Speaker

Joaquin ALMUNIA

Former European Commissioner - European Commission

Joaquín Almunia is Chairman of the Board at the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS).

Between 2004 and 2014, he was a member of the European Commission, initially as Commissioner in charge of Economic and Monetary affairs and from 2010 to 2014 as Vice-President and Commissioner in charge of Competition Policy.

Joaquin was a member of the Spanish Government between 1982 and 1991, first as minister of Labour and Social Security and later as minister of Public Administration. He was also a member of the Spanish parliament from 1979 to 2004  including as the leader of the PSOE, the Spanish Socialist Party (1997-2000).

Joaquin is a Honorary President of the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics. He is also a visiting Professor at the European Institute of the LSE and visiting Professor at PSIA- Sciences-Po.

Joaquin holds a degree in Law and Economics from the University of Deusto in Bilbao, Spain. He pursued post graduate diplomas at the École Pratique des Hautes Études (Paris, 1970-1971) and at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government University (Cambridge,MA 1991)