<h6><strong>Eduardo González</strong></h6> <h4><strong>The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, presented this Tuesday the new Foundation for the Internationalization of Public Administrations, which replaces the defunct International and Ibero-American Foundation for Administration and Public Policies (FIIAPP).</strong></h4> “Today a new name is launched, simpler and more direct, which reflects the purpose of FIAP and transmits to society the value of international cooperation between institutions,” said Albares during the opening ceremony of the Foundation, held at the headquarters of the Ministry in Marqués de Salamanca. This new brand “integrates the Foundation into foreign action and the system of Spanish Cooperation,” added the minister, president of the FIAP board of trustees. The former FIIAPP, a state public sector foundation dedicated to international cooperation in the field of administration and public policies, has been chaired since January 2024 by the Minister of Foreign Affairs himself. Until then, the presidency was held by the First Vice-President of the Government. The FIIAPP was created in 1998 as a result of the merger between the Ibero-American Foundation for Government and Public Policies and the Ibero-American Institute for Public Administration Foundation. This change in the presidency coincided with the entry into the Board of Trustees of three other ministers (Interior, Equality and Presidency), as they are considered to have the greatest international projection, and, more significantly, of the entire leadership of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (the four Secretaries of State and the director of the AECID). The objective of all these changes is to incorporate foreign action into the Foundation's usual work of international cooperation in the field of administration and public policies, splitting its mandate into "development cooperation and foreign action", according to Foreign Affairs. The Foundation obtained formal recognition of its specific function in the Law on Cooperation for Sustainable Development and Global Solidarity of 2023, after which it began the process of renewing its statute, which will be published soon. The event, attended by the Foundation's trustees and a hundred representatives of the Spanish public administrations that participate in cooperation projects with FIAP, also presented the main lines of its strategic plan 2025-2028. According to Foreign Affairs, FIAP supports the construction of public systems in more than 120 countries, promoting public talent and the exchange of knowledge between counterpart institutions in different countries. "As a public foundation, its work is part of Spanish and European foreign action, betting on the value of the public to improve the lives of people and the planet," said the Ministry. FIAP currently executes 118 institutional cooperation projects in 114 countries, with an average execution of 70 million euros per year. It works in areas such as the enlargement of the European Union, social cohesion, the climate and digitalization agenda, sustainable mobility, police and judicial cooperation and the link between security and development. Within this framework, the Foundation mobilises more than 670 professionals from 180 public sector institutions each year.
