Pilar del Castillo Vera (; born 31 July 1952) is a Spanish politician who has been serving 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 ...

since 2004. She previously served as Minister for Education, Culture and Sport in the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

José María Aznar José María Alfredo Aznar López (; born 25 February 1953) is a Spanish politician who was the prime minister of Spain from 1996 to 2004. He led the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP), the dominant centre-right political party in Spai ...

from 2000 to 2004.

Early life and education

Law graduate at

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 ...

, 1974. In 1980 she was granted a

Fulbright Scholarship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people ...

for a master's degree in political science at

Ohio State University The Ohio State University (Ohio State or OSU) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio, United States. A member of the University System of Ohio, it was founded in 1870. It is one ...

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. PhD in law from

, 1983. Awarded the Spanish Sociological Research Centre Prize for the doctoral thesis 'Political Party Funding in Western Democracies', 1984.

Career

In 1986, Del Castillo became assistant professor in

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a state, namely, the executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as the basic rights of citizens and, in ...

at UNED, and professor in

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and Power (social and political), power, and the analysis of political activities, political philosophy, political thought, polit ...

and administration in 1994. Editor-in-chief of the Journal ''Nueva Revista de Política, Cultura y Arte'', 1995–1996. Director of the Spanish Sociological Research Centre, 1996 to 2000. She is author of numerous publications on political parties and electoral behaviour.

Political career

Minister of Education, Culture and Sport, 2000–2004

When Prime Minister José Maria Aznar led his conservative Popular Party to a victory and second term of office at the 2000 national elections, he made Del Castillo his new Minister of Education, Culture and Sport. In this capacity, she was in charge of implementing the government's 2001 plan to overhaul the country's

public universities A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

; the law prompted the largest student demonstrations since

Spain's transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system, in the form of ...

, with an estimated 100,000 students, university staff protesting nationwide on 1 December 2001.

Member of the European Parliament, 2004–present

Del Castillo has been a

since the 2004 European elections. She has since been serving as coordinator for the

Group of the European People's Party The European People's Party Group (EPP Group or simply EPP) is a political group of the European Parliament consisting of deputies (MEPs) from the member parties of the European People's Party (EPP). Sometimes it also includes independent MEPs ...

in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE), and as substitute member in the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON). From 2007 to 2009, she was a member of the Temporary Committee on Climate Change. In addition, she was a member of the EP Delegation for Relations with India (2009–2014) and of the Delegation for relations with the People's Republic of China (2004–2009). She represented the Parliament at the

2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2008 United Nations Climate Change Conference took place at PIF Congress Centre, Poznań International Fair (PIF), in Poznań, Poland, between December 1 and December 12, 2008. Representatives from over 180 countries attended along with obse ...

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

and the

2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference The 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference, commonly known as the Copenhagen Summit, was held at the Bella Center in Copenhagen, Denmark, between 7 and 18 December. The conference included the 15th session of the Conference of the Partie ...

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

. In 2020, she also joined the Special Committee on Artificial Intelligence in a Digital Age. In her capacity as member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy, Del Castillo is 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 the European Union’s Data Act. She also served as rapporteur on the Directive on Security of Networks and Information Systems (NIS); the Regulation on the Body of European Regulators in Electronic Communications (BEREC); on the Cloud Computing Strategy for Europe; and on a telecoms single market. In addition to her committee assignments, Del Castillo holds the following positions in the European Parliament: * European Energy Forum (EEF), member * European Internet Foundation, chairwoman * European Parliament Intergroup on Disability, member * Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), member * Knowledge4Innovation (K4I), member of the board

Other activities

* European Ideas Network (EIN), chair of the 'Energy and Environment' Permanent Working Group * European Network for Women in Leadership (WIL), member * Spanish Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis (FAES), member of the board of trustees *

Prado Museum The Museo del Prado ( ; ), officially known as Museo Nacional del Prado, is the main Spanish national art museum, located in central Madrid. It houses collections of European art, dating from the 12th century to the early 20th century, based on ...

, member of the board of trustees * Fundación Botín, member of the advisory boardAdvisory Board
Fundación Botín. * Fundación Ortega-Marañón, member of the board of trustees

Personal life

Del Castillo is passionate about art; her official ministerial portrait in the gallery of the

Ministry of Education An education ministry is a national or subnational government agency politically responsible for education. Various other names are commonly used to identify such agencies, such as Ministry of Education, Department of Education, and Ministry of Pub ...

is a self-portrait.

References

External links

Pilar del Castillo's personal page

Pilar del Castillo's Twitter Profile

Pilar del Castillo's Facebook Page
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Del Castillo, Pilar 1952 births Living people Members of the 8th Congress of Deputies (Spain) MEPs for Spain 2004–2009 MEPs for Spain 2009–2014 MEPs for Spain 2014–2019 MEPs for Spain 2019–2024 21st-century women MEPs for Spain People's Party (Spain) MEPs Recipients of the Civil Order of Alfonso X, the Wise Women government ministers of Spain Culture ministers of Spain Academic staff of the National University of Distance Education Complutense University of Madrid alumni MEPs for Spain 2024–2029