Josep Borrell was born into a poor family with a history of political and trade union struggle against the rule of General Franco (Reuters)

Josep Borrell is a Spanish politician with a long history of diplomatic work in his country and in the European Union. He was born in 1947. He became a member of the European Parliament during the legislative period 2004-2005, and assumed its presidency during the first half of the term, after which he returned to Spain as Minister of Foreign Affairs, before being assigned the position of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy beginning in 2019.

Birth and upbringing

Josep Borrell was born on April 24, 1947 in a village in the Catalonia province in Spain, to a poor family with a history of political and trade union struggle under the rule of General Franco.

His father worked in charge of a small bakery in the village, a profession he inherited from his parents who immigrated to Argentina from Catalonia, where they established a bakery in the city of Mendoza near San Martin Public Park.

Josep's grandfather and his family returned to Spain again when Borrell Sr. was 8 years old, before the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War.

In 1969, Josep Borrell met Frenchwoman Caroline Mayer when he was a volunteer at Kibbutz Gal On in Israel. They married and had two children, one of whom became a Spanish diplomat, but this marriage was not destined to last long.

He married again in 2018 to Cristina Narbona, who served as Vice President of the Spanish Chamber of Deputies, and also held the portfolio of the Spanish Ministry of Environment from 2004 to 2008.

Josep Borrell during a meeting of the European Foreign Affairs Council in January 2024 (French)

Study and scientific training

Due to the distance of the Burrell family home from the city, Josep completed his post-basic education at home under the guidance of his mother, and with the sponsorship of a retired teacher in the village, and years later he passed the regular high school exam.

He then moved to Barcelona to study industrial engineering, before his interest turned to aeronautical engineering at the Technical University of Madrid, from which he graduated in 1969 after changing his first university.

In 1972, he obtained a master’s degree in oil economics and industry technology from the French Institute of Petroleum in Paris, and followed it with another master’s degree in 1975 from Stanford University in California in applied mathematics. He finally obtained a doctorate in economics from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1976.

He worked as a lecturer at the Higher Institute of Engineering at the Madrid University of Technology from 1975 to 1982. He was also appointed as a professor at the University of Valladolid from 1972 to 1982, in addition to his work in an oil company in Spain.

Political experience

Josep Borrell's first step into the world of politics was through his volunteering in the Socialist Workers' Party in Spain in 1975, while he was working as a lecturer in a number of prestigious university institutions.

It is no wonder that Borrell was involved in political work at that time, especially with the democratic transformation that Spain was witnessing after the death of Francisco Franco, as a general democratic movement emerged seeking to build a strong civil system and strengthen the parliamentary institution.

Josep Borrell (left) with UN Secretary-General António Guterres in September 2022 (Reuters)

In 1979, he obtained his first political job by being elected as a member of the Madrid City Council, and his university work was mixed with politics through the Financial Policy Committee, whose work focused on combating financial corruption and prosecuting tax evasion.

In 1982, the Socialist Party won the majority of seats and formed the government, so Josep Borrell had a greater role that was not limited only to the city of Madrid, but rather influenced Spanish politics completely, as he assumed the responsibility of Secretary-General of the Budget and Public Expenditure, then Secretary of Finance.

He attracted attention through his policy with a socialist background, which contributed to promoting peaceful democratic transformation by siding with society and the institutional fight against corruption. In 1991, Borrell joined the Council of Ministers through the Public Works and Transport portfolio and continued in his position for 5 years. He also represented the city of Barcelona in the House of Representatives in The period from 1986 to 2003.

Beginning in 2003, Borrell was chosen as President of the European Parliament, becoming the second Spanish President of the Parliament after Enrique Barón Crespo.

He rose through the ranks in Europe and was chosen as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the European Union between 2018 and 2019, before being chosen as High Representative for Foreign Affairs in the European Union in 2019.

He managed several thorny political files, such as the Russian-Ukrainian war, as well as the Israeli aggression against the Gaza Strip following the Al-Aqsa Flood operation launched by the Palestinian resistance on October 7, 2023, on the settlements surrounding the Gaza Strip.

Josep Borrell (left) with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez Pérez Castejon in October 2023 (Getty)

Jobs and responsibilities

During his political career, Josep Borrell held several positions of diplomatic importance in the European Union and ministerial portfolios in the Spanish government. He assumed various responsibilities in the Spanish Ministry of Finance in the period from 1982 to 1991 through his work as Secretary General of Budget and Public Expenditure, and Secretary of State for Finance.

In 1986, he was chosen as a member of the Spanish Parliament, representing the city of Barcelona until 2003. He became Minister of Public Works and Transport from 1991 to 1996, then a member of the European Union Parliament from 2004 to 2009, and President of the Council in the first half of his electoral term.

In 2018, he assumed the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs of the European Union, and then was chosen as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy beginning in 2019.

Medals and honors

  • The Alawi Medal, rank of senior officer, from the Kingdom of Morocco in 1996.

  • Order of the Spanish Grand Cross of Carlos III in 1996.

  • Spanish Catholic Isabella Medal in 2000.

  • Honorary Doctorate in Law from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2006.

  • Spanish Medal of Civil Merit in 2007.

  • Grand Order of Queen Elena from the State of Croatia in 2006.

  • Spanish Constitutional Order of Merit in 2011.

  • French Medal of Honor, Commander, 2015.

Source: Al Jazeera + websites