Luis Ayllón
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has distributed among the members of the Diplomatic Career, the list of eleven Embassies that will change their holders during 2023, so that those who are interested can apply to head one of them.
The list of embassies, to which The Diplomat had access, includes eleven African embassies, one of which –Libya– belongs to the Maghreb and the rest are sub-Saharan: Equatorial Guinea, Mozambique, Niger, Mali, Guinea Conakry, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
In addition, embassies in Serbia, Bangladesh and Vietnam have been put out to tender.
In most cases, the current Heads of Mission in these countries have been in office for little more than two years, having taken up their posts around August and September 2020. The forecast is that they will have to hand over their posts to their replacements around the summer months of 2023 at the latest.
In any case, the change in embassies will take place only a few months before the next general elections are held, although in principle these are not countries with which there are currently difficult bilateral relations.
On the other hand, the group does not include embassies in countries with which Spain has, for various reasons, a special relationship and where the current ambassadors have been in office for more than four years, such as the United States, Germany, Portugal, China, Morocco and Algeria. In all these cases, for the time being, the government seems to have opted to extend their mandates until the elections are held.
Those interested in occupying a Head of Mission may present their candidatures until 27 December, according to the Ministry’s call for applications. They must detail the professional competence and experience that they have to exercise the Head of Mission to which they aspire. Up to a maximum of five embassies are eligible.
Afterwards, the Undersecretary and the Secretaries of State of the Ministry will examine the applications in order to prepare a short list of candidates that will be submitted to the Minister, who will make the appointment proposal to the Council of Ministers, after evaluating “the service record, the specific preparation for the performance of the post, the specific qualifications for the post, and the specific qualifications for the performance of the post”; specific qualifications for the post in question, including experience in political and economic analysis, management of consular affairs and emergency situations, management and control of cooperation programmes, cultural management, as well as budget management and team leadership; previous posts held, especially in the region where the post is located; knowledge of the local language; and negotiation and dialogue skills”, according to the text of the call for applications.
In addition, the call for applications will also take into account positions held abroad and in the European External Action Service, and, in particular, work in the central services of the Ministry, especially in managerial positions.
However, the minister may dispense with this pre-selection mechanism for candidates to occupy certain Heads of Mission due to their special characteristics.
