Josep Borrell and Ángeles Moreno during the event. / Photo: MAEC
Eduardo González. 20/07/2018
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation, Josep Borrell, demanded yesterday, while the new Undersecretary of the Ministry, Angeles Moreno, took office, an improvement in the management of Staff Department in aspects such as the conditions of employees abroad, the permanent training of officials and the systems of promotion and selection of ambassadors.
The Undersecretary, assured Borrell, is the «position on which pivots the operation of the Ministry», since it will have the «difficult» task of managing the day to day of a Ministry that has «more than 30,000 employees» in Spain and around the world, both officials and labor personnel.
«I am well aware» that the «working conditions» of the workforce, «are not exactly optimal”, said the minister. «Without a doubt, there is a structural problem in the management of personnel and it is evident that there is a considerable disproportion in salaries and working conditions», he added.
Therefore, he warned, the Department «needs to modernize staff management», allocating better resources, establishing a new regulation of the Diplomatic Career that allows «channeling the merits and capabilities of candidates to head a mission» and improving lifelong learning and the specialization of the officials, since «in a changing world it is not enough with the academic heritage of the Diplomatic School».
Precisely, Angeles Moreno will have among her tasks to negotiate the new regulation of the Diplomatic Career, after the previous one, approved during the mandate of José Manuel García-Margallo, was annulled by the Supreme Court in 2017 because there had been negotiations with the unions.
For his part, Moreno recalled that, at the moment, there are at least 2.7 million Spaniards outside our borders who «rightly demand» that their problems be addressed, «including the right to participate in elections. “Only 5% of Spaniards with the right to vote have voted in the last electoral processes» and, therefore, must be attended their «legitimate demand» for there to be a «modification of the vote requested», she said.
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Moreno says she will speed up the works of Salamanca’s headquarters and promote the role of women
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Also, the undersecretary regretted that Foreign Affairs has «less well-endowed human resources than other ministries», so she pledged to work to «match them with other ministries, as they deserve».
Angeles Moreno also committed to push changes in the regulations of the diplomatic career to introduce a «true equality» of gender, «as befits the Spanish society». «Women are underrepresented, they only represent 26% of the diplomatic corps and they are even less in the managerial positions», she lamented.
On the other hand, the undersecretary said she will try to speed up the «eternal problem» of the future headquarters of the Ministry in the Palace of the Marquis of Salamanca, which «should be delivered in 2020 and, in 2018, presents a very low percentage of work, the 15.6%, very far from what was committed». «I have the intention of promoting a new air to the project and to the strict supervision of the work», she announced.
Also, the undersecretary, who will directly take over the communication tasks of the Ministry, warned that the Foreign Service should be directly involved in the task of transmitting the image of Spain as «Rule of law, which respects the law, human rights and division of powers» and, therefore, of counteracting «interested distortions».
