page_title: Josep Borrell
section_title: European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
hierarchical_section_title: Josep Borrell / Political career / European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy
caption_attribution_description: Before the European Parliament can vote the new European Commission led by Ursula von der Leyen into office, parliamentary committees will assess the suitability of commissioners-designate. On 23-26 May, more than 200,000,000 people in 28 EU countries went to the polls to elect members of the European Parliament, giving them a strong democratic mandate, including voting into office the new European Commission and examining the competencies and abilities of its commissioners-designate. Elected members of the European Parliament will also listen to their ideas and will assess their willingness to take concrete actions on the issues that Europeans care about. Each candidate commissioner is invited for a live-streamed, three-hour hearing in front of the committee or committees responsible for their proposed portfolio. The hearings will take place between Monday 30 September and Tuesday 8 October. &lt;a href="http://epinsta.eu/EPhearings2019" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;epinsta.eu/EPhearings2019&lt;/a&gt; This photo is free to use under Creative Commons license CC-BY-4.0 and must be credited: &quot;CC-BY-4.0: © European Union 2019 – Source: EP&quot;. (&lt;a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="noreferrer nofollow"&gt;creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/&lt;/a&gt;) No model release form if applicable. For bigger HR files please contact: webcom-flickr(AT)europarl.europa.eu
context_page_description: Josep Borrell Fontelles is a Spanish politician, current High Representative of the European Union since 1 December 2019. A member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party, he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2019, having previously served under Felipe González as Minister of Public Works from 1991 to 1996.
  Born and raised in the Catalan village of La Pobla de Segur, Borrell, aeronautical engineer and economist by training as well as professor of mathematics, entered politics in the 1970s as PSOE member during Spain's transition to democracy, and went on to serve in several prominent positions during the governments of Felipe González, first within the Ministry of Economy and Finance as General Secretary for the Budget and Public Spending and Secretary of State for Finance, then joining the Council of Ministers as Minister of Public Works and Transport.
context_section_description: On 2 July 2019, President of the European Council Donald Tusk announced that the European Council would nominate Josep Borrell as High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. The portfolio had been reportedly beefed up with additional responsibilities in humanitarian aid, support of development policies in Africa and the external dimension of immigration. Also in July 2019 he announced the acquisition of double Argentine-Spanish citizenship, assumed on 18 July 2019, thus gaining the citizenship his father was born with.
  He passed the hearing before the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs (AFET) on 7 October 2019. His nomination was green-lighted the next day through a vote by members of the AFET.
  To counter its negative image, China has sent medical aid and supplies to EU countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. Borrell warned that there is "a geo-political component including a struggle for influence through spinning and the ‘politics of generosity’. He also said that "China is aggressively pushing the message that, unlike the US, it is a responsible and reliable partner."
  Borrell said that proposed Israeli annexation of the West Bank "could not pass unchallenged" and warned that "failure to adequately respond would encourage other states with territorial claims to disregard basic principles of international law". He said that "In line with international law and relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions, the EU does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty" over the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967.
  On 9 April 2020, Josep Borrell on behalf of the EU on the release of the first report of the Investigation and Identification Team to the Executive Council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and to the Secretary General of the United Nations on 8 April 2020, declared that "We fully support the report’s findings and note with great concern its conclusions. The European Union strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Arab Air Force as concluded by the report. Those identified responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable for these reprehensible acts."
  On April 24 the EU’s foreign security policy agency, the European External Action Service (EEAS), published a report on disinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The New York Times reported that the language had been toned down amid criticism from China. The final report differed in key areas from both an internal version and an earlier draft that had been planned for public release. At a parliamentary hearing on April 30, Josep Borrell, acknowledged that China had expressed concerns about the report after it leaked but denied that the EU had bowed to pressure and that the report had been revised.  Josep Borrell said that there were two separate reports, one for internal consumption and one for publication.Responding to questions from members of the European Parliament, Borrell accused staff of damaging the EU by leaking. He also appeared to suggest that analysts’ views were biased and cast doubt on their credibility.
  “I cannot accept that the personal belief or feeling of a member of staff leaking mails — maybe being written to be leaked — created damage to the credibility of the institution," he said, later asking MEPs why “more credibility” was being given “to the personal opinion of a member of a staff”.
  Multiple EU officials told BuzzFeed News and the NY Times that they were left angry and disappointed by Borrell’s focus on leaks and, in particular, his singling out of junior staff members.
caption: Borrell testifies before the EP Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2019 in a hearing for his confirmation as High Representative
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