the critics found this insufficient to dispel suspicions of conflicts of interest, especially since his wife, son and brother-in-law continue to be shareholders or board members of these companies be. Arias Cañete himself was President of Petrolífera Ducar for years before handing over the office to his brother-in-law, Miguel Domecq. To this day, Arias Cañete's family plays an important role in both companies.

The German Environmental Foundation described the Spaniard as a "lobbyist for the oil industry". By May 12, 2015, almost 600,000 Europeans signed a petition against his appointment as EU Commissioner for Climate Protection and Energy.

In his office as EU Energy Commissioner, Arias Cañete spoke out in favor of opening up new sources of supply in order to reduce the high dependency on gas imports from Russia. He named Algeria , Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan as possible suppliers .

His term of office as EU Commissioner ended when the Von der Leyen Commission took office on December 1, 2019, of which he is no longer a member.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ La familia de Cañete cobró 1.8 million en ayudas agrarias durante su etapa de ministro , elconfidencial.com, September 18, 2014
  2. ↑ No fighting bull for the saucepan , taz, February 24, 2001
  3. ↑ It's getting tight for Commissioner Cañete. May 23, 2016, archived from the original on May 23, 2016 ; accessed on May 23, 2016 (German).
  4. ↑ Result of the European elections in Spain: PP wins just ahead of PSOE. May 25, 2014, accessed on May 26, 2014 (German).
  5. ↑ Shaky candidate Cañete: Protest actions in front of the EU Parliament hearing about oil and sexism , October 1, 2014
  6. ↑ A "Petrol Head" as the next Climate Commissioner? , avaaz.org, May 12, 2015
  7. ↑ Handelsblatt: EU energy commissioner increases pressure on Seehofer. March 9, 2015, accessed July 6, 2015 .
  8. ↑ 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]).
personal data
SURNAME Arias Cañete, Miguel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Spanish politician of the Partido Popular (PP), MEP
DATE OF BIRTH February 24, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH Madrid