Sumar believes the current regulations for the Diplomatic Service are incompatible with the Historical Memory Law

Eduardo González The Sumar parliamentary group in the Congress has warned the Ministry of Foreign Affairs that the current "pre-constitutional" regulations for the Diplomatic Service, dating from 1955, are incompatible with the Historical Memory Law and the Law on State Action and Foreign Service. Sumar also reminded the government that, in November 2022, it committed to expediting the draft Royal Decree for the approval of the new regulations. In a parliamentary question submitted on March 3 and signed by MP Agustín Santos Maraver, a diplomat and former Spanish ambassador to the United Nations, Sumar (a junior partner in Pedro Sánchez's coalition government) asked the Executive to explain "the reasons preventing the processing, approval, and entry into force of the new Regulations for the Diplomatic Service, which were consulted with trade unions and representative organizations, following the Supreme Court's 2017 ruling that annulled the regulations approved in 2014." Sumar also asked the Ministry of Foreign Affairs whether it considered "the current validity of the pre-constitutional regulations of 1955 compatible with the Historical Memory Law and the Law on State Action and Foreign Service" and "what timeframe the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation anticipates for the new Regulations for the Diplomatic Service to be processed and enter into force." The Government's brief response was sent on April 10: “Following legally established procedures, the necessary technical and administrative work continues for its proper completion. The Government remains committed to updating the regulatory framework of the foreign service, acting with the rigor and guarantees that a regulation of this nature requires.” Letters from the ADE to Pedro Sánchez To date, the Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) has sent two letters to the Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, to address this issue. In the first letter, sent in October 2025 by the Chairman of the ADE Board of Directors, Alberto Virella, the Association denounced “the complete indifference of the Minister of Foreign Affairs,” José Manuel Albares, to its requests to replace the current Regulations for the Diplomatic Service, sanctioned by the dictator Francisco Franco in 1955, with new regulations that are “not only unquestionably constitutional, but also in accordance with a modern organization.” In its response, the Prime Minister's Office merely invited the ADE to “discuss the matter with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” For this reason, the Association sent a second letter to Pedro Sánchez in February 2026, informing him that, “unfortunately,” the Undersecretary of the Ministry, Xavier Martí, had paid no attention to their demands. This second letter to Moncla was answered on March 20th, and in it, the Prime Minister's Office took “due note of the issues and concerns raised” and again referred the ADE to “address these issues with the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, which is the competent authority in this matter.” As the ADE recalled in a statement on April 23rd, the Council of Ministers authorized, on November 15, 2022, “the urgent administrative processing of the draft Royal Decree for the approval of the new Regulations for the Diplomatic Service.” Furthermore, on April 24, 2023, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs even requested, on an urgent basis, the mandatory opinion from the Council of State regarding the draft Regulation. In its opinion, issued on June 1, 2023, the Council of State described the Ministry's "urgency" as "striking," given that "the current procedure for drafting the regulation was formally initiated on April 17, 2018" and there had been "significant delays in its progress, with the Administration having been inactive for almost a year." "It should be noted that, following the opinion of the Council of State, and especially in the case of urgent processing, a draft regulation usually moves quickly to reach the Council of Ministers without delay," the ADE pointed out. “However, inexplicably, more than two and a half years have passed without this happening,” the Association added, also lamenting that the Undersecretary has even refused to provide the ADE with “the draft regulations.” The new Regulations for the Diplomatic Service, which aim to bring greater transparency and predictability to the appointment of posts abroad, including ambassadors, began to be drafted under Arancha González Laya as Minister of Foreign Affairs and continued under Albares, who has held the position since July 2021. The drafting of the new text began after the Supreme Court decided to annul, due to a procedural defect, the regulations approved in July 2014 by the government of Mariano Rajoy, ruling that they had not been subject to collective bargaining following an appeal filed by the Independent Union of the State Foreign Service (SISEX). Nevertheless, the drafting process has been delayed over time. In April 2023, once the text was completed, the ADE published a statement expressing its positive assessment, "in general terms", of the new Diplomatic Career Regulations, considering that it enhanced the influence of diplomats in appointments.

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