Who is Josep Borrell, the new mediator of Kosovo- Serbia

The European Council has nominated Spain's Foreign Affairs Minister Josep Borrell to replace European Diplomacy Chief Federica Moghrini.

Borrell was born on April 24, 1947, in a small village in the Catalan Pyrenees, Borrell is the son of a baker who accompanied his father to distribute bread in the town of the donkey.

He was a bright student, won several scholarships which allowed him to receive a degree in aeronautic engineering in Madrid, then a master's degree at Stanford University in the United States and another master in Paris. He also has a doctorate degree in the economy.

Borrell is the father of two children from his first marriage to a French woman he met while working on a farm in Israel, Borrell has been in a relationship for the last two decades with Cristina Narbona, president of the Socialist Party.

He served as deputy finance minister and then minister of public affairs under former Socialist Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez, who was in power between 1982 and 1996.

Borrell was elected party leader in 1998, but he stepped down from his position next year before a general election in 2000 due to a financial scandal involving his two former associates when he was deputy finance minister.

Before returning to the first national policy line last year, Borrell was a member of the board of renewable energy group Abengoa.

Last year, he was fined 30,000 euros ($34,000) for internal trading after selling shares in the group in 2015 shortly before announcing he was on the verge of bankruptcy.