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José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra (born 31 May 1955) is a Spanish politician and diplomat who currently serves as a Member of the European Parliament integrated within the European People's Party political group. He was previously the Head of the EU Delegation to Argentina between 2015 and 2017.
Studies
José Ignacio Salafranca has a bachelor's degree in law, PHD law courses at the Complutense University of Madrid and Diplomate in European integration by the Diplomatic School of Madrid and the National Institute of Public Administration. He also is Honorary Doctorate by Las Américas University of Chile
Political career
Member of the European Parliament, 1994–2014
thumb|upright|José Ignacio Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra (2011)
Sánchez-Neyra has been a Member of the European Parliament since the 1994 European elections. In Parliament, he sat on the Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was a substitute for the Committee on Constitutional Affairs, substitute for the Delegation to the EU-Mexico Joint Parliamentary Committee. From 2006 and 2007, Salafranca was a member of the Parliament's Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners.
Member of the European Parliament, 2017–2019
Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra has again been serving as Member of the European Parliament since 3 January 2017. He is currently a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs where he is Vice-Coordinator of the EPP group and Standing Rapporteur of the UE-Mexico agreement and the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA III) [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-new-boost-for-jobs-growth-and-investment/file-mff-ipa-iii], Committee on International Trade Standing Rapporteur of the UE-MERCOSUR trade agreement, Committee on Budgetary Control Standing Rapporteur of the EU Anti-Fraud Programme [https://www.europarl.europa.eu/legislative-train/theme-new-boost-for-jobs-growth-and-investment/file-mff-eu-anti-fraud-programme] and the Special committee on financial crimes, tax evasion and tax avoidance.
Political activities
In 2006, Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra was the chief of a committee of 70 electoral observers from the European Union for the Mexican general election. After the election Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra considered the controversial election clean and considered the decision of the Electoral Tribunal as fair. Mark Almond, an election observer questioned the objectivity of José Ignacio Salafranca and some of the mass media.
In May 2015, news media reported that Salafranca Sánchez-Neyra was included in a Russian blacklist of prominent people from the European Union who are not allowed to enter the country.
On 18 February 2019, together with MEPs Esteban González Pons and Gabriel Mato Adrover, claimed that they were expelled from Venezuela as they wanted to visit Juan Guaidó.