He was a physicist and became a politician: Who is Javier Solana?

Javier Solana, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union/High Representative for Common Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Secretary General of the Western European Union, was born on 14 July 1942 in Madrid, Spain.

As the son of a famous Spanish family, he decided to pursue a doctorate in physics and was awarded a Fulbright scholarship from many universities in the USA. Before entering politics, he taught solid physics at the Complutense University in Madrid.

Solana, who joined the Spanish Socialist Party in 1964, was known as a radical by General Francisco Franko's regime in his youth. The physicist, who was elected as a member of the parliament in 1977, served in various positions in the cabinet - such as the Ministry of Culture, Government Spokesperson, and the Ministry of Education and Science - since 1982.

Francisco Javier Solana de Madariaga (born 14 July 1942) is a Spanish physicist and PSOE politician. After serving in the Spanish government as Foreign Affairs Minister under Felipe González (1992–1995) and as the Secretary General of NATO (1995–1999), leading the alliance during Operation Allied Force, he was appointed the European Union's High Representative for Common Foreign and Security Policy, Secretary General of the Council of the European Union and Secretary-General of the Western European Union and held these posts from October 1999 until December 2009.

In July 1992, he was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of the sincerely pro-NATO government in Madrid. He served as Minister of Foreign Affairs until he was appointed Secretary General of NATO in December 1995.

This period, when Solana was Secretary General of NATO, coincided with the days of intense Balkans intervention for the organization. When he took up his new position, the NATO-led multinational force (IFOR) entered Bosnia and Herzegovina to implement the military part of the decisions taken at the Dayton peace talks. During the Kosovo crisis, NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslavia in the spring of 1999.

Alexander Vershbow, the US ambassador to NATO, said that Solana acted like "a rare conciliator who was able to work behind the scenes with leaders on both sides of the Atlantic to show that NATO was acting in unity when necessary" in October 1999. Solana left his post at NATO to become secretary general of the Council of the European Union, becoming the EU's first “high representative” for common foreign relations and security policy.

Solana's task is to ensure that EU leaders can make joint decisions on foreign affairs and security policies with the ideas and policy options he will put forward so that the EU can better exert its political weight in international relations. He is married and has two children.