The Diplomat in Spain

The IEMed was founded in 1989 and it is part of a consortium./ Photo: IEMed

The Diplomat. 07/08/2018

The political crisis in Catalonia has collateral victims in public institutions and organizations in which the Foreign Ministry and the Catalan Government participate. One of them is the European Institute of the Mediterranean (IEMed). Since one year ago, a manager has been temporarily leading this institute when the diplomat Senén Florensa left the presidency after being appointed Spanish consul to Rome (Italy).

The situation in the IEMED was addressed at the meeting in late July between the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, and the Catalan Councilor for External Action, Ernest Maragall, and both undertook to try to find a replacement for Florensa after the summer.

The IEMed was founded in 1989 and it is part of a consortium in which the Foreign Ministry, the Catalan Government and the City Council of Barcelona participate following the model of Red de Casas. It includes the civil society through its high board of trustees and advisory council made up of prestigious Mediterranean personalities, entities, companies and universities.

Florensa had been presiding the IEMed, whose headquarters are in Barcelona, since 2013, although, in a previous period (2006-2011), he already held a position in that institution as director general. His new professional destination in the Italian capital was made public in April 2017 and, since then, the three entities that co-chair the IEMed have not met formally to look for his replacement, despite the fact that the Foreign Ministry has expressed its wish to do so and has considered some candidates to succeed him, according to information provided to The Diplomat by diplomatic sources.

Due to the lack of decisions, in the last internal meeting of this ‘think tank’ they agreed to maintain Florensa leading the Delegate Committee in parallel with his work in Rome and to let Josep Ferré, the managing director of this institution, to be in charge of the everyday matters. This temporary situation is similar to the budgetary problems that Casa Asia has bee having since the Catalan Government of Carles Puigdemont reduced its economic contribution drastically.