Europe Programme - [02/20/2008]

Spain's foreign policy at the close of the 8th term of office: summary and prospects

“Kosovo is a 'hot potato' for the next government”

The above comment was made by Esther Barbé, Director of the Observatory of European Foreign Policy (OBS). And certainly, Spain's stance over the Kosovo issue added fuel to the debate between the analysts who were invited to carry out an assessment of Spain's foreign policy under the Rodríguez Zapatero government.

Darío Valcárcel, Editor of the magazine Política Exterior, justified Spain's alignment with Russia “not because of internal reasons, but because this is an outrageous violation of international law”; meanwhile, Nicolás Sartorius, Director of the Observatory of External Policy (OPEX) at Fundación Alternativas claims that “Kosovo is an issue that has been resolved through a dictate from the United States, which has a large military base there, and it represents a dangerous precedent”.

During their assessment of the Zapatero government’s external policy, the three analysts acknowledged the enormous importance of the spectacular about-turn in policy as compared to the days of ex-President Aznar. In this respect, Sartorius praised the way in which the government distanced itself from the “PP’s ‘Atlanticism’, and its defence of international law above all else”.

In contrast, Spain's permissive attitude toward the dictatorship in Equatorial Guinea came in for criticism. “Zapatero was expecting a world without Bush and with a European Constitution, and what he came up against was the very opposite” declared Professor Esther Barbé. Meanwhile, Darío Valcarcel praised Minister Moratinos and Secretary of State Bernardino León “for their persistent, silent and exemplary work” in this area.

The round table discussion organised by the CIDOB Foundation also analysed the traditional axes of Spanish external policy: Europe, the Mediterranean and Latin America. Barbé highlighted the fact that the socialist government allowed the Autonomous Communities to take part in the formulation of European policy, under the banner of “a return to Europe”. Furthermore, “Spain managed to promote its interests in Europe with respect to immigration”; in contrast, there has been an absence of any strategy toward the East in Spain's foreign policy.

Sartorius criticised “the lack of initiative in the Barcelona Process”. And even though relations with Latin America have improved, the analyst claimed that the Spanish government failed to introduce any "ambitious projects on a political and economic scale". As for Asia, Sartorius declared, Spain still has a low profile that is determined by the country's position in the European Union.

With respect to the coming term of office, the analysts agreed that there was a lack of funding for Spain's external action; meanwhile, Sartorius claimed that foreign policy should be the central feature of the new term of office, declaring that “the myth of consensus in foreign policy is over”.