Marcelino Oreja y Aguirre, 1st Marquis of Oreja (born 13 February 1935) is a Spanish lawyer, diplomat and politician of the People's Party. He served as Foreign Minister of Spain between 1976 and 1980. Between 1984 and 1989 he was

Secretary General of the Council of Europe The Secretary General of the Council of Europe (french: Secrétaire général du Conseil de l'Europe, links=no) is appointed by the Parliamentary Assembly on the recommendation of the Committee of Ministers for a period of five years. The secreta ...

. In 1989 he became member of the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it adopts ...

and he served until 1993. In 1994 he was appointed

European Commissioner for Transport The European Commissioner for Transport is a member of the European Commission whose portfolio includes the planning and development of homogeneous transport policies and regulations across the Union, of the Trans-European Transport Network as w ...

and Energy and then European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy.

Career

Oreja was born on 13 February 1935 in Madrid, his father was

Marcelino Oreja Elósegui Marcelino Oreja Elósegui (1894–1934) was a Spanish entrepreneur, Catholic activist and Carlist politician. Family and youth Marcelino Oreja Elósegui was descendant to a petty bourgeoisie Basque family, originating from the Gipuzkoan town of ...

. In May 1973 he and a number of Madrid-based individuals founded the '' Grupo Tácito'', a group of intellectuals, politicians and journalists, some of them coming from the Franco regime and others from the democratic and monarchist opposition to the dictatorship. They - by the prospect of Franco’s death - advocated a democratic solution to the dictatorial regime and had influence in different sectors linked to the system, and where active during the period of the

Spanish Transition Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries ** Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

between 1973 and 1976. Oreja came up with the name after the Roman historian

Tacitus Publius Cornelius Tacitus, known simply as Tacitus ( , ; – ), was a Roman historian and politician. Tacitus is widely regarded as one of the greatest Roman historians by modern scholars. The surviving portions of his two major works—the ...

, meaning that due to government censorship not everything could be said. The ''Grupo Tácito'' had its origins in a meeting of the Asociación Católica Nacional de Propagandistas’ (''Catholic National Association of Propagandists'') and group’s early influence was largely determined by its access to the Catholic press. Oreja served as Spanish minister of foreign affairs from 5 July 1976 to 1980. July 1976 Oreja set out to reform Spain’s 1953 Concordat with the Vatican, which resulted the same month in agreements with the

Vatican Vatican may refer to: Vatican City, the city-state ruled by the pope in Rome, including St. Peter's Basilica, Sistine Chapel, Vatican Museum The Holy See * The Holy See, the governing body of the Catholic Church and sovereign entity recognized ...

laying out the

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

.https://www.ru.nl/publish/pages/816038/oreja-m-19april2017.pdf Marcelino Oreja Aguirre Bio, Université du Luxembourg CVCE.EU The Spanish chief of state no more had the right to nominate Roman Catholic bishops, in exchange the Vatican dropped its right of “ecclesiastical forum”. Two months later Oreja signed the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is an international document adopted by the United Nations General Assembly that enshrines the rights and freedoms of all human beings. Drafted by a UN committee chaired by Eleanor Roosevelt, ...

on behalf of Spain. On 24 November 1977, in Strasbourg, Oreja signed Spain’s accession to the Council of Europe, with the

European Convention on Human Rights The European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR; formally the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms) is an international convention to protect human rights and political freedoms in Europe. Drafted in 1950 by ...

entering into force in Spain on 4 October 1979. He was

from 1984 to 1989. He was elected to the

in 1989. His membership ended on 28 June 1993. In 1994 Oreja was appointed

and Energy and then European Commissioner for Institutional Relations and Communication Strategy. At the end of his mandate, Oreja retired from political life, returning to Spain. He continued to be active in many fields, being appointed Head of the Institute for European Studies at the CEU San Pablo University Foundation, Vice-Chair of the BBV Foundation (1996) and Doctor Honoris Causa at

Zaragoza Zaragoza, also known in English as Saragossa,''Encyclopædia Britannica'"Zaragoza (conventional Saragossa)" is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain. It lies by the Ebro river and its tributari ...

and

Seville Seville (; es, Sevilla, ) is the capital and largest city of the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia and the province of Seville. It is situated on the lower reaches of the River Guadalquivir, in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula ...

Universities (1996).

Other activities

* Elcano Royal Institute for International and Strategic Studies, Member of the Board of Trustees * Spanish

Royal Academy of Moral and Political Sciences Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, Iowa, a c ...

(RACMP), Member * Spanish Royal Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation (RAJL), Member

Recognition

On 8 April 2010 Oreja was made Marquis of Oreja.

References

, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Oreja, Marcelino 1935 births Living people Politicians from Madrid People's Party (Spain) politicians Foreign ministers of Spain Council of Europe Secretaries-General MEPs for Spain 1989–1994 Spanish European Commissioners Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts Marquesses of Spain Spanish people of Basque descent Members of the 1st Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 2nd Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 5th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the Senate of Spain