Eduardo González
The Association of Spanish Diplomats, (ADE) has expressed “its concern and disagreement” with the appointment of two “political” ambassadors to the United Nations (UN) in New York and to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
“Recognizing the competence and discretion of the Government in matters of appointment of Embassy holders, and in line with previous communiqués issued with different governments, we wish to state once again that we are against the appointments of so-called ‘political’ Ambassadors, that is, not belonging to the corps of officials of the Diplomatic Career,” stated the ADE, a professional association of a trade union nature that represents about 70% of the total number of members of the Spanish Diplomatic Career, in a press release.
Last Tuesday, the Council of Ministers appointed two members of the former cabinet of Pedro Sánchez to head two embassies to international organizations. Héctor Gómez, former Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism, will be the permanent representative to the UN in New York, and Miquel Iceta, former Minister of Culture and Sport, will be the new representative of Spain to UNESCO. With both appointments, the Government of Pedro Sánchez maintains the policy developed in the last legislature of placing some former ministers at the head of Spanish Embassies abroad, mainly before multilateral organizations. In the case of Héctor Gómez, he is the first permanent representative to the UN in New York of political origin, and therefore not a diplomat, since the arrival of democracy in Spain.
“It is particularly disturbing that these appointments have occurred in the Heads of Mission to the UN and UNESCO (in the latter is the third political appointment in just five years), two particularly technical and sensitive positions, especially in the current geopolitical situation, which are traditionally accessed by diplomats of proven professional value in the field of international relations and, especially, in the complex world of multilateral diplomacy,” continued the ADE.
“With these two new appointments, there are now four Permanent Representations (OAS in Washington, OECD and UNESCO in Paris and the United Nations in New York) that will have political Ambassadors, without any relevant international experience, with the detriment to the country’s image that this entails, especially with appointments that simultaneously affect several international organizations,” it continued. The former Minister of Health Carmen Montón is the current ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS) and the economist and former socialist deputy Manuel Escudero is the current ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In addition, the former Minister of Education and spokesperson of the Government, Isabel Celáa, is the current ambassador to the Holy See.
“In our Embassies, matters of enormous importance for the interests of Spain and its citizens abroad are managed, so their direction should not be entrusted to people who lack the training and professional experience in diplomatic work,” warned the Association. “As ADE has repeatedly reminded, diplomatic officials have the technical training, accumulated experience and professional competence necessary to deal with these matters and to perform the diplomatic mission leaderships with total efficiency and with full loyalty to the Government of the day in defense of the interests of Spain and of our fellow citizens,” it added. “We trust, therefore, that, in the general interest, for future appointments of ambassadors, this important responsibility will again be entrusted exclusively to members of the Diplomatic Career,” it concluded.
