The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, chaired the meeting of the Board of Trustees of the Foundation for the Internationalization of Public Administrations (FIAP) on Wednesday, July 22. FIAP, an agency attached to the Ministry, completed its transformation process in 2025 to consolidate itself “as an essential instrument of Spanish foreign policy and international cooperation.”
During the meeting, held at the Ministry’s headquarters in the Palacio de Santa Cruz in Madrid and attended by the Secretary of State for the EU, Fernando Sampedro, and the Secretary of State for International Cooperation, Eva Granados, among others, the accounts and activity report for 2025 were approved.
According to the FIAP press release, €54.2 million was allocated in 2025 through 83 projects, more than half of which fell under the European Union’s delegated cooperation program. FIAP also contributed to the Global Gateway international partnerships strategy and to preparatory exchanges for the next European Union multiannual financial framework.
Furthermore, in 2025, 230 Spanish public administrations worked closely with 1,420 counterpart institutions in 129 countries, facilitated by the Foundation, to strengthen public policies and institutional capacities. The activities focused primarily on digitalization and social policies, with Latin America and the Caribbean being the region that accounted for the largest number of projects.
“In 2025, the Foundation’s transformation process, undertaken since Minister Albares assumed its presidency in February 2024, also culminated, consolidating FIAP as an essential instrument of Spanish foreign policy and international cooperation,” he added.
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, and, 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).