The Council of Ministers has given the green light to the appointment of Juan José Ganuza Fernández as the new president of the National Commission of Markets and Competition (CNMC), along with the incorporation of Joan Capdevila, Carmen Balsa, and Marina Echebarría as councilors of the regulatory body.
These designations are formalized after the endorsement issued last week by the Commission of Economy, Trade, and Digital Transformation of the Congress of Deputies to the candidates proposed by the Executive, despite the opposing vote and the accusations of "corruption" launched by PP and Vox.
In his appearance before the Lower House, Ganuza emphasized his autonomy from the Government and committed to promoting a "quality leap" in the CNMC. Among the main challenges he identified for the institution are the digital economy and artificial intelligence (AI), as well as public procurement and the reform of the business concentration control system.
The parliamentary Commission also issued favorable suitability reports for the three candidates for councilors: Joan Capdevila, former deputy of ERC and veterinarian; economist Carmen Balsa, former director of the Cabinet of former first vice president Nadia Calviño; and Marina Echebarría, former candidate of Sumar in Castilla and León and the first transgender woman professor in Spain in the area of Commercial Law.
After the support of the Economy Commission of Congress and the final approval of the Council of Ministers, the four new appointments will join the Council of the CNMC, where vice president Ángel García Castillejo and councilors María Vidales Picazo, Enrique Monasterio Beñarán, Pere Soler Campins, and Rafael Iturriaga already serve, all of them in office since February 2025. The mandates in the body last for six years.
Professional profile of Juan José Ganuza
Ganuza Fernández is a professor of Economics and Business at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra, with nearly thirty years of academic career focused on competition policy, market regulation, digital economy, and public procurement.
For a decade, he has directed the Master's in Competition and Market Regulation at the Barcelona School of Economics, has maintained constant collaboration with the CNMC in seminars and specialized publications, and is currently the president of the Economics Area of the State Agency for Research (AEI).
It has an extensive scientific production of international scope and has held editorial roles in specialized journals in Industrial Economics.
Since 2014, it has been at the head of the Competition and Market Regulation Division at Funcas, where it has led applied research projects with a direct impact on the design of public policies, as highlighted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business.