The Catalan Government approved on Tuesday the appointment of Gorka Knörr (Tarragona, 1950) as the new representative of the Government of Catalonia to the European Union.
Gorka Knörr, the new representative of the Government of Catalonia to the EU
Gorka Knörr, the new representative of the Government of Catalonia to the EU

Knörr, who since 2019 was the representative of the Catalan Government in Madrid, replaces Meritxell Serret as head of the Government delegation headquartered in Brussels.

Trained in the Superior Technical School of Business (ESTE) in Donostia-San Sebatián, he has worked in the field of communication, teaching, and cultural since 1971 and in companies since 1974, both in the private and institutional spheres, with a special interest in international relations.

Between 1983 and 1985, under the presidency of Lehendakari’s Garaikoetxea, he was the spokesperson for the Basque government and responsible for the press, publicity, and public relations department, as well as the unit of external relations of the Basque government. In July 1985, he joined the financial department of the Mondragon Corporation (MCC). Between July 1998 and January 1999, he was the Basque Institute of Statistics (Eustat) director.

In the political sphere, he ran for the European elections in 1999 as the second candidate for the political list of the National Basque Party – Eusko Alkartasuna – Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya – Unió Mallorquina. Once elected as a Member of the European Parliament (MEP), he founded the Greens / European Free Alliance (EFA) group, of which he became a member and Vice-President. From 1999 to 2003, he was the Secretary-General of Eusko Alkartasuna, a Basque social democratic party member of EFA.

In June 2001, he turned down a seat in the European Parliament to become a member of the Basque Parliament, where he was the first Vice-President until the end of the mandate in 2005. He was convicted by Judge Marchena in the case against the Basque parliamentary bureau in 2008, but Knörr won his appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in 2017. 

From 2012 and until 2013, he was Director-General for the Catalan Arts Institute. In July 2019, he was appointed Representative of the Government of Catalonia to Madrid.

He was a professional singer between 1971 and 1983 and is well known in the cultural sphere. Knörr was member of the board of directors of Basque Public Radiotelevision (EITB) between 1987 and 1999. He is currently a member of the Royal Basque Society of Friends of the Country, Omnium, and the Catalan National Assembly.

Involved in professional sport, he is founder and board member of the Saskibaskonia SAD, the company to which the Spanish first division basketball (ACB) team TDSystems-Baskonia belongs. 

He is the founder and first President of the Catalan Space Topalekua in Donostia-San Sebatián, a ‘Casal Català’ (Catalan association) dedicated to disseminating the image of Catalonia and explaning the Catalan industry, culture, commerce, and tourism in the Basque Country.

Knörr is passionate about languages. He speaks Catalan, Aranese, Spanish, Euskera, French, English, and Italian. He is currently studying German, recovering the origins of his family, from the Baden-Würtemberg region.