Antonio López-Istúriz White

MEP Antonio López-Istúriz White, EPP, Spain

Antonio López-Istúriz White is Secretary General of the European People’s Party (EPP) and a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), representing the Spanish centre-right People’s Party (Partido Popular). He is also Secretary Treasurer of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies (WMCES) and the Secretary General of the Centrist Democrat International (IDC-CDI). He is a member of the Committee on Rights and Guarantees of PP.

López-Istúriz White has been in Brussels since 1997, when he worked as an assistant to the People’s Party delegation at the European Parliament. He held this position until 1999, when he was called by then-President of the Spanish Government José María Aznar to become his personal advisor for almost four years. In 2002, he returned to Brussels upon his election as Secretary General of the European People’s Party. Two years later, he was elected on his party’s list as MEP, and he has held both offices since then. In January 2008, López-Istúriz White was elected Secretary Treasurer of the Wilfried Martens Centre for European Studies.

He currently sits on the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection and is a substitute on the European Parliament’s Committee on Foreign Affairs and its Subcommittee on Security and Defense. López-Istúriz White is also a Member of the Delegation for relations with the United States, the Delegation for relations with Israel and the Delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean. He is also President of the European Union-United Arab Emirates (UAE) Parliamentary Friendship Group.

He is also board member of the ANAR Foundation that helps adolescents at risk and Aequitas Foundation providing free legal advice for less favored groups or in need of better social protection.

López-Istúriz White is a recipient of the 2013 Parliamentarian Prize Eurodiputado del Año (MEP of the Year) awarded by the Asociación de Periodistas Parlamentarios (Spanish Parliamentarian Journalists Association). He holds a bachelor degree in Law and studies in Economics. In addition to Spanish, he speaks English, French, Italian and Mallorquin. He is married and has two daughters.