<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Council of Ministers approved this Tuesday the new Statute of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and addressed the Annual Report on Foreign Action 2023, which includes the execution of the Foreign Action Strategy 2021-2024, the actions carried out, the objectives achieved and the resources applied to achieve them.</strong></h4> “The AECID Statute is one of the great milestones of the reform and transformation of Spanish Cooperation, which we started last year with a new Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development,” declared the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, at the press conference following the Council of Ministers. “The regulatory development of the new law began with the approval of the Statute of the Cooperator,” which took place in July of this year with the aim of improving the working conditions of the more than 2,700 Spanish cooperators around the world, he continued. “Today is one more step and others will come,” said the minister. The aim of this Statute, he added, is “to strengthen the main instrument of our cooperation, the AECID, a reformed agency, thoroughly renewed, which channels the solidarity of Spanish society and allows us, at the same time, to face the great global challenges, the great humanitarian crises - Gaza, Lebanon, Haiti, the Sahel, to name the most important -, the fight against hunger and poverty, the climate emergency, gender gaps and the management of the migration phenomenon by tackling its deepest causes”. According to Foreign Ministry in a press release, the Statute determines the regulatory framework for the profound renewal of the AECID, its new functions, the principles that should guide its work and its internal organization. This Statute, the press release continues, is “a new boost for an agency” that has doubled its budget in the last three years (from around 360 million euros in 2021 to more than 700 million euros in 2023 and 2024) and has already undertaken various reforms in its operation, “for example, improving the working conditions of its expatriate staff, undertaking a Digital Transformation Plan, strengthening its activity in the multilateral field or launching new and innovative programs on democracy, the fight against climate change, feminist cooperation or health”. <h5><strong>Foreign Action Report</strong></h5> The minister has also brought to the Council of Ministers the annual Foreign Action Report, which “follows the four guiding principles of the Foreign Action Strategy: more Europe, better multilateralism, strategic bilateralism and solidarity commitment”, the Ministry continued. The report includes highlights of Foreign Action in 2023, such as the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, Spain's "comprehensive support" for Ukraine through the imposition of sanctions on Russia, diplomatic support, military and humanitarian assistance or the reception of displaced Ukrainians, and Spain's "active role" in favour of the two-state solution in the Middle East and the promotion of Euro-Arab dialogue. It also highlights voluntary contributions to the United Nations system worth 718 million euros, the inauguration of the new headquarters in Madrid of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism Programmes, the election of Spain as a member of several executive boards, such as the World Food Programme and UN-Habitat, or the establishment in Bilbao of the headquarters of the secretariat of the Local Coalition 2030. The report also recalls the Spanish-French Summit in Barcelona, the Spanish-Portuguese Summit in Lanzarote, the strengthening of cooperation with Poland and Romania and the drive to develop the Southern Neighbourhood of the EU, as well as “another fundamental milestone”: the holding in Brussels of the EU-CELAC Summit, supported by Spain. The document also mentions the elimination of the requested vote, the four evacuations (Sudan, Niger, Ethiopia and Gaza) of Spanish citizens and their families and the granting of Spanish nationality to Nicaraguan opponents who had been deprived of their citizenship, along with their families.
