Luis Ayllón
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, yesterday put out a call for tenders for a total of 30 posts to renew the heads of as many Spanish embassies over the coming months. These do not include most of the most important ones, whose holders will serve four years in office during 2020, nor some for which the person chosen is already known.
The list of diplomatic representations where ambassadors will be replaced is as follows: Belgium, Brazil, Romania, Hungary, New Zealand, Tunisia, Luxembourg, Finland, Nicaragua, Lithuania, Costa Rica, Philippines, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Croatia, Qatar, Ireland, Latvia, Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Cameroon, Tanzania, Cape Verde, Namibia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Honduras and the Council of Europe (Strasbourg).
Among the embassies put out to tender are several of those occupied by diplomats who held high positions during the governments of Mariano Rajoy, such as his former chief of staff, Jorge Moragas, ambassador to the Philippines; the former director of the Department of International Affairs and former State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Ildefonso Castro, ambassador to Ireland; and the former State Secretary for Latin America Fernando García Casas, ambassador to Brazil.
The Embassy in Japan, which is occupied by former State Secretary for the EU Jorge Toledo, does not appear on the list either, because the approval for his replacement by Fidel Sendagorta has already been requested.
Likewise, others such as the Holy See, Argentina, Denmark and the Netherlands are not in the group of embassies put out to tender, of which it is also known, as The Diplomat reported, who the new ambassadors will be: the former Minister of Education Isabel Celaá, in the Vatican; María Jesús Alonso, in Buenos Aires; Victoria González Román, in Copenhagen; and Consuelo Femenía, in the Netherlands.
At least twenty more embassies have been left out of this call, for which the minister is expected to reserve the direct appointment without competition, and which are some of the most important for Spanish foreign policy, such as the United States, Germany, China, Mexico, Morocco, Algeria, Italy, Portugal, Poland, NATO and the United Nations in New York.
In any case, according to The Diplomat, in some of these posts, the minister has informed the current ambassadors that they will continue for another year. This would be the case of the ambassador to Germany, Ricardo Martínez, due to Spain’s Presidency of the EU in the second half of 2023. Nor is a change foreseeable in the coming months for the ambassador to the Atlantic Alliance, Miguel Fernández-Palacios, with the NATO summit in Madrid in July 2022 on the horizon.
The procedure for filling ambassadorial posts is set out in the Diplomatic Career Regulations that were approved when José Manuel García-Margallo was foreign minister, but which were declared null and void in the courts and are therefore no longer in force.
Those interested in applying for these posts may submit their applications until the 30th of this month, with a letter in which they state their professional competence and the experience they have available for the post of Head of Mission for which they are applying. They may apply for up to a maximum of five embassies, stating their order of preference. Applications will be evaluated by the undersecretary and secretaries of state, who will submit a short list to the minister for a decision.
According to the call for applications, the proposal for appointment to the Council of Ministers will be made by the foreign minister on the basis of “criteria of professional competence and experience”, assessing, among other things, “previous posts held, especially in the region where the post in question is located, knowledge of the local language and negotiation and dialogue skills”.
