Luis Ayllón
The diplomat María Lledó Laredo will be appointed today as the new Secretary General for the European Union, with the task of coordinating the preparatory work for the Spanish Presidency of the EU, which will take place during the second half of 2023, The Diplomat has learned from government sources.
María Lledó will fill the vacancy left by Pascual Navarro, after he was appointed Secretary of State for the EU, replacing Juan González-Barba, who was relieved of his post after months of disagreements with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares.
The new Secretary General of the EU entered the diplomatic career in 1999 and, since the end of last September, had been Director General for the Coordination of the Internal Market and other Community Policies, a post in which she had also replaced Pascual Navarro.
Albares has thus opted for internal promotion within the team of experts on EU issues to meet the challenge of the Spanish Presidency of the EU, according to the sources consulted.
María Lledó, who will be the first woman to hold the post of Secretary General of the EU, will from now on have the main task of coordinating the preparatory work for the Spanish Presidency’s six-month term, both internally and with the other European partners, a task for which she will find it very useful having spent the last four years as coordinator of Spain’s Permanent Representation in Brussels and having been responsible for relations with the European Parliament.
On the other hand, the government may today approve the appointment of Carles Casajuana as Spain’s new ambassador to Greece, replacing Enrique Viguera, as The Diplomat reported. Casajuana was director of the International Department of the Prime Minister’s Office under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, and ambassador to London.
Likewise, the Council of Ministers could appoint as ambassador to the Netherlands Consuelo Femenía, until recently ambassador to Malta, as this website also reported. She will take over the post from María Jesús Alonso, who is awaiting approval from the Argentine authorities to be appointed ambassador to Buenos Aires.
Finally, Isidro González Afonso may also be appointed today as the new ambassador to Sudan, to fill the vacancy left by Alberto Ucelay, currently director general for the Maghreb, the Mediterranean and the Middle East. González Afonso is the deputy secretary general at the Union for the Mediterranean.
