The Diplomat in Spain

Luis Ayllón. 05/07/2018

Yesterday, Josep Borrell did not like when the Member of Parliament of Podemos Pablo Bustinduy reproached him for having made little progress in the promotion of women in the Foreign Ministry, after the appointments of the three new secretaries of State fell to men.

The minister responded remembering that in the Spanish Diplomatic Service only 25 per cent are women and that this is also the percentage of those taking the official examinations to become civil servants, although the percentage of women passing these is higher. In any case, he said that his objective is 40 per cent of women and 60 per cent men in the distribution of relevant positions in the Ministry.

Borrell was not very specific, but he revealed that, if at the moment there are six female directors general, that number will increase with the appointments of new senior officials and the same will happen with the appointment of ambassadors. Yesterday, it was revealed that the socialist Aina Calvo, will replace the diplomat Luis Tejada leading the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID in its Spanish acronym), and it is taken for granted that there will be a new female undersecretary, although she would be replacing another woman, Beatriz Larrotcha.

The minister said that it is not about numbers, but about going more deeply into the idea of the “feminization of diplomacy”, and he pointed out that his Swedish colleague, Margot Wallstrom, has invited him to know the experience she has in Sweden regarding this question and to work together in a symposium on the matter in the Program of Global Governance of the European Institute of Florence.