José Maria Gil-Robles, former president of the European Parliament, died at the age of 87 on Monday. Gil-Robles, son of the prominent pre-Spanish Civil War politician of the same name, served as the President of the European Parliament from 1997 to 1999.
Speaking at the Parliament’s plenary session in Strasbourg, current EP President Ursula Metsola paid homage to the Spanish politician.
“He served in many capacities during his parliamentary terms and was a rapporteur for a number of institutional reforms. He will be remembered for having ensured that Parliament was directly involved in the negotiations for the Treaty of Amsterdam… This House mourns him and pays tribute to his legacy,” Metsola said.
During Tuesday’s session, MEPs performed a minute of silence in honour of the deceased politician.
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Under Gil-Robles' leadership, the EU started negotiations for the adoption of the Euro and the appointment of the first president of the European Central Bank (ECB). Between 2008 and 2015, Gil-Robles chaired the Jean Monnet Foundation.
Between 1989 and 2004, he served as an MEP for the Spanish Partido Popular within the EPP group. Spending much of his childhood exiled from Spain in Portugal, he returned to the country at the age of 18 to study at the University of Deusto, where he trained as a lawyer.
Gil-Robles was a proponent of European enlargement, making European institutions more democratic, combating terrorism, ensuring that the Union had sufficient finances to carry out policies, and promoting peace and development internationally.
