Pedro Agramunt Font de Mora (born 12 September 1951) is a Spanish and European politician. Agramunt is from

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is also the capital of the province of the same name. The wider urban area al ...

and has served as a member of the Senate of Spain since 2008. He had previously represented Valencia Province in the

Spanish Congress of Deputies The Congress of Deputies ( es, link=no, Congreso de los Diputados, italic=unset) is the lower house of the Cortes Generales, Spain's legislative branch. The Congress meets in the Palace of the Parliament () in Madrid. It has 350 members elect ...

from 1989 to 1991 and in the

Corts Valencianes The Corts Valencianes (), commonly known as ''Les Corts'' (), are the main legislative body of the Generalitat Valenciana and therefore of the Valencian Community. The main location of the Corts is in the Palace of the Borgias in Valencia; howe ...

, the Valencian regional parliament, from 1991 to 1994. He is a prominent member of the

People's Party (Spain) The People's Party ( es, Partido Popular ; known mostly by its acronym, PP ) is a conservative and Christian-democratic political party in Spain. The People's Party was a 1989 re-foundation of People's Alliance (AP), a party led by former ...

. He has also been a Chairman of the European People's Party since January 2016 and is active in the

Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, a 46-nation international organisation dedicated to upholding human rights, democracy and the rule of law. The Assembly is made up ...

, being president until his resignation on 6 October 2017. Agramunt is an advocate for further European integration, and has spoken in favour of supporting Ukraine.

Education and personal life

According to his official biography, Agramunt holds a degree in law from the

University of Valencia The University of Valencia ( ca-valencia, Universitat de València ; also known as UV) is a public research university located in the city of Valencia, Spain. It is one of the oldest surviving universities in Spain, and the oldest in the Vale ...

. Agramunt's biography also says that he graduated from the Instituto de Estudios Superiores de la Empresa (IESE) in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, having studied Management Development (1980). Agramunt has been married since 1979 and has two children.

Controversy

Although Agramunt has a low profile in non-Spanish media, he is the focus of significant controversy, as he is the rapporteur of the

on political prisoners in

Azerbaijan Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of t ...

. Human rights activists have criticized Agramunt for his proximity to the regime in Azerbaijan, and have highlighted that he has done little to highlight numerous violations of human rights.

Leyla Yunus Leyla Islam qizi Yunusova (née Vəliyeva; born 21 December 1955, in Baku), better known as Leyla Yunus, is an Azerbaijani human rights activist who serves as the director of Institute of Peace and Democracy, a human rights organisation. She is ...

, one of the Azerbaijani human rights activists that had criticized Agramunt in June 2014, has since been arrested, on charges that

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

characterized as "bogus". In 2013, the European Stability Initiative pressed for Agramunt to resign from his position as rapporteur, alleging that he had covered up systematic violations of

Human rights in Azerbaijan International organizations have frequently alleged that Azerbaijan has violated human rights standards established in international law. Human Rights Watch issued a 2013 report accusing Azerbaijan of imprisoning and harassing political activi ...

. In 2017 in the report entitled “The

Azerbaijani Laundromat The Azerbaijani laundromat is a complex money-laundering scheme organized by Azerbaijan that was revealed by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) in September 2017. The investigations exposed that during two years between 2 ...

” published by the

Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) is a global network of investigative journalists with staff on six continents. It was founded in 2006 and specializes in organized crime and corruption. It publishes its stories through ...

as result of an investigative journalism, Agramunt was mentioned to be benefiting from Azerbaijani scheme of money laundering. Furthermore, he played a key role in rigging various votes at PACE in favour of

On 28 April 2017, after travelling to Syria to meet Bashar al-Assad, the Bureau of PACE said he is no longer authorized to undertake any official visits, attend meetings, or make public statements on behalf of the assembly in his capacity as president after a vote of no confidence on him. His partiality as a President of PACE was proven and he eventually resigned as the President of

on October 6, 2017. Кремлевский легион Совета Европы
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References

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Agramunt, Pedro 1951 births People's Party (Spain) politicians Living people Members of the Senate of Spain People from Valencia Members of the 4th Congress of Deputies (Spain) University of Valencia alumni Members of the 3rd Corts Valencianes Members of the 4th Corts Valencianes