Eduardo González
The Council of Ministers yesterday submitted to the Spanish Parliament the Foreign Action Strategy 2021-2024, which defines Spain as “a relevant medium-sized power with the capacity to count for more in the world” and which advocates the “modernisation of the Foreign Service”, the implementation of a “feminist diplomacy”, the strengthening of the cooperation system and the improvement of digitalisation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The previous strategy came into force in 2015, during the time of José Manuel García-Margallo, and had not been updated since then, despite the fact that its implementation period ended in 2019, due to the two general elections held that same year and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Once the text has been drafted and its referral to Parliament has been authorised, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Arancha González Laya, will explain the Strategy before the corresponding committees of the Congress and the Senate, foreseeably in mid-February, for debate without a vote, after which it will return to the Council of Ministers for final approval, following a report by the Foreign Policy Council. The aim is for it to enter into force at the beginning of March.
The Strategy, a 111-page document to which The Diplomat has had access, is based on the idea that “the reality of Spain in 2021 is that of a relevant medium-sized power with the capacity to count for more in the world” and, therefore, with “room to take on a greater international role, capacity for initiative and the possibility of moving other countries around the agendas in which we believe and on which we can contribute added value”, especially after the arrival of Joe Biden as President of the United States, which “opens up a more optimistic scenario in terms of a commitment to multilateralism as a mechanism for agreement and management of global affairs”.
With this starting point, the Strategy focuses on four lines of action to address “global challenges and common threats”: the promotion of human rights, democracy, security, feminist diplomacy and diversity; economic diplomacy, climate diplomacy and multilateral diplomacy.
The document is also based on four main principles: “More Europe”, with a firm commitment to “a more integrated and federal European Union” and to “greater leadership and centrality” of Spain in the construction of the EU; “Better Multilateralism”, so that Spain can “exploit to the maximum” its “backbone character” to act “as a facilitator of better global governance”; selective “Strategic Bilateralism”, both in Europe and in Latin American countries, the Mediterranean basin and Africa; and “Solidarity Commitment”, through a new vision of development cooperation that includes, among other objectives, the approval of a new law on international cooperation, the reform and strengthening of the AECID, the drafting and monitoring of the 6th Master Plan for Spanish Cooperation 2022-2025 and “the fulfilment of the commitment to allocate 0.5% of Gross National Income to official development aid by the end of the current legislature”.
The means
To advance this agenda, the document warns of the need for “a modern, dynamic and citizen-oriented Foreign Service”, which “requires better management of the resources of the Ministry, the AECID and the Instituto Cervantes, both in the central services and in the network of offices abroad”.
To this end, the Strategy considers it necessary to maintain or even increase the same rate of entry of new officials into the diplomatic career because “the number of diplomatic officials in the last decade has decreased by six percent, to just over 900 people, of whom only a quarter are women due to their slow and late incorporation into this profession”. In this sense, the text announces the adoption of measures to “promote the presence of women in positions of responsibility, starting with the current 26 female ambassadors, who represent 20% of the total number of heads of mission”.
Likewise, a special effort will be made in the training of diplomatic personnel, for which the “strengthening of the Diplomatic School” is of “particular importance”, and “the diplomatic career will be provided with a new set of regulations, which will update the current 1993 rules”. The “coordination mechanisms between embassies will also be strengthened, both at regional level and through an annual conference of Spanish ambassadors”, and “the mobility of diplomatic personnel and other Spanish administrative bodies to the European External Action Service (EEAS) and other relevant European institutions” will be promoted.
On the other hand, the Strategy warns that “it will not be possible to articulate a modern Foreign Service without updating the working methods, conditions and operations within the Ministry itself”, which implies, among other priorities, “promoting a constant improvement in evaluation that allows results to be assessed and processes to be perfected” and having an impact “on the working conditions and opportunities of personnel”.
The Strategy also proposes using the European Recovery Fund “to digitalise consular and diplomatic services, as well as to promote greater digitalisation of the Ministry as a whole, including the AECID and the Instituto Cervantes”. This objective also includes “the implementation of the Departmental Action Plan for the Digital Transformation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs” and the creation of a new Ministry web portal that offers “a dynamic, more attractive and accessible image for citizens”.
In consular matters, the Ministry’s Strategy announces a “redeployment” of Spain’s network of Diplomatic Missions and Consular Posts abroad, in order to adapt it to the needs of Spanish communities, to the increase in demand for visas and to the opening of new tourist and business markets for Spain, “It also recalls that the management of the coronavirus crisis has highlighted “the need for a rapid and effective system of prevention and management of consular emergencies“.
In addition, the foreign action will promote “the necessary reform of the electoral law to simplify the requirements for participation in all electoral processes for Spaniards abroad”, which could involve the abolition of the requested vote, which is currently required for Spaniards living abroad to be able to participate in elections and referendums.
Territorial scope
With regard to its territorial application, the Strategy states that European policy is ‘the main priority of Spanish foreign action’ and is committed to increasing Spain’s influence in European foreign action, as well as to strengthening bilateral summits with Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Romania, and to boosting strategic bilateral relations with subregional groups (Benelux, the Visegrad Group, the Baltic States, and the European Free Trade Association countries).
With regard to Latin America and the Caribbean, the Strategy is committed to strengthening relations between the EU and Latin America and the Caribbean and advocates that Spain should maintain “the initiative in the search for a way out of the crisis in Venezuela”. The text also proposes strengthening dialogue with all the countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East, and is committed to “contributing to the UN’s efforts to reach a political solution” to the conflicts in Western Sahara, Libya and Palestine.
The document also supports greater cooperation with the Sahel countries, the promotion of economic and climate diplomacy with Asia and the Pacific, and the strengthening of relations with the societies of Russia (a country with which “Spain has an interest in developing a constructive, more structured and predictable relationship, within the framework of the agreed EU policy”), Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
