Ãñigo Méndez de Vigo
Mr Méndez de Vigo y Montojo (born 21 January 1956 in Tetouan, Morocco ) is a Spanish politician of the conservative party PP and since 2011 Minister for Europe. Between 1992 and 2011 he was a member of the European Parliament.
Life
After studying law at the Complutense University of Madrid, which he completed in 1978, was Méndez de Vigo 1981 Board of Directors in the Spanish parliament. He was also from 1981 to 1984, also at the Complutense University, as a university teacher of constitutional law, and from 1989 to 1991 worked for European Law. From 1999 to 2004 he held the Jean Monnet Chair of European Institutions at the University Complutense, then a Jean Monnet Honorary Professorship awarded him.
Since 1990 he has held various senior roles in the conservative party PP. He was from 1990 to 1993 member of the national disciplinary committee of the party, he became a member of the party executive in 1992. In the same year he also drew for the first time as substitutes in the European Parliament, a, to which he belongs since then as a member of the Group of the European People's Party. Here, Méndez de Vigo was mainly involved with the advancement of contractual foundations of the European Union: From 1994 to 1996 he was Deputy Chairman since Coordinator of the EPP in the Committee on Institutional Affairs. He was also a member of the 1999-2000 first European Convention which drafted the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, chaired by Roman Herzog, and 2002-2003 in the second Convention which drew up the draft EU Constitutional Treaty. In both convents he was Chairman of the Delegation of the European Parliament. Also at the Intergovernmental Conference which the draft Constitution 2003/ 04 revised, Méndez de Vigo participated as representatives of the European Parliament.
Last Méndez de Vigo was re-elected in the European election in Spain in 2009 and since then a part of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs on.
Awards
For his activities Méndez de Vigo has won several awards, including the press price Salvador de Madariaga in 1999 and the Gold Medal of the Mérite Européen 2002 Foundation.