Francesc Morata

Francesc Morata died on 25 June 2014 in Barcelona, at the age of 64.

He joined the EUI as a researcher in 1981 and completed his PhD in Law in 1986 on the participation of the Spanish regions in the EU decision-making process. He was the first Spanish researcher to defend a PhD at the EUI. His supervisor was Prof. Yves Mény, who later served as President of the EUI.

Francesc went on to become Professor of Political Science at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) in 1998, where he remained, directing several institutes and research projects at the UAB. He was a leading specialist in Spain, and in Europe more generally, of multi-level governance and of the public policies of the European Union. He authored some well-known textbooks, including La Unión Europea: procesos, actores y políticas (1998) and Políticas públicas en la UE (2000). He was a cosmopolitan and multilingual intellectual, with a passionate commitment to the democratic transformation of Spain after the Franco dictatorship, and to the participation of Catalonia and Spain in the European integration process. He kept particularly close ties to France and Italy all along, and was a regular visitor of the EUI.

-Bruno De Witte