Eduardo González
The Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity was finally approved yesterday after obtaining the practically unanimous support of the Congress, with the well-known exception of Vox.
“International cooperation is a priority for the Government,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, during his speech before the plenary. “It is a useful policy for millions of people in the world, for Spaniards, because they want solidarity, and for Spain, because it puts us where Spaniards want to see us, offering solutions to major social crises,” he continued. For this reason, the Minister thanked the support of “all the groups that believe in cooperation” and highlighted the importance of a law that “recognizes and dignifies” the work of the more than 2,600 aid workers “who represent the best values of Spain”. “This law updates Spanish Cooperation, whose previous regulation dates back 25 years, places our country at the forefront and makes it a benchmark with a new model of cooperation,” he said.
Having passed the parliamentary process, the text is now ready to enter into force the day after its publication in the Official State Gazette. The new law was approved, in the first instance, by the Congress on November 24 and by the Senate on December 21, in this case including 21 amendments, which made it necessary to return it to the Lower House for a final debate.During the drafting of the legal text, more than 130 contributions were received from various actors and groups. Ninety-seven percent of them have been included in the articles, in addition to the amendments of the political groups incorporated during the parliamentary process.
In the November and December votes, the votes in favor came from the PSOE and its partners and allies, and those against from Vox (which had presented an amendment to the whole, widely rejected, against an “ideologized and meaningless” law that attacked “national sovereignty”). On the other hand, the main difference between the two votes came from the PP, which in Congress abstained (92 abstentions on its part) and in the Senate chose to vote in favor.
In yesterday’s vote, the new Cooperation Law again received the support of the main opposition party, whose spokeswoman, Pilar Gázquez, assured that the PP supports the new law because “it is a State party” and because its affirmative vote “is for the aid workers and for the people who are out there and need us”. She also thanked the Minister, and the Government in general, for the spirit with which the law has been processed, “which could have been better, but it is the one we have agreed on”, and warned that, from now on, what we have to do is “make it as effective as possible, especially in terms of financial cooperation”.
For her part, the spokesperson for International Development Cooperation of the Socialist Parliamentary Group, María Guijarro, stated that the law was born “adding forces and building solid consensus” to achieve a “public policy of humanitarian aid and development cooperation endowed with sufficient and capable economic and human resources”.
As expected, the discordant note was once again struck by Vox, whose spokesman, Víctor Sánchez del Real, stated during the debate that “cooperation for the pro-green consensus” is a form of “ideological colonialism” that “exports ideology instead of curing hunger, thirst and cold”.
The new law
The new law, which the Government had tried to bring forward before the end of 2022 (it had been processed through the emergency procedure precisely for that reason), updates the current Law on International Cooperation for Development of July 7, 1998, and its main objective is to modify the Spanish Cooperation system. It envisages the reform of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID), the establishment of the new Cooperant Statute, the regulatory development of financial cooperation through a regulatory framework of subsidies to make the system “more efficient and agile” and the creation of new instruments to improve evaluation, monitoring and accountability. For all these reasons, the law will serve as a framework for the drafting of four Royal Decrees that will develop its content with the reform of the AECID, the law on grants, financial cooperation and the new Statute of Aid Workers.
It also provides for the creation of the Spanish Fund for Sustainable Development (FEDES), a financial cooperation instrument that will assume the functions of the Fund for the Promotion of Development (FONPRODE). Likewise, the future regulation gives legal status to Spain’s commitment to allocate 0.7% of GNI to Official Development Assistance (ODA) by 2030 (the Government had set itself the target of reaching 0.5% by the end of the current legislature, but the General State Budget foresees that by 2023 it will only reach 0.34%). Among the geographical priorities of Spanish Cooperation, the draft law includes for the first time the Sahel and maintains the traditional areas, including Latin America and the Caribbean. Likewise, aid will be reinforced in the event of unforeseen crises.The new law also provides for the obligation to allocate at least 10% of development aid to humanitarian action.
The NGDOs ask the parties for “coherence”
For its part, the Coordinator of NGOs for Development expressed yesterday its satisfaction for the approval of the law and its wish that it marks “the beginning of a new stage after a decade in which the political commitment to this public policy was very weakened”. “For years, Spain exercised a cooperation far below the needs of millions of people affected by poverty and inequalities; a cooperation far removed from the proclaimed values of the search for global justice and equity among peoples; a cooperation that lagged behind Europe. The approval of this Law should bring this stage to a definitive close today”, it declared.
However, it warned that “the road does not end here” and reminded that “2023 will be the year to articulate the reforms that the Law points out”. Likewise, it asked for “coherence” to the political parties that have supported this Law” and that, “in an election year” such as the current one, they should demonstrate “this commitment in their political programs, in the budgets and proposals of the governments that are constituted”. “The almost unanimous support for this Law should mark the direction to follow”, it concluded.
