Within the framework of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union (EU) and at the initiative of Member of the European Parliament and former Minister of Justice Juan Fernando López Aguilar, an exhibition of portraits of Spanish political figures who have played an important role in the process of European integration has been held this week at the European Parliament.

All the portraits are the work of Catalan painter Rita Martorell. López Aguilar described them as “a catalogue of European and pro-European personalities”. Among them are portraits of politicians such as former Minister of Foreign Affairs Fernando Morán, who led the negotiations that resulted in Spain’s accession to the European Union in 1986, and Abel Matutes, the first Spaniard to hold a European Commissioner’s portfolio.

At the closing of the exhibition, Rita Martorell highlighted that the show represents a retrospective of her work as a portraitist of Spanish political figures, a career that began in 1996 with former minister and MEP Eduardo Punset and continued until 2022, when she completed the portrait of former Minister of Justice Dolores Delgado.

Both works are among those exhibited at the European Parliament. The exhibition also includes a portrait of former President of Galicia Gerardo Fernández Albor, from the gallery of distinguished figures of the Bundestag, in recognition of the important role he played in the reunification of Germany after the fall of the Berlin Wall.