Javier Solana | |
|---|---|
 Solana in 1999 | |
| High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy | |
| In office 18 October 1999 – 1 December 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Jürgen Trumpf |
| Succeeded by | Cathy Ashton(Foreign Affairs and Security Policy) |
| Secretary General of the Council of the European Union | |
| In office 18 October 1999 – 1 December 2009 | |
| Preceded by | Jürgen Trumpf |
| Succeeded by | Pierre de Boissieu |
| Secretary General of the Western European Union | |
| In office 20 November 1999 – 1 December 2009 | |
| Preceded by | José Cutileiro |
| Succeeded by | Arnaud Jacomet |
| 9thSecretary General of NATO | |
| In office 5 December 1995 – 14 October 1999 | |
| Preceded by | Sergio Balanzino(Acting) Willy Claes |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Robertson of Port Ellen |
| Minister of Foreign Affairs | |
| In office 16 June 1992 – 18 December 1995 | |
| Prime Minister | Felipe González |
| Preceded by | Francisco Fernández Ordóñez |
| Succeeded by | Carlos Westendorp |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga (1942-07-14)14 July 1942 (age 83) Madrid, Spain |
| Political party | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party |
| Spouse | María de la Concepción Giménez Díaz-Oyuelos |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Complutense University University of Virginia |
| Signature |  |
Francisco Javier Solana de MadariagaKCMGCYC (Spanish:[fɾanˈθiskoxaˈβjeɾsoˈlanaðemaðaˈɾjaɣa]; born 14 July 1942) is a Spanishphysicist andPSOE politician. After serving in the Spanish government asForeign Affairs Minister underFelipe González (1992–1995) and as theSecretary General of NATO (1995–1999), leading the alliance duringOperation Allied Force, he was appointed theEuropean Union'sHigh Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy,Secretary General of the Council of the European Union andSecretary-General of theWestern European Union and held these posts from October 1999 until December 2009.
Solana was born inMadrid, Spain. He comes from a prominent Spanish family, being a first cousin, twice removed, of diplomat, writer, historian, and pacifistSalvador de Madariaga[1] (Javier's grandfather, Rogelio de Madariaga, and Salvador de Madariaga were cousins). His father was a chemistry professor, Luis Solana San Martín, who died when Javier was nineteen. His mother, Obdulia de Madariaga Pérez, died in 2005.[2][3][4][5][6] Javier is the third of five children.[2] His older brotherLuis was once imprisoned for his political activities opposing the dictatorship ofFrancisco Franco, subsequently became a distinguished leader in the Spanish telecommunications industry[7] and was one of the first socialist members of theTrilateral Commission.[8]
Solana studied at theNuestra Señora del Pilar School, an exclusive CatholicMarianist secondary school, before going toComplutense University (UCM). There as a student in 1963 he suffered sanctions imposed by the authorities for having organised an opposition forum at the so-called Week of University Renovation. In 1964 he clandestinely joined theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE), which had been illegal under Franco since the end of theSpanish Civil War in 1939. In the same year he graduated and then spent a year furthering his studies atSpain's Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) and in the United Kingdom.
In 1965 he went to the United States, where he spent six years studying at various universities on aFulbright Scholarship.[9] He visited theUniversity of Chicago and theUniversity of California, San Diego, and then enrolled in the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences of theUniversity of Virginia inCharlottesville. There, he taught physics classes as a teaching assistant and carried on independent research; he also joined in theprotests against theVietnam War and was president of the Association of Foreign Students. He received his doctorate in physics from Virginia in 1971 with a thesis onTheory of the Elementary Excitation Spectrum ofSuperfluidHelium: theRoton Lifetime, extending his planned stay in the US by a year in order to continue his research. Returning to Spain he became a lecturer insolid-state physics at theAutonomous University of Madrid, UAM, and then in 1975 he became a professor at Complutense University. During these years he published more than 30 articles. For a time he worked as assistant toNicolás Cabrera, whom he had met when Cabrera was professor at the University of Virginia. The last PhDdissertations that he directed were in the early 1990s.
On returning to Spain in 1971 Solana joined the Democratic Co-ordination of Madrid as theSpanish Socialist Workers' Party (PSOE) representative.
In 1976, during PSOE's first national congress inside Spain since thecivil war, he was elected Secretary of the party's Federal Executive Commission, and also Secretary for Information and Press, remaining in the post for five years. He was a close personal friend of the party's leaderFelipe González, and is considered one of the PSOE leaders responsible for the transformation of the party in the post-Franco era. In 1976 he represented the PSOE at aSocialist International congress held inSuresnes, France, and again when it was held in Spain in 1977. On 20 May 1977 he accompanied González in visitingKing Juan Carlos at the Zarzuela Palace.
He became a representative of a teachers' union in the Complutense University, and in this role won aparliamentary seat for PSOE on 15 June 1977 and represented theMadrid region until December 1995. On 23 February 1981 he was in theparliament when it was taken over for 18 hours in an attemptedcoup by gunmen led byAntonio Tejero.
On 28 October 1982 PSOE won a historic victory with 202 out of 350 seats in thelower house. On 3 December, along with the other members of González's first cabinet, Solana was sworn in as Minister for Culture, where he remained until moving to the Ministry of Education in 1988. In July 1983 he adhered to the position ofAlfonso Guerra calling for an exit of Spain fromNATO.[10][11] On 5 July 1985 he was made the Spokesman for the Government for three years.
He was made Minister for Foreign Affairs on 22 July 1992, the day before the opening of the IIIbero-American conference ofheads of state in Madrid, replacing the terminally illFrancisco Fernández Ordóñez. On 27–28 November 1995, while Spain held thePresidency of the Council of the EU, Solana convened and chaired theBarcelona Conference. A treaty was achieved between the twenty-seven nations in attendance with Solana gaining credit for what he called "a process to foster cultural and economic unity in theMediterranean region".
It was during these thirteen years as a cabinet minister that Solana's reputation as a discreet and diplomatic politician grew. By going to the foreign ministry in the later years of the González administration, he avoided the political scandals of corruption, and of thedirty war allegedly being fought againstETA, that characterised its last years. Towards the end of 1995, Solana – the only surviving member of González's original cabinet – was talked about in the press as a possible candidate to replace him and lead the PSOE in the following March elections. Instead, he made the leap to international politics.
During and after his spell as NATO secretary general (see below) Solana continued to play an active role in PSOE and Spanish politics. In June 1997, at the 34th PSOE Congress, Solana left their Executive Commission and joined their Federal Committee, being re-elected in second place three years later. By supportingColin Powell's 5 February 2003 speech to the UN Security Council which claimed that Iraq hadWMDs[citation needed] Solana contradicted the position of his party leaderJosé Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, who opposed thePP government ofJosé María Aznar's support for theinvasion of Iraq. Solana is seen, along with González, as representing the older wing of the party. On 15 February 2005 he criticised thePlan Ibarretxe for its position onBasque Country independence, saying that its call for separate Basque representation within the EU had no place within the proposed EU constitution.
On 5 December 1995, Solana became the newSecretary-General ofNATO, replacingWilly Claes who had been forced to resign in a corruption scandal. His appointment created controversy as, in the past, he had been an opponent of NATO. He had written a pamphlet called50 Reasons to say no to NATO, and had been on a US subversives list.[citation needed] On 30 May 1982 Spain joined NATO. When PSOE came to power later that year, Solana and the party changed their previous anti-NATO positions into anatlanticist, pro-NATO stance. On 12 March 1986 Spain held areferendum on whether to remain in NATO, with the government and Solana successfully campaigning in favour. When criticised about his anti-NATO past, Solana argued that he was happy to be its representative as it had become disassociated from itsCold War origins.
Former Dutch Prime MinisterRuud Lubbers had been the leading candidate to replace Claes. According to the then-directorof policy planning at the State Department,James Steinberg, Lubbers' disagreement with the United States regarding NATO expansion caused concern in Washington: “we decided afterward that we weren’t going to let” Lubbers have the job.[12] The United States worked behind the scenes so as not to appear domineering in what is supposed to be an alliance-wide decision. In an attempt to play on French insecurities, Washington highlighted the French-language skills of Solana in comparison to Lubbers, who did not speak French. Sensing American opposition, Lubbers withdrew his candidacy in November 1995, and Solana became Secretary General in December of that year.
Solana immediately had to deal with theBalkans NATO mission OperationJoint Endeavour that consisted of a multinational peacekeepingImplementation Force (IFOR) of 60,000 soldiers which took over from a United Nations mission on 20 December.This came about through theDayton Agreement, after NATO hadbombed selected targets inBosnia and Herzegovina (positions held byVRS) the previous August and September. He did this by deploying theAllied Rapid Reaction Corps (ARRC). In December 1996 the ARRC was again activated, with IFOR being replaced by a 32,000-strongStabilisation Force (SFOR) operating under codenamesJoint Guard and laterJoint Forge.
During Solana's term, NATO reorganised its political and military structure and changed its basic strategies. He gained the reputation of being a successful, diplomatic Secretary General who was capable of negotiating between the differing NATO members and between NATO and non-NATO States. In December 1995 France partially returned to the military structure of NATO, while in November 1996 Spain joined it. On 27 May 1997, after five months of negotiations with Russian foreign ministerYevgeny Primakov, an agreement was reached resulting in the Paris NATO–Russia Founding Act.[13] On the same day, Solana presided over the establishment of theEuro-Atlantic Partnership Council to improve relations between European NATO and non-NATO countries.
Keeping the peace in the formerYugoslavia continued to be both difficult and controversial. IFOR and SFOR had received a lot of criticism for their inability to capture theBosnian Serb leadersRadovan Karadžić andRatko Mladić. In late 1998 theconflict inKosovo, between theYugoslav authorities and theKosovar Albanian guerillaKosovo Liberation Army deteriorated, culminating in theRačak massacre on 15 January 1999, in which 45Albanians were killed. NATO decided that the conflict could only be settled by introducing a proper military peacekeeping force under their auspices, to forcibly restrain the two sides.[citation needed] On 30 January 1999, NATO announced that it was prepared to launch air strikes against Yugoslav targets. On 6 February, Solana met both sides for negotiations at theChâteau de Rambouillet, but they were unsuccessful.
On 24 March, NATO forces launchedair attacks on military and civilian targets inYugoslavia. Solanajustified the attacks on humanitarian grounds, and on the responsibility of NATO to keep peace in Europe and to prevent recurrences ofethnic cleansing andgenocide similar to those whichoccurred during theBosnian War (1992–1995).
Solana and NATO were criticised for the civilian casualties caused by the bombings.[14][15]On 23–24 April, theNorth Atlantic Council met in Washington D.C. where theHeads of State of the member nations agreed with theNew Strategic Concept, which changed the basic defensive nature of the organisation and allowed for NATO intervention in a greater range of situations than before.
On 10 June, Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo, and NATO stopped its attacks, which ended the Kosovo War. The same dayUN Security Council Resolution 1244 authorised NATO to activate theARRC, with theKosovo Force launching OperationJoint Guardian and occupying the province on 12 June. Solana left NATO on 6 October 1999, two months ahead of schedule, and was replaced byGeorge Robertson.
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After leaving NATO, Solana took up a role in theEuropean Union. Earlier in the year, on 4 June 1999, he was appointed by theCologne European Council as Secretary-General of theCouncil of the European Union. An administrative position but it was decided that the Secretary-General would also be appointedHigh Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). In this role he represented the EU abroad where there was an agreed common policy. He took up the post on 18 October 1999, shortly after standing down from NATO. The post has a budget of €40 million, most of which went to Balkan operations. From 25 November 1999 he was also appointed Secretary-General ofWestern European Union (WEU), overseeing the transfer of responsibilities from that organisation to the CFSP. In 2004 his 5-year mandate was renewed. He also became president of theEuropean Defence Agency.
TheClinton administration claimed in May 2000 that Solana was the fulfilment ofHenry Kissinger's famous desire to have a phone number to talk to Europe.[citation needed] In December 2003 Solana released theEuropean Security Strategy, which sets out the main priorities and identifies the main threats to the security of the EU, including terrorism. On 25 March 2004 Solana appointedGijs de Vries as the anti-terrorist co-ordinator for the CFSP, and outlined his duties as being to streamline, organise and co-ordinate the EU's fight against terrorism.
On 29 June 2004 he was designated to become the EU's first "Union Minister for Foreign Affairs", a position created by theEuropean Constitutional Treaty combining the head of theCFSP with that of theEuropean Commissioner for External Relations. It would give a single voice to foreign policy and combine the powers and influence of the two posts with a larger budget, more staff and a coherent diplomatic corps. The position (colloquially known as "Mr. Europe") has been partly maintained in theReform Treaty asHigh Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, but Solana is not going to take the post as he announced that he would step down at the end of his term.[16]
In late 2004, Solana held secret negotiations withHamas leaders, saying that he met them at a time when there seemed to be an opportunity for progress, and were to "pass a clear message of what the international community wants", and said that the meetings occurred "months" before.[17]
He negotiated a number of Treaties of Association between the European Union and various Middle Eastern andLatin American countries, includingBolivia andColombia. Solana played a pivotal role in unifying the remainder of the former Yugoslavian federation. He proposed thatMontenegro form a union withSerbia instead of having full independence, stating that this was done to avoid adomino effect fromKosovo andVojvodina independence demands. Local media sarcastically named the new country "Solania".[citation needed]
On 21 January 2002 Solana said that the detainees atGuantanamo Bay should be treated as prisoners of war under theGeneva Convention.[18] The EU has stated that it hopes to avoid another war like theIraqi invasion through this and future negotiations, and Solana has said the most difficult moments of his job were when the United Kingdom and France, the two permanent EUSecurity Council members, were indisagreement.
The so-calledVilnius letter, a declaration of support by eastern European countries for the United States' aim of régime change in Iraq, andthe letter of the eight, a similar letter from the UK, Italy, and six second-tier countries, are generally seen[by whom?] as a low-water mark of the CFSP.
Solana has played an important role working toward a resolution to theIsraeli–Palestinian conflict, and continues to be a primary architect of the "Road Map for Peace," along with the UN, Russia, and the United States in theQuartet on the Middle East. On 22 July 2004 he metAriel Sharon in Israel. Sharon had originally refused to meet Solana, but eventually accepted that, whether he liked it or not, the EU was involved in the Road Map. He criticised Israel for obstructing thePalestinian presidential election of 9 January 2005, but then met Sharon again on 13 January.
In November 2004 Solana assisted the United Kingdom, France and Germany in negotiating a nuclear material enrichment freeze withIran. In the same month he was involved in mediating between the two presidential candidates in thepost-election developments in Ukraine, and on 21 January 2005 he invited Ukraine's new PresidentViktor Yushchenko to discuss future EU membership.[19]
In 2010, after he had left office, Solana signed a petition along with 25 other EU leaders directed at his successor,Catherine Ashton, calling for EU sanctions onIsrael in response to continuedsettlement construction in theWest Bank.[20]
Solana is married to Concepción Giménez, and they have two adult children, Diego and Vega. He lives inBrussels, where his apartment has a reputation of being a focal point for Spanish politicians in or visiting the European capital. Apart from his native Spanish, he also speaks fluent French, as well as English.
GeneralWesley Clark once asked Solana the secret of his diplomatic success. He answered: "Make no enemies, and never ask a question to which you do not know or like the answer."[19] He has been described as a "squarer of circles."[citation needed]
U.S. ambassador to NATOAlexander Vershbow said of him: "He is an extraordinary consensus-builder who works behind the scenes with leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to ensure that NATO is united when it counts."[citation needed] He is a frequent speaker at the prestigious U.S. basedCouncil on Foreign Relations (CFR). He is likewise active in the Foreign Policy Association (FPA) as well as the New York City based East West Institute. In March 2010, Solana became honorary president of theCentre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and in 2011 became a Member of theGlobal Leadership Foundation, an organization which works to promote good governance around the world. He also became a member ofHuman Rights Watch board of directors the same year.[28]
He is an honorary Knight Commander of theOrder of St Michael and St George, a member of the Spanish section of theClub of Rome. He has received theGrand Cross ofIsabel the Catholic in Spain and theManfred Wörner Medal from the German defence ministry. He has been President of theMadariaga - College of Europe Foundation since 1998. He received theVision for Europe Award in 2003. Also in 2003, he received the 'Statesman of the Year Award' from theEastWest Institute, a Transatlantic think tank that organizes an annual security conference in Brussels. In 2006 Solana received theCarnegie-Wateler peace prize. He has also been awarded theCharlemagne Prize for 2007 for his distinguished services on behalf of European unification.[29] In December 2009, Javier Solana joined ESADE Business School as president of its new Centre for Global Economy and Geopolitics. In January 2010, KingJuan Carlos I appointed Javier Solana the 1,194thKnight of theOrder of the Golden Fleece for his career in diplomacy.[30]
On 11 March 2020 Solana was admitted to the hospital after being infected byCOVID-19 during theCOVID-19 pandemic in Spain.[31]
Knight Grand Cross of theCivil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise (1996)[32]
Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of Charles III (1997)[33]
Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of Isabella the Catholic (2000)[33]
Knight of theOrder of the Golden Fleece (2010)[33]
Grand Officer of theOrder of the White Lion (Czech Republic, 1998)
Honorary Knight Commander of theOrder of St Michael and St George (United Kingdom, 2000)[33].svg)
Recipient of theOrder for Exceptional Merits (Slovenia, 2004)
Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Republic of Poland (Poland, 2005)[34]
Commander Cross of theOrder of the Lithuanian Grand Duke Gediminas (Lithuania, 2005)
Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic (Germany, 2007)[33]
Grand Cross of theOrder of Christ (Portugal, 2010)[35]
Knight of theGeorgian Order of the Golden Fleece (Georgia, 2010)[36] |
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Heredó de su abuelo materno [Rogelio de Madariaga y Castro] la revista "España Económica", publicación que dio cabida a jóvenes economistas críticos con el régimen de Franco. Sobrino nieto de D. Salvador de Madariaga.
He inherited from his maternal grandfather [Rogelio de Madariaga y Castro] the magazine "España Económica", which accommodated young economists critical of the Franco regime. (He's) the grand nephew of D. Salvador de Madariaga
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Minister of Culture 1982–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Spokesman for the Government 1985–1988 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Education 1988–1992 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Foreign Affairs 1992–1995 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy 1999–2009 | Succeeded byas High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy |
| Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union 1999–2009 | Succeeded by | |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by | Secretary General of NATO 1995–1999 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Secretary General of the Western European Union 1999–2009 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Speaker of theCollege of Europe Opening Ceremony 2005 | Succeeded by |
| Common Foreign and Security Policy |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Foreign Affairs and Security Policy | ||
Members of the SpanishOrder of the Golden Fleece | ||
|---|---|---|
| Grand Master |
| .svg) |
| Knights |
| |
Note: Within parentheses, the year when inducted into the Order | ||
