<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Comisiones Obreras (Workers' Commissions, CCOO,</strong> <strong>by its acronym in Spanish) union has demanded that the government allocate “specific, urgent and structural budgetary allocations” to reverse the situation of the Foreign Service, “weakened by decades of institutional neglect.”</strong></h4> In a press release issued this past Monday, CCOO-Exterior reiterated its rejection of the “deeply regressive and unacceptable proposal” from the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) to improve the funding of the consular network by increasing consular fees or establishing charges for public services that “are currently free.” “At CCOO, we warn that these types of measures constitute a neoliberal prescription that places the costs of an essential public service, weakened by decades of institutional neglect, on the shoulders of the population,” the union continued. “It is outrageous that those who have managed the foreign network for years (and have contributed to its deterioration) now intend to make citizens pay for basic rights such as access to documentation or consular procedures, even more so when that same network has been the subject of repeated complaints from us, without the ADE (Administrative Body of the Workers' Party) speaking out,” it added. “More than three million people live outside our borders,” CCOO recalled. “During the pandemic, it was the workers in embassies, consulates, counselors' offices, and sectoral offices abroad who guaranteed their protection, repatriations, healthcare, and basic documentation, and they did so under extremely difficult conditions: with staff cut, salaries frozen, and buildings in ruins,” it denounced. “The problem of the Foreign Service is not one of consular income: it is one of political will,” because “it is the State that must guarantee sufficient funding for the foreign public service to function, with criteria of equity, dignity, and social justice,” CCOO asserted. “Raising fees is not modernization: it's privatization. And we say this loud and clear: turning deterioration into an excuse to burden citizens with the cost of institutional neglect is not a solution; it's a trap,” it warned. Therefore, “from CCOO-Exterior, we demand that specific budget allocations be allocated, urgently and structurally, to reverse the situation of the Foreign Service, and we demand the participation of the social sector in any debate on the financing, operation, and structure of the consular network.” “We will not accept decisions being imposed that mortgage rights and further precariously affect those already at their limit,” the union warned. “The Foreign Service is not a diplomatic privilege; it is a public right, and we will defend it wherever necessary,” it concluded.
