Felipe González Márquez

Felipe González Márquez, born in Seville on 5 March 1942. He studied Law at Seville University and started his career as an Attorney specializing in labour.Mr. Gonzalez was the General Secretary of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) from 1974 to 1997, Member of the Parliament from 1977 to 2004; and Vice President of the Socialist International from 1978 to 1999. He chaired the Global Progress Commission for the renewal of the IS. To date, he remains the longest-serving Prime Minister of Spain, after having served four successive mandates from 1982 to 1996, of which, three with absolute majority of votes.On 27 July 2007, the Spanish Government appointed him plenipotentiary and extraordinary Ambassador for the bicentenary celebrations in commemoration of the independence of Latin America. At a summit held in Brussels on 14 December 2007, heads of state and government of European Union member states appointed González Chairman of the think tank, The Reflection Group, on the future of the European Union; the group, consisting of up to nine prestigious personalities commissioned to drawing up a report by June 2010 on the challenges facing the European Union from 2020 to 2030 and will also look at how to achieve a closer understanding between citizens and the Union.