Miguel Arias Cañete

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Miguel Arias Cañete
Miguel Arias Cañete (cropped) (2).jpg
European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy
Assumed office
1 November 2014
President Jean-Claude Juncker
Preceded by Connie Hedegaard (Climate Action)
Günther Oettinger (Energy)
Personal details
Born (1950-02-24) 24 February 1950 (age 75)
Madrid, Spain
Political party Partido Popular
Spouse(s) Micaela Domecq y Solís-
Beaumont
Children 4
Alma mater Complutense University
Religion Roman Catholic

Miguel Arias Cañete (born 24 February 1950) is a Spanish aristocrat and a politician of the centre-right.

A member of the Partido Popular, Arias served as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment in the Spanish Government from 2011 until 2014, before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections.[1]

Arias Cañete was subsequently nominated as EU Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action in the forthcoming Juncker Commission and took office on 1 November 2014.[2]

Early life and career

Born at Madrid, the son of Judge don Alfonso Arias de la Cuesta,[3] Arias Cañete was educated in Madrid, first at the Jesuit School at Chamartín before reading Law at the Universidad Complutense.

After graduating in 1974, he joined the Spanish Civil Service working as a State Attorney. His first position was in the Spanish Tax Agency at Jerez de la Frontera, before transferring to the Cadiz office. In 1978 resigned as a civil servant to become a Professor of Law at the University of Cádiz, where he remained until 1982 before entering politics with the Alianza Popular.

Political career

Arias first served as a member of the Parliament of Andalusia from 1982 until he stood down in 1986 after being elected to the European Parliament where he served until 1999 and chaired the Agricultural and Regional Politics Committees. He then was elected to the Spanish Senate, serving from 1993 until 2000 when he was appointed as Minister of Agriculture and Fishing by José María Aznar. He has also served as Deputy for Cadiz in the 2004-2008 Spanish Congress before his election in 2008 as MEP for Madrid, which he represented until 2014.[4]

Political appointments

  • Representative for Cádiz in the Andalusian Parliament. (1982-1986)
  • Senator representing Cádiz in the Spanish Senate. (1982-1986)
  • Member of the European Parliament. (1986-1999)
  • City Councillor for Jerez de la Frontera. (1995-2000)
  • Senator representing Cádiz in the Spanish Senate. (2000-2004)
  • Representative for Cádiz in the Spanish Congress. (2004-2008)
  • Economic Secretary for the Partido Popular. (2004-2008)
  • President of the Partido Popular's Electoral Committee. (2004-2008)
  • Representative for Madrid in the Spanish Congress. (2008-2014)

Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment, 2011–2014

In 2011 Mariano Rajoy appointed Arias as Minister of Agriculture, Food and Environment in the Spanish Government. During his time in office, Arias managed to get parliamentary approval of a 2013 law allowing some construction to take place closer to the coast, raising alarm among ecologists and opposition parties who argued the change could further blight the Mediterranean shoreline.[5]

European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, 2014–present

In 2014, Arias was picked by Rajoy to lead the Partido Popular’s list in the 2014 European elections.[6] Following the elections, Spain nominated him as its nominee for the Juncker Commission in August 2014.[7] By early September, European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker assigned Arias with the office of European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, becoming the first single supervisor of those two policy areas.[8] In this capacity, he works under the guidance of Maroš Šefčovič, the European Commission Vice President for Energy Union.

On climate policy, Arias will be responsible for the planned introduction of an overhaul of the EU emissions-trading system, the world’s biggest cap-and-trade program.[9] He also represented the European Commission at the 2014 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Lima.[10]

In summer 2015, Arias launched a plan to turn the Mediterranean region into "a major gas marketplace" as part of European Union efforts to reduce dependency on dominant oil and gas supplier Russia.[11] Shortly after, he brokered an agreement between France, Spain and Portugal on the MidCat gas pipeline intended to increase exports of Algerian gas into the European energy mix.[12]

Controversies

Arias has faced accusations of possible conflicts of interests regarding his political posts and his business interests. While serving as a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, he allegedly held interests in several businesses in the agricultural sector,[13] leading the Spanish newspaper El País to describe him as always being on the edge of a conflict of interest.[14] The environmental group Friends of the Earth and anticorruption group Corporate Europe Observatory have criticised his nomination to the Climate Action and Energy portfolio due to his family's involvement in the oil industry.[15][16][17]

Furthermore, Arias was called to give evidence before the Provincial Court of Barcelona over a friend's alleged laundering of 2 billion pesetas.[18]

When Arias and his Socialist rival Elena Valenciano were featured in Spanish television's first live debate between the country’s leading candidates for a European Parliament election,[19] Valenciano was widely perceived to have beaten him in the debate. Asked to explain his poor performance in the debate, he pointed to the fact that he was facing a woman. “If you abuse your intellectual superiority, you come across like a macho who is pushing a defenceless woman into a corner,” he said and thereby prompted public accusations of sexism.[20]

In a move to appease parliamentarians threatening to reject his confirmation as European Commissioner because of conflicts of interest, Arias sold two large shareholdings in oil companies Petrolífera Ducar and Petrologis Canarias in September 2014.[21] Also, his son resigned from their boards.[22] However, more than half a million people signed an Avaaz petition calling for Aria’s rejection.[23]

Personal life

Arias, from a Spanish gentry family, is married to Micaela Domecq y Solís-Beaumont[24] by whom he has four children. His wife's aristocratic family[25] has long been established in the Jerez de la Frontera region of Andalucía, where they own large farming and livestock estates (including the breeding of fighting bulls)[26] and have given their name to a world-famous brand of fortified wines.[27]

Recognition

See also

References

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Political offices
Preceded by Spanish European Commissioner
2014–present		 Incumbent
Preceded by as European Commissioner for Climate Action European Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy
2014–present
Preceded by as European Commissioner for Energy

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  1. ↑ www.elpais.com
  2. ↑ www.euractiv.com
  3. ↑ www.boe.es
  4. ↑ Biography at Spanish Congress site
  5. ↑ Inmaculada Sanz and Raquel Castillo Lopez (May 9, 2013), Spain coastal law revamp sparks fears of new construction wave Reuters.
  6. ↑ Nicholas Hirst (1 August 2014), Cañete nominated as Spain’s commissioner European Voice.
  7. ↑ Nicholas Hirst (1 August 2014), Cañete nominated as Spain’s commissioner European Voice.
  8. ↑ Ewa Krukowska (September 10, 2014), Spain’s Canete to Get EU Merged Climate-Energy Chief Role Bloomberg Business.
  9. ↑ Ewa Krukowska (September 10, 2014), Spain’s Canete to Get EU Merged Climate-Energy Chief Role Bloomberg Business.
  10. ↑ Nicholas Hirst (19 February 2015), Miguel Arias Cañete: colourful negotiator European Voice.
  11. ↑ Barbara Lewis and Oleg Vukmanovic (June 11, 2015), EU energy boss seeks to make Mediterranean 'major gas marketplace' Reuters.
  12. ↑ Christian Oliver and Tobias Buck (June 23, 2015), France, Spain and Portugal look to unlock Algeria gas exports Financial Times.
  13. ↑ (Spanish) "Arias Cañete: “Ni mi familia ni yo tenemos relación con esas empresas." El País. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  14. ↑ [1] El País. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  15. ↑ Cañete’s conflicts of interests continue to concern
  16. ↑ "The many business dealings of Commissioner-designate Miguel Arias Cañete."
  17. ↑ "Spanish EU climate commissioner grilled over oil interests." El País. Retrieved 2 October 2014.
  18. ↑ www.elplural.com
  19. ↑ Tobias Buck (16 May 2014), Old-school machismo inspires interest in modern Spanish politics Financial Times.
  20. ↑ Christian Oliver and Tobias Buck (September 16, 2014), European energy nominee sells oil holdings to appease MEPs Financial Times.
  21. ↑ Christian Oliver and Tobias Buck (September 16, 2014), European energy nominee sells oil holdings to appease MEPs Financial Times.
  22. ↑ Barbara Lewis and Alastair Macdonald (October 1, 2014), New EU executive runs into trouble in parliament Reuters.
  23. ↑ Arthur Neslen (9 October 2014), Former oil mogul confirmed as EU climate and energy commissioner The Guardian.
  24. ↑ Web nobleza espanola
  25. ↑ www.people.com
  26. ↑ Juan Pedro Domecq Solis obit. www.telegraph.co.uk
  27. ↑ www.alvarodomecq.com
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