Spain awards the Grand Cross of the Civil Merit to Maroš Šefčovič, the European Vice-President who led the Gibraltar negotiations

Eduardo González The Council of Ministers, at the proposal of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, has awarded the Grand Cross of the Civil Merit to Maroš Šefčovič, European Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency and Commissioner for Trade and Economic Security, who played a direct role in concluding the negotiations of the agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom on the future of Gibraltar. The award was approved this past Tuesday, April 7, “in recognition of the merits and circumstances of Mr. Maroš Šefčovič,” as published this Friday, April 10, in the Official State Gazette (BOE). Born in July 1966 in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, and a former member of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, in 1990 he was appointed advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the government that emerged from the Velvet Revolution, which ended the pro-Soviet regime in Prague. After Slovakia's independence in January 1993, Šefčovič returned to Bratislava in 1995 to head the sub-directorate for European Union and NATO countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. A member of the Social Democratic Party (Smer-SD), the left-wing national-populist party of Robert Fico (Prime Minister of Slovakia from 2006 to 2010, 2012 to 2018, and again from October 2023), and ambassador to Israel since 1999, he was appointed Director General for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 2002. Two years later, shortly after his country's accession, he became Slovakia's Permanent Representative to the EU. His five years in Brussels and his membership in the governing party led to his nomination by the Slovak government in 2006 to be Slovakia's representative to the European Commission. He began his tenure in the Commission on October 1, 2009, under the presidency of José Manuel Durão Barroso, as Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth. On February 10, 2010, Barroso appointed him Commissioner for Interinstitutional Relations and Administration, a position he temporarily held concurrently with that of Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection between October and November 2012. On November 1, 2014, the new Commission President, Jean-Claude Juncker, appointed Maroš Šefčovič Vice-President and Commissioner for the Energy Union. In 2019, Šefčovič ran for President of Slovakia, but was defeated in the March 16 elections by the pro-European Zuzana Čaputová. In July 2019, he was appointed Commissioner for the Digital Single Market and, on December 1 of the same year, following Ursula von der Leyen's arrival as President of the Commission, he was appointed Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations, the same position he had held between 2010 and 2014. In 2023, he also assumed the role of Commissioner for Climate Action (for a couple of months) and the Executive Vice-Presidency of the Commission for the European Green Deal. On December 1, 2024, the second von der Leyen Commission renewed Šefčovič's appointment as Vice-President for Interinstitutional Relations and Transparency, and he took on the portfolio of Trade and Economic Security, from which he led, among other responsibilities, the EU's negotiations to promote its trade partnerships with other parts of the world, including those of the Mercosur agreement. Separately, Maroš Šefčovič was responsible for representing the European Commission in the treaty negotiations for Gibraltar's future relationship with the EU after Brexit, based on the so-called New Year's Eve Agreement reached by the Spanish and British governments on December 31, 2020. After five years, the negotiations concluded on June 11, 2025, in Brussels with the signing of a "definitive" agreement with José Manuel Albares, the then UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, and the Chief Minister of Gibraltar, Fabian Picardo.

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