José Ignacio "Nacho" Sánchez Amor (; born 1960) is a Spanish politician who was elected as a

Member of the European Parliament A member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been Election, elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the European Coal and S ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Early life and education

Born on 15 May 1960 in Cáceres, he was raised in

Jaraíz de la Vera Jaraíz de la Vera () is a municipality located in the province of Cáceres, Extremadura, Spain. According to the 2012 census ( INE), the municipality has a population of 6727 inhabitants. It is situated to the north of Extremadura and it is the c ...

. He moved to

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

and became a member of the People's Socialist Party (PSP) in 1977, attending the April 1978 party congress in

Torrelodones Torrelodones is a municipality in the northwest of the Autonomous Community of Madrid, Spain. It is situated 29 kilometers northwest from the city of Madrid. Because of its location between the Sierra de Guadarrama and the metropolitan area of the ...

in which the merge with the

Spanish Socialist Workers' Party The Spanish Socialist Workers' Party ( , PSOE ) is a Social democracy, social democratic Updated as required.The PSOE is described as a social-democratic party by numerous sources: * * * * List of political parties in Spain, political party ...

(PSOE) was decided. He dropped studies in medicine and switched to law, earning a licentiate degree in Law at the

Complutense University of Madrid The Complutense University of Madrid (, UCM; ) is a public research university located in Madrid. Founded in Alcalá in 1293 (before relocating to Madrid in 1836), it is one of the oldest operating universities in the world, and one of Spain's ...

(UCM). He was a postgraduate scholar at the Centro de Estudios Constitucionales (CEC).

Political career

Career in state politics

Having joined the Corps of attorneys of the regional government of Extremadura in 1986, Sánchez Amor served as Chief of Staff of Juan Carlos Rodríguez Ibarra, the regional president of Extremadura, between 1996 and 2004. Sánchez Amor was appointed as regional Vice-President in 2004, serving until 2007. He ran as candidate in the 2007 Extremadura regional election and, elected, he became the Spokesperson of the Socialist Parliamentary Group in the

Assembly of Extremadura Assembly may refer to: Organisations and meetings * Deliberative assembly, a gathering of members who use parliamentary procedure for making decisions * General assembly, an official meeting of the members of an organization or of their represent ...

Career in national politics

Sánchez Amor became a member of the

Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies () is the lower house of the , Spain's legislative branch, the upper house being the Senate of Spain, Senate. The Congress meets in the Palacio de las Cortes, Madrid, Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. Congress has ...

in the 2011 elections and was re-elected at the 2015 and 2016 elections. In addition to his parliamentary work, Sánchez Amor was a member of the Spanish delegation to the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE (OSCE PA) is an institution of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. The primary task of the 323-member Assembly is to facilitate inter-parliamentary dialogue, an important aspect of the o ...

, where he chaired the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions. In this capacity, he led short-term OSCE observer missions during the 2015 general election in

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

; the 2016 parliamentary elections in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

; and the

2018 Turkish presidential election Presidential elections were held in Turkey on 24 June 2018 as part of the 2018 Turkish general election, 2018 general election, alongside 2018 Turkish parliamentary election, parliamentary elections on the same day. They were the first president ...

. On June 23, 2018 Minister Meritxell Batet appointed him as Secretary of State for Territorial Policy. He served as the 11th Secretary of State until June 29, 2019.

Member of the European Parliament, 2019–present

In 2019, Sánchez Amor left his government office to run in the EU elections. He was 12th one the PSOE list for the

2019 European Parliament election in Spain The 2019 European Parliament election in Spain was held on Sunday, 26 May 2019, as part of the 2019 European Parliament election, EU-wide election to elect the Ninth European Parliament, 9th European Parliament. All 54 seats allocated to Spain ( ...

and became an MEP. In parliament, Sánchez Amor has since been serving on the Committee on Foreign Affairs and its

Subcommittee on Human Rights The Subcommittee on Human Rights (DROI, after the French name ''Sous-commission des droits de l'homme du Parlement européen'') is a subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament. It is responsible for issues of human ...

. In this capacity, he has been the parliament's

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Eur ...

on relations with Turkey. In addition to his committee assignments, Sánchez Amor is part of the parliament's delegations to the EU-Turkey Joint Parliamentary Committee and to the

Euronest Parliamentary Assembly The EuroNest Parliamentary Assembly is the inter-parliamentary forum in which members of the European Parliament and the national parliaments of Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia participate and forge closer political and economic ...

. He also led a European Union observer mission to the 2019 general elections in

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

. He is a member of the

European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights The European Parliament Intergroup on LGBTI Rights is an intergroup of the European Parliament's legislators which focuses on the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) persons both inside and outside the European Uni ...

, the European Parliament Intergroup on Disability. and the

Spinelli Group The Spinelli Group is an initiative founded with a view to reinvigorate the endeavour for federalisation of the European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic uni ...

.Board & Members

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sanchez Amor, Ignacio Living people MEPs for Spain 2019–2024 Members of the 10th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 11th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 12th Congress of Deputies (Spain) Members of the 7th Assembly of Extremadura 1960 births Secretaries of State of Spain MEPs for Spain 2024–2029