The Diplomat in Spain

García-Margallo and Clos, during their interview at the Palace of Viana./ Picture: MAEC /Jorge Fernández.

The Diplomat. Madrid

The former minister for Industry and Barcelona’s former socialist mayor, Joan Clos, is risking this year the re-election as executive director of UN-Habitat, the United Nations Human Settlements Programme with headquarters in Nairobi (Kenya). Last Wednesday, he got the support of the minister for Foreign Affairs, José Manuel García-Margallo, for his candidature to lead this international agency for another four years.

Clos was elected in October 2010 to hold this position in a voting of the General Assembly of the UN and, from then on, he is the Spaniard with the highest status in the system of the United Nations. Along with the new special correspondent of the European Union in Libya, Bernardino León, he is the only representative of Spain in a position of certain international relevance.

Margallo and, by extension, the popular Government of Mariano Rajoy, are interested in supporting the candidature of Clos for two reasons. In the first place, because his departure from UN-Habitat would be a bad sign of our country in a moment when Spain is risking its presence at the Security Council of the UN this autumn as a non-permanent member for the two year period of 2015-2016. In the second place, because Clos’s Catalan condition could be used by groups such as CiU, ERC and even the PSC to criticize Madrid for the supposed discriminatory treatment it is giving to Catalonia.

In any case, re-election will not be easy for Clos. Four years ago, Spain was compensated with this position –and others of lower status such as those held by Bibiana Aído and Leire Pajín– for the economic contribution that our country made to the UN during the governments of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. A commitment that has been reduced since the PP came to power at the end of 2011.

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Re-election will not be easy for Clos, because Spain is no longer contributing to the UN funds as it used to

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UN-Habitat is in the middle of an adaptation process of its institutional and financial structures to the new international market. In this regard, the first edition of the governing committee between Spain and UN-Habitat was celebrated in Madrid last 13 May. The Spanish delegation was chaired by the general secretary of International Cooperation for Development, Gonzalo Robles, who was accompanied by representatives from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Development and Finance. For its part, the delegation of UN-Habitat was chaired by the aforementioned Joan Clos.

In November 2011, an agreement for the establishment of UN-Habitat in Spain was signed, which led to the opening of offices in Madrid and Barcelona and to the establishment in Barcelona of the secretary’s permanent office of the so called Global Water Operators’ Partnerships Alliance at the Hospital Santa Creu i Sant Pau.