Ignasi Guardans

Who is Ignasi Guardans?

Ignasi Guardans i Cambó is a Spanish former politician, currently an independent figure still present in the Spanish media and public opinion. He started his professional career in the academic and legal research at the University of Navarra, specialising in Private International Law. In 1992 he moved back to Barcelona and started teaching at its then main Law School. A few years later he joined a law firm as senior associate lawyer, and for some years he mixed his legal practice with the first steps in a political career. In 1995 he was elected to the Catalan Parliament. But after a few months, in March 2004 he run as candidate for the Spanish Parliament, or Congreso delos Diputados, where he would seat for two consecutive terms, 1996-2000 and 200-2004. He assumed different responsibilities, mostly in the areas of Foreign Affairs, Culture, and Justice & Legal Affairs. During the same period he joined the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and its Committee for Legal Affairs and Human Rights. In 2004 he ran as candidate for the European Parliament, heading a joined candidacy of the main parties from Catalonia, the Basque Country and Galicia called GALEUSCA. As a Member of the European Parliament he joined the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, and assumed different activities and responsibilities, mostly in the areas of Culture and the online media, Justice & Home Affairs, and International Trade. In 2009, following a strong disagreement with the leadership of his party on the status of Catalonia within Spain, and rejecting to assume Catalonia's full independence as a political goal, he lost the confidence of his party to be promoted again as candidate to the EP. In a surpising decision, a few weeks before the end of the Parliament's Term, he was designated by the Spanish Government as Director General of Spain’s Instituto de la Cinematografía y de las Artes Audiovisuales, the Spanish Film Agency. This indirectly included other national and international responsibilities, such as the Presidency of the Audiovisual SGR, or the active Membership of the EFAD, in Europe, or the Conference of Latin American Film Authorities or CAACI in Latin America. His mandate was called to an end in early December 2010. In 2010 he ended his Membership of Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya, which he had started in 1992, and has remained an independent figure afterwards. In 2011 he was appointed the first Director for Public Affairs & Member Relations at the European Broadcasting Union. He later moved to Brussels, where he co-founded CUMEDIAE, a Brussels based non profit organization specialized in advice, international services and project management in the field of culture and creative industries. He works as an independent consultant.