The State of the European Union. The European Parliament faces its most important elections yet

143 Francisco Aldecoa has been Chair of International Relations in the Department of International Public Law and International Relations of the Faculty of Political Science and Sociology at the Complutense University of Madrid since 2000, having previously served as chair of the same discipline at the University of the Basque Country (1990-2000). He has also held a Jean Monnet Chair in European Studies (conferred by the European Commission) since 1994 and was awarded an honorary doctorate by the National School of Political and Administrative Studies of the University of Bucharest in 2009. Aldecoa studied under the late Antonio Truyol y Serra, former co-director of the Complutense University of Madrid’s Centro de Excelencia Antonio Truyol and one of Spain’s most highly re- spected theorists on the process of European con- struction. Dean of the Complutense’s Faculty of Political Science and Sociology from May 2002 to May 2010, Aldecoa has also served as president of the Spanish Association of Professors of International Law and International Relations (2005-2009) and director of the Complutense’s Centre for Studies in Management, Analysis and Evaluation (2012-2016). In addition to being the co-chair of the Federal Council of the European Movement since 2013, he is also a member of the Scientific Council of the Real Instituto Elcano (2001-present), the Consejo Académico Eurolatinoamericano (2012-present) and the Advisory Board of the United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (UNU-GCM) (2015-present). Pablo Arnaldos is an analyst at the research agency 40db. Graduated in Journalism, he holds a master’s degree in Political and Electoral Analysis from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. He has previously worked in public policy and as a data analyst for consultancy firms. José Enrique deAyala . Brigadier General of the Army, retired. Ayala holds diplomas from the Spanish Army General Staff and Joint Staff Colleges as well as a degree in International Relations from the Centre for International Studies. He has served as military attaché to the Spanish Embassy in Germany and as Chief of Staff of the Eurocorps. As an international policy analyst specialized in the European Union, he col- laborates with numerous media both written and audio-visual. He is a member of the European Affairs Advisory Committee of Fundación Alternativas. Josep Borrell is the Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation since June 2018. He has been President of the European Parliament (2004-2007), Minister of Public Works, Transport and Environment (1991-1996), and Secretary of State for Finance (1984-1991). He is Jean Monnet Chair. He has been a Member in the Congress of Deputies between 1986 and 2004. Biographies