Manuel Marín González (21 October 1949 – 4 December 2017) was a Spanish politician, former President of the Congress of Deputies of Spain. He was a long-time member of the European Commission, and acting president during the Santer Commission following the resignation of Jacques Santer. He is considered the father of the Erasmus Programme. Early life and introduction to politics Marín was born in Ciudad Real, Castile-La Mancha. He studied law at Madrid's Complutense University, then went on to take a Diploma in European Community Law at Nancy University, France, and the Certificate of Advanced European Studies at the College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium. As from 1974 he was already a member of the Spanish Socialist Workers' Party (the PSOE) and in that connection he was elected in 1977 to the Spanish Congress of Deputies, and re-elected in 1979 and 1982, representing Ciudad Real Province. It is in this context that his interest in European affairs began to show. During this period in the Congress, he was a member of both the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees of the Congress and became Spokesman for the PSOE in the Foreign Affairs Committee. He also became International Policy Secretary of the Federal Committee of the PSOE and Vice-Chair of the Union of Socialist Parties of the European Community, as well as being a member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 1 January 1978 to 1 April 1983. Marín and Europe Following the Socialist success in the Spanish general elections of 1982 Marín joined the government as State Secretary for Relations with the European Communities – effectively, as Chief Negotiator for Spain's admission to the European Communities, a politically visible appointment because successful negotiations were seen as a seal of approval of Spain's transition from a dictatorship under Franco to a genuine parliamentary democracy. In this sense, the clear victory of the PSOE in the 1982 elections demonstrated the political maturity of the country, and gave Marín the political cards needed to demonstrate the importance, both to Spain and to Europe more widely, of Spanish membership. The negotiations were successful, and on 1 January Spain joined the European Community at the same time as Portugal. Marín was nominated as Spain's first member of the European Commission and major Commissioner (larger countries at that time nominated two European Commissioners, generally one from the governing party and one from the Opposition);