Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations

Secretary of State for Territorial Policy
Secretario de Estado de Política Territorial
Coat of Arms used by the Government
Incumbent Arcadi España García since December 6, 2023
Ministry of Territorial Policy and Democratic Memory Secretariat of State for Territorial Policy
Style	The Most Excellent (formal) Mr. Secretary of State for Territorial Policy (informal)
Reports to	Territorial Policy Minister
Nominator	Territorial Policy Minister
Appointer	Monarch
Precursor	Minister for Territorial Administration
Formation	February 20, 1987
First holder	José Francisco Peña Díez
Salary	€ 113,145.95 per year [1]
Website	seat.mpr.gob.es

The Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations, currently named Secretary of State for Territorial Policy is the highest official of the Ministry of Territorial Policy responsible for the development of the Government's policy about Spain's territorial organization as well as responsible for the relations between the central government and the regional and local authorities.

It's also responsible for the supervision of the decentralized departments of the central government in the regions and impulse and coordination of the Conference of Presidents (the main forum of collaboration between the Prime Minister and the regional leaders), as well as the Presidency of the Council of Official Languages in the General Administration of the State. ^[2]

Directly from the Secretary of State depends the Secretary General for Territorial Coordination.

History

The need to create a department focused on the coordination of the different state administrations appeared after the approval of the Constitution, which established a decentralized state composed of different autonomous communities. Given this, the Ministry of Territorial Administration was created in 1979 and was in force until the end of 1986.

In 1987, the Ministry of Public Administrations was created, which assumed the powers over the civil servants and the territorial organization, creating a Secretariat of State focused on the relations of the different administrations called the Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations. ^[3]

In 2000, the Secretariat of State changed its name to Secretariat of State for the Territorial Organization of the State and changed its name again in 2004 to Secretariat of State of Territorial Cooperation until 2011 when PM Rajoy in an effort to reduce the deficit of the State, reduced the governmental apparatus integrating this Secretariat of State in the Secretariat of State for Public Administrations (in charge of the civil servants and now also of the relations between administrations) and the Ministry of Public Administrations also merged with the Ministry of the Treasury.

In 2016, with the economical improvement, the Secretariats of State of Public Function and Territorial Administration were separated again and the latest was integrated with its Ministry in the Ministry of the Presidency.

Since 2018, the Ministry for Territorial Administrations recovered its independence and was renamed Ministry for Territorial Policy and Public Function (taking the competencies over the civil servants from the Ministry of the Treasury). Briefly, from 2020 to 2021 the Secretariat of State assumed all the competences about civil service.

Structure

Under the Secretary of State are the following officials: ^[2]

• The Secretary General for Territorial Coordination
  • The Director-General for Regional and Local Cooperation
    • The Deputy Director-General for Regional Cooperation
    • The Deputy Director-General for Bilateral Relations with the Autonomous Communities
    • The Deputy Director-General for Local Cooperation
  • The Director-General for Regional and Local Legal Regime
    • The Deputy Director-General for the Autonomous Legal System
    • The Deputy Director-General for the Local Legal System
    • The National Coordinator of the Internal Market Information System
  • The Director-General for the General State Administration in the Territory
    • The Deputy Director-General for Institutional Relations of the General State Administration in the Territory
    • The Deputy Director-General for the Coordination of the General State Administration in the Territory
    • The Deputy Director-General for Human Resources of the General State Administration in the Territory
    • The Deputy Director-General for Financial and Properties Management of the General State Administration in the Territory
    • The Inspectorate of Services of the General State Administration in the Territory

List of secretaries of state

No.	Image	Name	Term of office			Ministers serving under:	Prime Minister appointed by:
			Began	Ended	Days of service
1º		José Francisco Peña Díez	28 February 1987	11 May 1996	3360	Joaquín Almunia Amann Juan Manuel Eguiagaray Jerónimo Saavedra Joan Lerma i Blasco	Felipe González
2º		Jorge Fernández Díaz	11 May 1996	23 January 1999	987	Mariano Rajoy	José María Aznar
3º		Francisco Camps	23 January 1999	1 April 2000	434	Ángel Acebes Paniagua
4º		Gabriel Elorriaga Pisarik	6 May 2000	20 April 2004	1445	Ángel Acebes Paniagua Jesús Posada Javier Arenas Julia García-Valdecasas
5º		José Luis Méndez Romeu	20 April 2004	14 May 2005	389	Jordi Sevilla	José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
6º		Ana Isabel Leiva Díaz	14 May 2005	14 July 2007	791
7º		Fernando Puig de la Bellacasa	14 July 2007	25 April 2009	651	Elena Salgado
8º		Gaspar Zarrías	25 April 2009	24 December 2011	973	Manuel Chaves González
9º		Antonio Beteta	24 December 2011	12 November 2016	1785	Cristóbal Montoro	Mariano Rajoy
10º		Roberto Bermúdez de Castro Mur	19 November 2016	19 June 2018	577	Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría
11º		Ignacio Sánchez Amor	23 June 2018	29 June 2019	371	Meritxell Batet	Pedro Sánchez
-		Miryam Álvarez Páez Acting	29 June 2019	30 January 2020	215	Luis Planas
12º		Francisco Hernández Spínola	30 January 2020	3 February 2021	370	Carolina Darias
-		Miryam Álvarez Páez Acting	3 February 2021	24 February 2021	21	Miquel Iceta
13º		Víctor Francos Díaz	24 February 2021	21 July 2021	147
-		Miryam Álvarez Páez Acting	21 July 2021	1 September 2021	42	Isabel Rodríguez García
14º		Alfredo González Gómez	1 September 2021	6 December 2023	826
15º		Arcadi España García	6 December 2023	Incumbent	589	Ángel Víctor Torres

References

1. "Retribuciones para el año 2017 para el organismo Ministerio de la Presidencia". transparencia.gob.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-09-26.
2. "Royal Decree 863/2018, of July 13, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Function is developed". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-09-26.
3. "Royal Decree 221/1987, of February 20, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry for Public Administrations is determined". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-09-26.