EESC secretary-general

Luis Planas Puchades, who until last summer was minister for agriculture, fisheries and environment in the regional government of Andalusia, has been chosen as the next secretary-general of the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

Planas, who had the support of Spain’s government, received a sweeping majority of votes in the EESC’s bureau on Monday (20 January), with only a handful going to Miroslaw Zielinski, a Polish director in the European Commission’s tax and customs department.

Planas, who was an MEP in 1986-1993 and headed the private office of two Spanish European commissioners, Pedro Solbes (who was commissioner for economic and monetary affairs in 1999-2004) and Manuel Marin (the Commission’s vice-president in 1995-99), was Spain’s ambassador to the EU in 2010-11, and to Morocco before that (2004-10).

Click Here: NRL Telstra Premiership