Fernando García Casas./Photo: TD
The Diplomat. 02/12/2016
Spain’s ambassador to Estonia, Fernando García Casas, has been named Secretary of State for International Cooperation and Ibero-America in place of Jesús Gracia.
The appointment was approved today by the Council of Ministers and joins those of Jorge Toledo Albiñana as Secretary of State for the European Union and Pablo García-Berdoy as permanent representative of Spain to the EU, as had advanced The Diplomat.
Garcia Casas, born in Madrid in 1957, was an advisor to the International Department of the Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government and director of the Department of Studies and Information Relations of the Ministry of the Presidency.
Later, between 2002 and 2014, he worked in the Ibero-American General Secretariat, first as Planning and Communication Officer and since 2005, as assistant director of the Cabinet of then-Ibero-American Secretary General Enrique Iglesias. In 2014 he was appointed ambassador to Estonia, a position he held to date.
The Council of Ministers confirms the appointments of Toledo and García-Berdoy, advanced by The Diplomat
The appointments of Jorge Toledo, Pablo García-Berdoy and García Casas are the first ones of certain depth since Alfonso Dastis assumed like minister of Foreign Affairs. In November, Dastis had confined himself to confirming in his position the chief of staff of José Manuel García-Margallo, the diplomat Juan Jose Buitrago, waiting to find him a substitute.