Alfonso Dastis

The Most Excellent
Alfonso Dastis
OCIII OSP
Minister of Foreign Affairs
In office
4 November 2016  1 June 2018
Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy
Preceded by José Manuel García-Margallo
Succeeded by Josep Borrell
Permanent Representative of Spain to the European Union
In office
21 December 2011  4 November 2016
Preceded by Luis Planas
Succeeded by Juan Pablo García-Berdoy
Ambassador of Spain to the Netherlands
In office
26 June 2004  31 December 2011
Personal details
Born Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo
(1955-10-05) 5 October 1955
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain
Political party Independent
Alma mater CEU San Pablo University
Complutense University

Alfonso María Dastis Quecedo (born October 5, 1955) is a Spanish diplomat, who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain from 2016 until 1 June 2018, when a vote of no-confidence against Mariano Rajoy outsed the government. Prior to becoming Minister he held several positions within the Spanish Diplomatic Corps.

Education

Dastis studied law at the CEU San Pablo University in the 1970s, then attended the public Complutense University of Madrid.[1] He embarked on a doctoral thesis on the freedom of establishment of insurance companies, but abandoned it in 1983.[2]

Career

Alfonso Dastis in 2017 with US Secretary Rex Tillerson

Dastis entered the Diplomatic Corps in 1983.[3] As a career diplomat he held several positions linked to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and to international institutions, such as in the Spanish Embassy to the UN, the Minister's Staff, and the Prime Minister's Office. In 2002, he was named Secretary General for European Affairs.

Between 1987 and 1989, Dastis worked as a law clerk for one of his former professors, Gil Carlos Rodríguez Iglesias, Spain’s first judge at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and a subsequent president of that court.[4]

As Spain’s legal adviser at the United Nations, Dastis deputised occasionally for Spain’s ambassador in 1993-94 when Spain held a seat on the United Nations Security Council and cast Spain’s vote at the Security Council meeting that accepted the Czech Republic and Slovakia as members after they had split.[5]

Dastis during the MSC 2018

Dastis was EU adviser to José Maria Aznar from 1996 to 2000. Among other things, he was in charge of organising Spain’s presidency of the Council of the European Union, which ran in the first half of 2002.[6] At the end of 2001, Aznar nominated him as Spanish delegate to the Convention on the Future of Europe, alongside Ana de Palacio y del Valle-Lersundi. In this capacity, he pushed against making the Union’s common foreign and security policy (CFSP) subject to the jurisdiction of the ECJ.[7]

Dastis attained the rank of Ambassador in 2004 being named Ambassador to the Netherlands. In 2011 Dastis was named Permanent Representative to the European Union. In 2016 Dastis was named Minister of Foreign Affairs in the second Rajoy government.

Personal life

Dastis is married to a lawyer. He is a keen golfer.[8]

See also

References

Political offices
Preceded by
José Manuel García-Margallo
Minister of Foreign Affairs
2016–2018
Succeeded by
Josep Borrell
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