The Diplomat
The Council of Ministers has authorized the signing ad referendum of the Agreement between Spain and Honduras for the regulation of the conditions of entry and permanence of aid workers, volunteers and scholarship holders of non-Honduran nationality linked to Spanish Cooperation and their families.
Likewise, the Council authorized this past Tuesday the expression of Spain’s consent to be bound by said Convention and its subsequent referral to the Cortes Generales (Spanish Parliament).
The agreement was signed ad referendum in Madrid, on February 22, 2023, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and his Honduran counterpart, Eduardo Enrique Reina, on the occasion of the working visit to Spain of the Honduran president. , Xiomara Castro.
On that occasion, the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, and President Castro celebrated the agreement to improve the immigration situation of Spanish aid workers in Honduras, an agreement that, as Minister Albares declared that same day, “will allow for improving the conditions of our collaborators in the country” and advance “in their protection.”
With regard to Spanish institutions, the agreement only affects the powers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).
AECID maintains a continuous presence in Honduras through its Spanish Cooperation Office. Thanks to the eight cooperation agreements signed by the two countries since 1981, numerous projects have been executed in sectors such as education, health, heritage for development, democratic governance, rural development, and culture for development.
The current Master Plan of Spanish Cooperation considers Honduras as a Middle Income Association Country. In addition, the Country Association Framework 2020-2023 is aligned with the 2030 Agenda in areas such as social well-being and local economic growth, the eradication of violence against women, girls and groups discriminated against due to their sexual identity, and institutional strengthening and democratic governance.
