Miguel Ángel Moratinos Cuyaubé (born 8 June 1951) is a Spanish diplomat and politician, a member of the Socialist Workers' Party and was a member of Congress from 2004 to 2011, where he represented Córdoba. Since 7 January 2019 he is the UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations. Education Born in 1951, Moratinos graduated in Law and Political Sciences at the University Complutense in Madrid, and then in Diplomatic Studies at the Diplomatic School of Spain. Political career Working with Javier Solana, who was then Spanish foreign minister, Moratinos helped prepare the Euro-Mediterranean dialogue launched in November 1995 in Barcelona. EU Special Representative Between 1996 and 2003, Moratinos was the European Union Special Representative for the Middle East, based in Cyprus and Brussels. In this capacity, he attended most meetings of EU foreign ministers. During his time in office, the European Union – which had already been the biggest financial contributor to the region – also became increasingly vocal about Israeli-Palestinian relations. Minister of Foreign Affairs Moratinos served as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero from 18 April 2004 until 21 October 2010, when he was replaced by Trinidad Jiménez. By the end of 2009, Moratinos was mentioned by news media as a potential candidate for the position of High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy; the post later went to Catherine Ashton instead. Relations with Gibraltar In September 2006, Moratinos joined UK Minister for Europe Geoff Hoon and Gibraltar's Chief Minister Peter Caruana in signing the Cordoba Agreement, an agreement to establish a Tripartite forum for co-operation on Gibraltar. As part of the agreement, he attended talks in Gibraltar in July 2009, making him the first Spanish minister to ever make an official visit to the British Overseas Territory. Transatlantic relations In September 2006, Moratinos became the first government official to appear before the European Parliament's committee investigating CIA activity in Europe. In 2009, Moratinos sent a confidential note to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning that Spanish public opinion could turn anti-American if Spain disclosed a study on contamination caused by the 1966 Palomares B-52 crash, according to a note contained in the WikiLeaks documents and published at the time by the newspaper El País. In 2010, Moratinos announced that Spain was willing to take in five inmates from the American military prison in Guantánamo Bay,