Pilar del Castillo Vera

Curriculum vitae

Minister for Education, Culture and Sport in the Spanish Government (2000 to 2004).

Member of the European Parliament (since 2004); spokesperson for the Group of the European People’s Party in the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and substitute member of the Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs.

Member of the Delegation for Relations with India.

Degree in Law from Complutense University of Madrid (1974). Fulbright Scholarship for a Master’s Degree in Political Science at Ohio State University, USA (1980). PhD in Law from Complutense University of Madrid (1983). Awarded the Spanish Sociological Research Centre Prize for the doctoral thesis ‘Political Party Funding in Western Democracies’ (1984).

Associate Professor in Constitutional Law at UNED (the Spanish Open University) (1986), and Professor of Political Science and Administration (1994). Director of the Spanish Sociological Research Centre (1996 to 2000). Editor-in-Chief of the journal ‘Nueva Revista de Política, Cultura y Arte’ (1995-1996). Author of numerous publications on political parties and electoral behaviour.

Chair of the European Internet Foundation.

Member of the Transatlantic Policy Network (TPN), the European Energy Forum (EEF) and the Board of Knowledge4Innovation (K4I).

Chair of the ‘Energy and Environment’ Permanent Working Group of the European Ideas Network (EIN).

Member of the Board of Trustees of the Spanish Foundation for Social Studies and Analysis (FAES), and of various national and international political science associations.

Member of the Board of Trustees of the Prado Museum.

A keen artist; her self-portrait hangs in the portrait gallery of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science.