José María GIL-ROBLES was President of the European Parliament between 1997 and 1999.

Gil-Robles (Madrid, 1935) died on 13th of February at the age of 87. He was a member of the European Parliament for 15 years, from 1989 to 2004, and served as the twenty-third president of the European Parliament between 14th of April, 1997, and 19th of July, 1999.

As President of the European Parliament, he was involved in some of the key moments in European history, such as the negotiations that would lead to the Amsterdam Treaty, the approval by the European Parliament of the launch of the euro, the appointment of the first President of the European Central Bank and the launch of the EU Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF) or the European Union's efforts to prevent genocide in Kosovo.

Professor of Constitutional Law at the Complutense University of Madrid from 1959 to 1964, Gil-Robles held a Jean Monnet Chair and was director of the Jean Monnet "Antonio Truyol" Center of Excellence for European Studies at the university.

The 1998 Sakharov Prize is awarded to Ibrahim Rugova during a ceremony marking the 10th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize