Pedro Solbes Mira
 Pedro Solbes Mira      (economist) | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Born | 1942-08-31 Pinoso, Alicante, Spain | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Spanish | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | Complutense University of Madrid | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Pilar Castro | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Party | Spanish Socialist Workers' Party | ||||||||||||||||||||
Spanish economist who attended the 1999 and 2009 Bilderbergs
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Pedro Solbes Mira[1] is a Spanish economist. He attended the 1999 Bilderberg as European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, and the 2009 Bilderberg after leaving as Spanish Minister of Economy and Finance.
Career
While independent in the sense of not affiliated to any party, his various ministerial roles in Spain have always been within Socialist Workers' Party cabinets. Since 1985 to 1991, he was the 3rd Secretary of State for the European Communities. He was agriculture and fisheries minister (1991–1993) and finance minister (1993–1996) in Felipe Gonzalez's cabinets, also MP representing Alicante for the same party until 1999.
Appointed by Spanish premier José María Aznar (of the main competing party, the People's Party) Solbes was a European commissioner for economic and monetary affairs in the European Commission presided by Romano Prodi (the Prodi Commission).[2]
Then Solbes was second vice president and minister of economy and finance in the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero which he held from 2004 to 2009.[2][3]
At the beginning of the summer of 2007, Solbes announced that he had decided to large amounts of gold from the reserves of the Bank of Spain in order to "improve the profitability of its assets": that is, with the sale of that gold, then proceed to make investments in bonds and currencies of foreign countries. He maintained that this gold was no longer profitable due to its low price in international markets. A year after these operations began, gold reached the price of 1,000 dollars per ounce, its historical maximum. By 2008, Spain had lost more than 1,500 million euros because of this operation.[4]
After politics
At the beginning of April 2011, Pedro Solbes was appointed member of the board of directors of the Italian electricity company Enel, owner of Endesa.[5]
As of May 2011, he worked as an adviser and counselor for Barclays bank.[6]
Mira was president of FRIDE, Madrid-based think tank[7] founded by Diego Hidalgo, who is also the founding member of the Club of Rome.[8] The think tank closed in 2015.
Events Participated in
| Event | Start | End | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bilderberg/1999 | 3 June 1999 | 6 June 1999 | Portugal Sintra | The 47th Bilderberg, 111 participants |
| Bilderberg/2009 | 14 May 2009 | 17 May 2009 | Greece Vouliagmeni | The 57th Bilderberg |
References
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20130429201103/http://www.spainview.com/cabinet.html
- ↑ a b http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3649839.stm
- ↑ http://www.economist.com/node/2886445
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080318232900/http://www.elsemanaldigital.com/articulos.asp?idarticulo=80850
- ↑ http://www.elmundo.es/elmundo/2011/05/30/economia/1306738264.html
- ↑ http://economia.elpais.com/economia/2011/05/30/actualidad/1306740775_850215.html
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002423/http://www.euromesco.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=1395&Itemid=39&lang=en
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160304002423/http://www.euromesco.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=1395&Itemid=39&lang=en
