Joaquín Almunia is Chairman of the Board of the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS), and Honorary President of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics.

He has been a member of the Spanish Government, first as a minister of Labour and Social Security (1982-1986) and later as a minister for Public Administration (1986-1991). Has been a member of the Spanish Parliament (1979-2004); and the leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) (1997-2000)

From April 2004 to October 2014 has been a member of the European Commission, in charge of the portfolio of Economic and Monetary Affairs and since February 2010 as Vice-President and Commission in charge of Competition Policy.

He is Visiting Professor at PSIA- Sciences-Po, where he teaches every year a master course on EU Competition Policy.

He has Degrees in Economics (1971) and Law (1972) by the University of Deusto (Bilbao, Spain)

Recently, he published his last book: “Ganar el futuro. Cómo la Unión Europea y la socialdemocracia pueden salir juntas de sus crisis” (“Winning the future. How the EU and socialdemocracy can overcome together their crises”) Taurus, 2018.

Born in Bilbao (Spain), 17 June 1948
Married with Milagros CANDELA, two children