Born in Valencia, 12 September 1951. Married, two children. Education: Bachelor in Law, University of Valencia.

Political positions:

• President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, elected on 25 January 2016 for a one-year term, renewable once.
• President of the European People’s Party group in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2013 to 2016.
• Member of the Spanish Senate, heading the list for the constituency of Valencia since 1993.
• Member of the Spanish delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2000. He has been a member of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Population, and its Sub-committees on Refugees and on Migration; the Political Affairs Committee and its Sub-committee on the Middle East and its Ad Hoc Sub-committee on early warning systems and crisis prevention in Europe; the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights; the Committee on Economic Affairs and Development; the Committee on the Honouring of Obligations and Commitments by Member States of the Council of Europe (Monitoring Committee), of which he was Vice-President, and he has served as a co-rapporteur for the monitoring of both Monaco and Azerbaijan. He has produced numerous reports for the Assembly.
• Member of the Bureau of the People’s Party Parliamentary Group in the Spanish Senate, Speaker of the Territorial Group of Senators of the Valencian People’s Parliamentary Group, member of the Constitutional Committee of the Senate, serving as its President from 1993 to 2004; member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, member of the Parliamentary Joint Commission to oversee the RTVE Corporation, Spain’s public TV channel. Member of the Standing Committee of the Spanish Senate.
• In different legislatures, he has also been a member of the Joint Commission for the professionalisation of the armed forces; the Commission of the Autonomous Communities; the Special Commission to study constitutional reform in the Senate; the sub-committee for the study of bigotry and new forms of slavery and marginalisation in society, as well as the sub-committee for the study of the situation of Spanish inmates in foreign countries prisons, established within the Constitutional Commission; the Commission of Justice; the Special Committee on computer networks; the Commission on the Information Society and Knowledge; the Special Committee on the performing arts, music and the audiovisual media; Promoter and member of the Special Committee on the content of television, serving as spokesman for issues concerning Spanish TV and the content of audiovisual media; member of the Governing Board of the Centre for Constitutional Studies; and member of the Spanish National Committee for the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on behalf of the Valencia Generalitat.
• Member of the Spanish delegation in the European Security and Defence Assembly / Assembly of WEU (Western European Union) since 2000, belonging to its Committee of Presidents, the Defence Committee and the Political Committee, which he also chaired. He was a member of the Technological and Aerospace Committee and the Committee for Parliamentary and Public Relations. He has been President of the Federated Group of Christian Democrats (EPP) and European Democrats in the Assembly and is the President of the European People’s Party in the Assembly. He has produced numerous reports for the Assembly.
• A member of the Spanish People’s Party since 1989, he was President of the People’s Party of the Valencian Community from 1990 to 1993. Since 2005 he has been Chair of the Election Committee of the People’s Party of the Valencian Community and has been a member of the National Directorate of the Spanish People’s Party since 1989.
• Member of the Spanish House of Representatives in the Fourth Legislature (1989 to 1991).
• In the 2008 general election (Legislature IX), as a Senate candidate for the constituency of Valencia, he obtained the highest ever number of votes in that area (746,478). He ran for the Presidency of the Valencia Generalitat in 1991, having been President-Spokesman for the People’s Party parliamentary group in the Valencian Parliament (1991 to 1993). He was a Deputy of the Valencian Parliament in the Valencian Legislatures III and IV (1991 to 1996).

Professional activities:

• Lawyer and member of the Valencia Bar Association since 1975.
• He has occupied managerial positions with large-scale companies, mainly in the textile and clothing industries.

Education:

• Degree in Law, specialising in Business Law, from the University of Valencia (1969 to 1974).
• Graduate of the IESE Business School (Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa) in Barcelona, where he studied Management Development (1979 to 1980).
• Languages: Spanish, French, English, Valencian.

Social organisations

• He has been a member of various social organisations in the Valencian Community and at national level, including: President of the Valencia Business Confederation (CEV), President of the Interprovincial Employers’ Confederation of the Valencia Region (CIERVAL), President of the Valencian Association of Entrepreneurs (AVE), member of the Executive Committee of the Valencian Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Navigation, member of the Executive Committee and Board of the Valencia International Trade Fair, member of the Social Council of the University of Valencia, and member of the National Executive Committee of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organisations (CEOE).

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