Manuel Marin, former president of the Spanish Parliament, dies at 68

USPA NEWS - The Spanish socialist politician Manuel Marin, who was one of the architects of the entry into Spain in the European Union and held the presidency of the Spanish Parliament during the government of socialist Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, died Monday in Madrid, a cancer victim. He was 68 years old and had left politics in 2008 to devote his efforts to the fight against climate change.

Manuel Marin was considered a moderate socialist and committed to the values of the European left. He was a deputy in the constituent legislature of 1977 and was re-elected in the elections of 1979 and 1982, when the Socialist Party led by Felipe Gonzalez reached the Government of Spain for the first time. In this first Government of Felipe Gonzalez, Manuel Marin was appointed Secretary of State for Relations with the European Communities and between 1982 and 1985 he was at the forefront of the negotiations for the accession of Spain to the then European Economic Community.

From 1986 to 1989 he was vice-president of the European Commission and also exercised the Commissariats of Social Affairs, Education and Employment between 1986 and 1988; of Cooperation Policy, and Development, and Common Fisheries Policy between 1989 and 1992; and Policy on Cooperation for Development, Foreign Economic Relations with the Mediterranean, Latin America, Asia and the ACP countries, and Humanitarian Aid between 1993 and 1999. Between July and September 1999, he assumed the acting presidency of the European Commission, following the resignation of Jacques Santer. He is also considered one of the parents of the Erasmus student mobility program in Europe.

After a brief stint at the Carlos III University of Madrid as a professor, he was nominated to the Congress in the elections of March 12, 2000 and was elected. After winning the Socialist Party in the 2004 elections, Manuel Marin was elected president of the Congress of Deputies, a position he held until 2008, when he left politics definitively to devote himself to the fight against climate change. The last few years he chaired the Iberdrola Spain Foundation, which investigates green energies.