<h6><strong>The Diplomat</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Foundation for the Internationalization of Public Administrations (FIAP) closed 2025 with €54 million in projects across more than one hundred locations in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Mediterranean and North Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. In 2026, it will have a budget of €71 million.</strong></h4> These are some of the figures approved this Wednesday, December 17, during the FIAP Board of Trustees meeting at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs headquarters in the Palacio de Santa Cruz in Madrid. The meeting reviewed the actions taken in 2025 and approved the work plan for 2026. During the meeting, chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, and attended by the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, and the Secretaries of State for the EU, Fernando Sampedro, and for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, among others, the board members welcomed the recent formal approval of the Foundation's new Statute. This statute culminates the transformation process undertaken in January 2024 under Albares's presidency. The former FIIAPP, renamed FIAP in March 2025, has been chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself since January 2024. Until then, the presidency was held by the First Vice-President of the Government. This change in leadership coincided with the addition of three other ministers (Interior, Equality, and Presidency) to the Board of Trustees, as they are considered to have the greatest international profile. Most significantly, the entire leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the four Secretaries of State and the Director of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation) also joined the Board. The Board of Trustees highlighted the progress made in generating and supporting regional and international networks of public administrations in the areas of justice, security, the green agenda, and digitalization, among others, as a key contribution to multilateralism. The Board also welcomed the operation of the joint project evaluation committee, launched a year ago by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which includes the Ministries and public entities involved in the Foundation's various projects. This mechanism allows for a joint assessment of the relevance of each cooperation project within the framework of foreign policy. It has also acknowledged the contributions made by FIAP to the Summit between the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) held in November in Colombia, and to the proposal for the Global Europe instrument for the next European Union multiannual financial framework 2028-2034. In 2025, FIAP worked with more than 1,070 public institutions (over 130 of them Spanish) and 80 international organizations, closing the year with an implementation volume of €54 million across more than one hundred projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, the Mediterranean and North Africa, Central Asia, and Eastern Europe. A budget of €71 million has been approved for 2026. Peacebuilding, green economy and just transition, justice and the rule of law, digitalization, and social policies were the main areas of cooperation in which the Foundation mobilized resources from the General State Administration, autonomous communities, local authorities, and the judiciary, among others. The Foundation for the Internationalization of Public Administrations (FIAP) supports the development of public systems in more than 120 countries by promoting public sector talent and facilitating knowledge exchange among similar institutions in different countries. As a public foundation, its work forms part of Spanish and European foreign policy.
