44 Facts About Javier Solana

Javier Solana comes from a prominent Spanish family, being a first cousin, twice removed, of diplomat, writer, historian, and pacifist Salvador de Madariaga.

Javier Solana's father was a chemistry professor, Luis Solana San Martin, who died when Javier was nineteen.

Javier Solana received his doctorate in physics from Virginia in 1971 with a thesis on Theory of the Elementary Excitation Spectrum of Superfluid Helium: the Roton Lifetime, extending his planned stay in the US by a year in order to continue his research.

On returning to Spain in 1971 Javier Solana joined the Democratic Co-ordination of Madrid as the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party representative.

Javier Solana was a close personal friend of the party's leader Felipe Gonzalez, and is considered one of the PSOE leaders responsible for the transformation of the party in the post-Franco era.

Javier Solana became a representative of a teachers' union in the Complutense University, and in this role won a parliamentary seat for PSOE on 15 June 1977 and represented the Madrid region until December 1995.

On 3 December, along with the other members of Gonzalez's first cabinet, Javier Solana was sworn in as Minister for Culture, where he remained until moving to the Ministry of Education in 1988.

Javier Solana was made Minister for Foreign Affairs on 22 July 1992, the day before the opening of the II Ibero-American conference of heads of state in Madrid, replacing the terminally ill Francisco Fernandez Ordonez.

In June 1997, at the 34th PSOE Congress, Javier Solana left their Executive Commission and joined their Federal Committee, being re-elected in second place three years later.

Javier Solana is seen, along with Gonzalez, as representing the older wing of the party.

On 5 December 1995, Javier Solana became the new Secretary-General of NATO, replacing Willy Claes who had been forced to resign in a corruption scandal.

Javier Solana's appointment created controversy as, in the past, he had been an opponent of NATO.

Javier Solana had written a pamphlet called 50 Reasons to say no to NATO, and had been on a US subversives list.

On 12 March 1986 Spain held a referendum on whether to remain in NATO, with the government and Javier Solana successfully campaigning in favour.

When criticised about his anti-NATO past, Javier Solana argued that he was happy to be its representative as it had become disassociated from its Cold War origins.

Javier Solana did this by deploying the Allied Rapid Reaction Corps.

Javier Solana gained the reputation of being a very successful, diplomatic Secretary General who was capable of negotiating between the differing NATO members and between NATO and non-NATO States.

Javier Solana justified the attacks on humanitarian grounds, and on the responsibility of NATO to keep peace in Europe and to prevent recurrences of ethnic cleansing and genocide similar to those which occurred during the Bosnian War.

Javier Solana left NATO on 6 October 1999, two months ahead of schedule, and was replaced by George Robertson.

Javier Solana took up the post on 18 October 1999, shortly after standing down from NATO.

The Clinton administration claimed in May 2000 that Javier Solana was the fulfilment of Henry Kissinger's famous desire to have a phone number to talk to Europe.

In December 2003 Javier Solana released the European Security Strategy, which sets out the main priorities and identifies the main threats to the security of the EU, including terrorism.

On 25 March 2004 Javier Solana appointed Gijs de Vries as the anti-terrorist co-ordinator for the CFSP, and outlined his duties as being to streamline, organise and co-ordinate the EU's fight against terrorism.

In late 2004, Javier Solana held secret negotiations with Hamas leaders, saying that he met them at a time when there seemed to be an opportunity for progress, and were to "pass a clear message of what the international community wants", and said that the meetings occurred "months" before.

Javier Solana negotiated numerous Treaties of Association between the European Union and various Middle Eastern and Latin American countries, including Bolivia and Colombia.

Javier Solana played a pivotal role in unifying the remainder of the former Yugoslavian federation.

Javier Solana proposed that Montenegro form a union with Serbia instead of having full independence, stating that this was done to avoid a domino effect from Kosovo and Vojvodina independence demands.

On 21 January 2002 Javier Solana said that the detainees at Guantanamo Bay should be treated as prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention.

The EU has stated that it hopes to avoid another war like the Iraqi invasion through this and future negotiations, and Javier Solana has said the most difficult moments of his job were when the United Kingdom and France, the two permanent EU Security Council members, were in disagreement.

Javier Solana criticised Israel for obstructing the Palestinian presidential election of 9 January 2005, but then met Sharon again on 13 January.

In November 2004 Javier Solana assisted the United Kingdom, France and Germany in negotiating a nuclear material enrichment freeze with Iran.

In 2010, after he had left office, Javier Solana signed a petition along with 25 other EU leaders directed at his successor, Catherine Ashton, calling for EU sanctions on Israel in response to continued settlement construction in the West Bank.

Javier Solana is married to Concepcion Gimenez, and they have two adult children, Diego and Vega.

Javier Solana is likewise active in the Foreign Policy Association as well as the New York City based East West Institute.

In March 2010, Javier Solana became honorary president of the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue, and in 2011 became a Member of the Global Leadership Foundation, an organization which works to promote good governance around the world.

Javier Solana became a member of Human Rights Watch board of directors the same year.

Javier Solana is an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George, a member of the Spanish section of the Club of Rome.

Javier Solana has received the Grand Cross of Isabel the Catholic in Spain and the Manfred Worner Medal from the German defence ministry.

Javier Solana has been President of the Madariaga - College of Europe Foundation since 1998.

Javier Solana received the Vision for Europe Award in 2003.

Javier Solana has been awarded the Charlemagne Prize for 2007 for his distinguished services on behalf of European unification.

In December 2009, Javier Solana joined ESADE Business School as president of its new Centre for Global Economy and Geopolitics.

On 11 March 2020 Javier Solana was admitted to the hospital after being infected by COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Spain.

Javier Solana inherited from his maternal grandfather [Rogelio de Madariaga y Castro] the magazine "Espana Economica", which accommodated young economists critical of the Franco regime.