Secretary of State for the European Union

Secretary of State for the European Union
Secretario de Estado para la Unión Europea
Coat of Arms used by the Government
Incumbent Fernando Mariano Sampedro Marcos since 19 December 2023
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation Secretariat of State for the European Union
Style	The Most Excellent (formal) Mr. Secretary of State (informal)
Abbreviation	SEUE
Reports to	Foreign Minister
Nominator	Foreign Minister
Appointer	The Monarch
Precursor	Minister for Relations with the European Communities
Formation	February 27, 1981
First holder	Raimundo Bassols
Website	exteriores.gob.es

PM Adolfo Suárez with the EU Commission President, Roy Jenkins, and the Minister for Relations with the European Communities, Eduardo Punset.

The secretary of state for the European Union (SEUE) is a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of the Government of Spain. The SEUE is appointed by the Monarch on the advice of the Foreign Minister.

The secretary of state is responsible for the formulation and execution of the policy of Spain within the European Union. Likewise, he assists the Foreign Minister in the formulation and execution of the foreign policy of Spain in the geographical area corresponding to the countries of the European Union, candidate countries, countries of the European Economic Area and other European countries. It also manages issues arising from Spain's membership in the Council of Europe. ^[1]

As the highest official after the Foreign Minister in European Union affairs, the secretary of state is responsible for overseeing the actions of the different bodies of the different national administrations within the European Union as well as overseeing and giving orders to the Permanent Representative of Spain to the European Union. ^[1]

History

The origin of this secretariat of state dates back to July 26, 1977 ^[2] when prime minister Adolfo Suárez officially applied for admission of Spain in the European Communities, three days after the Cortes Generales approved it.

To start the negotiations, the prime minister created in July 1978 a Ministry for the Relations with the European Communities and appointed Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo as minister. ^[3] The negotiations started on February 5, 1979. ^[4] Eduard Punset succeeded Calvo-Sotelo in the Ministry in 1980 until 1981, when the Ministry was suppressed and was degraded to a secretariat of state within the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

After this, the Foreign Minister Fernando Morán López assumed a main role in the negotiations being supported by the Secretary of State for Relations with the European Communities, culminating in the signing of the accession agreement in June 1985 and entry into force in January 1986. Before all of this process, in 1962, Spain already requested the accession but was rejected because the country was under a dictatorship. ^[5]

With the entrance of Spain in the Union, the country quickly became one of the most important and influential countries of the EU by assuming important offices such as High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy with Javier Solana and the Presidency of the European Parliament with Josep Borrell and Manuel Marín (being considered the father of the Erasmus Programme).

The first and second Secretaries of State had to work with a very small staff because this department originally was devised as an auxiliary body to the Minister in the accession negotiations but in 1985 an important reform was carried out in the Foreign Ministry. With the entry in the Union, the Secretariat of State was focused not in negotiations affairs but in coordination between the Spanish administrations and the European institutions.

With the change of government in 1996, the new prime minister elevated the category of the General Secretariat for Foreign Policy to Secretariat of State and merged it with the Secretariat of State for European Communities, being responsible not only for the relations with the European Union but the rest of the world.

In 2000, ^[6] the secretariat of state split in two and this one was renamed «for European Affairs». In 2004 was adopted the current denomination «for the European Union», ^[7] that was briefly changed between 2017 and 2018 «for European Affairs» but recovered by the Sánchez government. ^[8]

Names

• Secretary of State for Relations with the European Communities (1981–1985)
• Secretary of State for the European Communities (1985–1995)
• Secretary of State for the European Union (1995–1996)
• Secretary of State for Foreign Policy and for the European Union (1996–2000)
• Secretary of State for European Affairs (2000–2004)
• Secretary of State for the European Union (2004–2017)
• Secretary of State for European Affairs (2017–2018)
• Secretary of State for the European Union (2018–present)

Structure

The Secretariat of State is composed by the following bodies: ^[1]

• The Secretary of State.
  • The General Secretariat for the European Union, which assist the secretary of state in European Union Affairs.
    • The Directorate-General for Integration and Coordination of General Affairs of the European Union.

      It's the department responsible for following the European Union policies and coordinate the national departments that collaborate in that policies; for establishing the Spanish position regarding these policies and the preparation of the meetings of the EU General Affairs Council. It is also responsible for overseeing the regional governments actions in the EU; to study the European Union reform proposals as wells as the possible enlargement or withrawal of member states and the promotion of the Spanish language and the presence of Spanish citizens in the European institutions.

    • The Directorate-General for the Coordination of the Internal Market and other Community Policies

      It's the department in charge of following the European Union policies and coordinate the national departments that collaborate in that policies along with the Directorate-General for Integration and Coordination of General Affairs of the European Union; the management before the EU institutions of public aids and the following of and the advisement about the European Union law and the actings before the CJEU in coordination with the Office of the Solicitor General. It also prepares the meetings of the EU Competitiveness Council and the EU Internal Market Consultative Committee.

  • The Directorate-General for Western, Central and Southeast Europe

  It's the department responsible for the proposal and execution of the Spanish foreign policy over this geographical area and the momentum of bilateral relations with these countries. It's responsible also for the proposal and following of the position of Spain over the Gibraltar dispute in coordination with other departments of the Administration.

The secretary of state has a Cabinet for political and parliamentary assistance.

From the Secretariat of State also depends organically the Solicitor's Office before the Court of Justice of the European Union although functionally depends from the Office of the Solicitor General and the Ministry of Justice.

List of SEUE

No.	Image	Name	Term of office			Minister(s) serving under	Prime Minister
			Took office	Left office	Duration
1.º		Raimundo Bassols	28 February 1981	8 December 1982	1 year, 283 days	José Pedro Pérez-Llorca	Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo
2.º		Manuel Marín	8 December 1982	28 October 1985	2 years, 324 days	Fernando Morán López Francisco Fernández Ordóñez	Felipe González
3.º		Pedro Solbes	28 October 1985	16 March 1991	5 years, 139 days	Fernando Morán López
4.º		Carlos Westendorp	16 March 1991	23 December 1995	4 years, 282 days	Fernando Morán López Javier Solana
5.º		Emilio Fernández-Castaño	23 December 1995	14 May 1996	143 days	Carlos Westendorp
6.º		Ramón de Miguel y Egea	14 May 1996	20 April 2004	7 years, 342 days	Abel Matutes Josep Piqué Ana Palacio	José María Aznar
7.º		Alberto Navarro González	20 April 2004	15 April 2008	3 years, 361 days	Miguel Ángel Moratinos	José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero
8.º		Diego López Garrido	15 April 2008	24 December 2011	3 years, 253 days	Miguel Ángel Moratinos Trinidad Jiménez
9.º		Íñigo Méndez de Vigo Baron of Claret	24 December 2011	27 June 2015	3 years, 185 days	José Manuel García-Margallo	Mariano Rajoy
10.º		Fernando Eguidazu Palacios	27 June 2015	3 December 2016	1 year, 159 days
11.º		Jorge Toledo Albiñana	3 December 2016	23 June 2018	1 year, 202 days	Alfonso Dastis
12.º		Marco Aguiriano [9] [10]	23 June 2018	5 February 2020	1 year, 227 days	Josep Borrell	Pedro Sánchez
13.º		Juan González-Barba Pera	5 February 2020	22 December 2021	1 year, 320 days	Arancha González Laya
14.º		Pascual Ignacio Navarro	22 December 2021	19 December 2023	1 year, 362 days	José Manuel Albares
15.º		Fernando Mariano Sampedro Marcos	19 December 2023	Incumbent	1 year, 288 days

References

1. Ministry of Digital Transformation and Civil Service (29 November 2024). "Royal Decree 1184/2024, of November 28, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation is developed". Official State Gazette (in Spanish). Retrieved 29 September 2025.
2. "Spain and the European Union". www.exteriores.gob.es. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
3. "H.E. Leopoldo Calvo Sotelo - Gold Mercury International". Gold Mercury International. Retrieved 2018-11-20.
4. Royo, Sebastián (2002). "The Experience of Spain and Portugal in the European Union: Lessons for Latin America" (PDF). Archive of European Integration - University of Pittsburgh. Miami, Florida. p. 10.
5. "home". www.xn--espaa-ue-yyavan30-ixb.eu (in European Spanish). Retrieved 2018-11-20.
6. "Royal Decree 1473/2000, of August 4, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is developed". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-11-20.
7. "Royal Decree 1416/2004, of June 11, which modifies and develops the basic organizational structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-11-20.
8. "Royal Decree 1271/2018, of October 11, by which the basic organic structure of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation is developed and by which Royal Decree 595/2018, of June 22, is modified by the that the basic organizational structure of the ministerial departments is established". boe.es (in Spanish). Retrieved 2018-11-20.
9. "Spain MFA on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-11-19.
10. Union, Publications Office of the European. "EU Whoiswho". EU Whoiswho. Retrieved 2018-11-19.