Miguel Arias Cañete (born 24 February 1950) is a Spanish politician who served as European Commissioner for Energy and Climate Action in the Juncker Commission from 2014 to 2019.

A member of the Spanish People's Party, Arias served as Minister for Agriculture, Food and Environment in the Government of Spain from 2011 until 2014, before being selected to head his Party List in the European Parliamentary elections.^[1]

Arias Cañete was born to Judge don Alfonso Arias de la Cuesta,^[2] and educated in Madrid, first at the Jesuit School at Chamartín before reading Law at the Universidad Complutense.^{[citation needed]}

This biography of a living person needs additional citations for verification. (July 2019)

After graduating in 1974, he joined the Spanish Civil Service joining the State Lawyers Corps. His first position was in the Spanish Tax Agency at Jerez de la Frontera, before transferring to the Cadiz office.^{[citation needed]} In 1978 he resigned as a civil servant to become a Professor of Law at the University of Cádiz, where he remained until 1982.^{[citation needed]}

Arias entered politics with the People's Alliance (AP) in 1982,^[3] serving as a member of the Parliament of Andalusia from 1982 to 1986, representing Cádiz.^[4] Arias Cañete joined the AP's national executive board during the presidency of Antonio Hernández Mancha.^[5] Once Spain joined the European Economic Community on 1 January 1986, he became a member of the European Parliament as delegate appointed by the Cortes Generales, and later, when the first election to the European Parliament took place in Spain in 1987, he was elected MEP.^[6] He served until 1999, chairing the Agricultural and Regional Politics Committees. From 1993 until 2000 he served the Spanish Senate, then was appointed as Minister of Agriculture and Fishing by Prime Minister José María Aznar.

Arias Cañete unsuccessfully bid for the Mayorship of Jerez de la Frontera vis-à-vis the 1995 and 1999 local elections, serving as municipal councillor in the opposition from 1995 to 2000.^[7][4] He was then elected Senator representing Cádiz in the Spanish Senate (2000–2004), and from 2004 to 2008 Deputy for Cadiz in the Spanish Congress. During the same period, he ascended inside the People's Party to "Economic Secretary" and president of its Electoral Committee. In 2008, he was elected Representative for Madrid in the Spanish Congress and Member of the European Parliament for Electoral District Madrid, which he represented until 2014.^[8]

In June 2019, Arias Cañete announced his will to put an end to his political career once his mandate as commissioner expired on 1 November 2019, vowing to retire to his home in Jerez de la Frontera and to take care of his grandchildren.^[19]

Other activities include:

• Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity, Member of the Jury^[20]
• Balam Agriculture, Independent Member of the Board of Directors (since 2021)^[21]
• Beka Finance, member of the Board since 2021^[22]

Arias has faced accusations of conflicts of interests regarding his business interests and his political posts. While serving as a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, he allegedly held interests in several agricultural businesses,^[23] leading the Spanish newspaper El País to describe him in 2014 as always being on the edge of a conflict of interest.^[24] In 2014, the environmental group Friends of the Earth and anticorruption group Corporate Europe Observatory criticised his nomination to the Climate Action and Energy portfolio due to his family's involvement in the oil industry.^[25][26][27]

Furthermore, Arias was called to give evidence before the Provincial Court of Barcelona over a friend's alleged laundering of 2 billion pesetas.^[28]

Arias was accused of sexism after Arias and his Socialist rival Elena Valenciano were featured in Spanish television's first live debate between the country’s leading candidates for a European Parliament election in May 2014,^[29] Valenciano was widely perceived to have beaten him in the debate. Asked to explain his poor performance in the debate, he pointed to the fact that he was facing a woman: "If you abuse your intellectual superiority, you come across like a macho who is pushing a defenceless woman into a corner".^[10][30]

In September 2014, Arias sold two large shareholdings in oil companies Petrolífera Ducar and Petrologis Canarias to appease parliamentarians threatening to reject his confirmation as European Commissioner because of conflicts of interest.^[30] Also, his son resigned from their boards.^[31] As of October 2014 more than half a million people signed an Avaaz petition calling for Aria's rejection.^[32]

The Panama papers in 2016 revealed that his wife's world-renowned Jandilla [es] bull operations, managed by their two sons, Pablo and Juan Pedro, and co-owned by her siblings, received well over $1 million in farm subsidies and her other farm, forestry and winery businesses also received EU subsidies.^[33]

Panamanian Rinconada Investments Group SA was an offshore investment company registered in 2005, listed as inactive in January 2010, which Deutsche Bank Geneva, Swiss-based financial services company Gestrust SA and Mossack Fonseca helped to create. Arias' wife and the Domecq family are politically exposed persons and were empowered to approve transactions.^[33]

Arias, from a Spanish gentry family, is married to Micaela Domecq y Solís-Beaumont^[34] by whom he has four children. His wife's aristocratic family^[35] has long been established in the Jerez de la Frontera region of Andalusia, where they own large farming and livestock estates including the breeding of fighting bulls^[36] and have given their name to a world-famous brand of fortified wines.^[37]

• Grand Cross of the Order of Charles III (2004)^[38]
• Grand Cross of the Order of Civil Merit (2011)^[39]
• Chevalier, Ordre du Mérite agricole^{[citation needed]}
• Knight, Sovereign Military Order of Malta^{[citation needed]}