Manuel Marín
| Manuel Marín | |
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President of the European Commission Acting |
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In office 15 March 1999 – 16 September 1999 |
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| Vice President | Leon Brittan |
| Preceded by | Jacques Santer |
| Succeeded by | Romano Prodi |
| President of the Congress of Deputies | |
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In office 8 April 2004 – 31 March 2008 |
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| Preceded by | Luisa Fernanda Rudi |
| Succeeded by | José Bono Martínez |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
21 October 1949 Ciudad Real, Spain |
| Political party | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party |
Manuel Marín González (born 21 October 1949) is a Spanish politician, former President of the Congress of Deputies of Spain. He was a long-time member of the European Commission, and acting President during the Santer Commission following the resignation of the Jacques Santer.
Marin was born in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha. He studied law at Madrid's Complutense University, then went on to take a Diploma in European Community Law at Nancy University, France, and the Certificate of Advanced European Studies at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium. As from 1974 he was already a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (the PSOE) and in that connection he was elected in 1977 to the Spanish Congress of Deputies, and re-elected in 1979 and 1982, representing Ciudad Real Province. It is in this context that his interest in European affairs began to show. During this period in the Congress he was a member of both the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Congress, and became Spokesman for the PSOE in the Foreign Affairs Committee. He also became International Policy Secretary of the Federal Committee of the PSOE and Vice-Chair of the Union of Socialist Parties of the European Community, as well as being a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1 January 1978 to 1 April 1983.
Following the Socialist success in the Spanish general elections of 1982 Marin joined the government as State Secretary for Relations with the European Communities – effectively, as Chief Negotiator for Spain's admission to the European Communities, a politically visible appointment because successful negotiations were seen as a seal of approval of Spain's transition from a dictatorship under Franco to a genuine parliamentary democracy. In this sense the clear victory of the PSOE in the 1982 elections demonstrated the political maturity of the country, and gave Marin the political cards needed to demonstrate the importance, both to Spain and to Europe more widely, of Spanish membership.
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