The Association of Spanish Diplomats (ADE) recalls, in an informative note sent to the media, that for some time now, it has been warning about the prolonged neglect suffered by the Spanish Foreign Service and, in particular, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, EU and Cooperation (MAEUEC), the only ministerial department whose reason for being is the external action of the State and to serve Spanish citizens abroad.
“The precariousness of human, material, technical, and infrastructure resources, resulting from decades of governmental neglect, has been aggravated by the poor management of the current team of political leaders in the ministry,” assures the board of ADE, which signs the statement. “Due to a lack of political will or simple incapacity,” it continues, “it has failed to convince the Council of Ministers of the need to accompany the significant increase in workload” that has occurred “due to the exponential increase of Spanish citizens abroad and their demand for services, the high number of nationality applications, visa applications, and procedures arising from the regularization process of immigrants, to name a few functions of the consular network.”
The union representing Spanish diplomats concludes that “the state of a significant part of Spain’s consular network is critical,” as we have already been reporting in DiplomacyNews in previous information.
ADE criticizes “the political decision not to allocate more public officials to the consular network and, in general, to the Foreign Service” and points out that “opting for the local temporary hiring of public employees entails serious limitations,” starting with the fact that, although local employees are necessary, “they cannot replace officials.”
It also demands fair labor treatment for all, as “both deserve adequate remuneration, dignified working and safety conditions, and attention to their families, as established by law in each case.” Therefore, it laments that public employees abroad, including State officials, suffer from a serious deterioration of their working conditions “that borders on institutional mistreatment” and that, for ADE, “is a reflection of the disinterest of the political class towards the role of public administration abroad and of their ignorance within our society, which should be corrected.”
“The outsourcing of work assigned to the consular network is also not an adequate solution,” according to ADE, since “it may entail risks and undesirable consequences if not carried out transparently and providing accurate information to the heads of the consular network units and also to the public institutions and political actors that request it.”
The Association of Spanish Diplomats considers that “this opacity and lack of clarifications, especially in the context of the naturalization processes under the Democratic Memory Law or the procedures for the regularization of immigrants that our consular and diplomatic service must carry out, has serious consequences,” of which the worst “is the shadow of doubt cast over the General Administration of the State and the reliability of the electoral system itself.”
In this context, ADE defends “the integrity and professionalism of officials, including diplomats in consular functions” and emphasizes that “State officials know that their highest obligation is to respect the law and, if ordered to violate it, to refuse to do so.” If that is still not enough, ADE warns that officials “can resort to alert mechanisms or report corruption, in its various forms, as both ADE and FEDECA have been proclaiming.
For all these reasons, The Association of Spanish Diplomats asks for “the support of institutions and citizens so that officials can defend legality and have the necessary means to carry out their work”. It also “requests that the heads of MAEUEC redouble their efforts to gather these means” and “makes a public call for them to respond to all inquiries raised by the media, clarify all doubts that arise in the political debate, defend the integrity and professionalism of their officials, and thus dispel the shadows that may harm the health of our democracy.”