The Diplomat
The draft General State Budget approved last Tuesday by the Council of Ministers, and sent to the Spanish Parliament for parliamentary processing, provides for a 13% increase in the public accounts corresponding to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the year 2023.
As stated in the General State Budget, the consolidated budget for 2023, which includes the resources allocated to the Ministry, the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) and the Cervantes Institute, amounts to 2,192.87 million euros, of which 49.25 million euros, charged to the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR), will be allocated to investments in consular digitization, digital cooperation and comprehensive digital transformation of teaching and dissemination of Spanish culture and language abroad.
Apart from that, with this item, the Ministry headed by José Manuel Albares will contribute 1,118.81 million euros to Official Development Assistance in 2023, which represents with respect to the previous year an increase of 23%, the highest since 2010. According to the Ministry, this contribution represents 27.69% of the total of the General State Administration.
The Budget will also serve to reinforce with 48 million euros the area of Administration and General Services of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which will be endowed by 2023 with 544 million euros. This figure will serve to attend to the maintenance of the common services at the official headquarters, as well as the Embassies and Consulates. This item will also be used to continue improving infrastructure and the operation of common services and to deal with price increases for supplies and services caused by inflation and the unfavorable evolution of exchange rates.
On the other hand, Spain will hold the Presidency of the Council of the European Union in the second half of 2023. To this end, and “following a rigorous exercise of rationalization and efficiency in the preparation of the budget”, the Ministry has budgeted a total of 19.61 million euros, which will be used to finance personnel expenses, organization of conferences, meetings and the adaptation of spaces in which the Foreign Ministry plans to organize 62 meetings.
As for multilateral action and the defense of human rights, Foreign Affairs will have an appropriation of 505.59 million euros that will be allocated to contributions to international organizations to continue supporting the work of United Nations agencies and thus fulfill the commitments made in the 2030 Agenda.
The General State Budget also provides for an allocation of 167.46 million euros to the Instituto Cervantes, an increase of 3.95%. The transfer of funds from the Ministry to the Instituto Cervantes is increased by 5.87%. This item will be complemented with 0.2 million euros which will be allocated to the call for a line of subsidies, on a competitive basis, for activities of interest for the promotion and expansion of Spanish abroad.
