US embassy cable - 05MADRID2241

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 002241 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/WE AND PRM/ANE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/10/2015 
TAGS: PREF, KPAL, PREL, SP, EUN 
SUBJECT: SPAIN IRKED ON UNRWA ADVISORY COMMISSION 
NEGOTIATIONS 
 
 
Classified By: Political Counselor Kathy Fitzpatrick; reason 1.4 (B). 
 
1. (C) MFA desk officer for the Middle East Eva Martinez 
requested a meeting with poloff on June 8 to relay Spain's 
frustration with the ongoing discussions on the expansion of 
the UNRWA Advisory Commission.  Martinez said Spain had been 
surprised to learn at the May 17-19 major donors informal 
meeting in Amman that negotiations on the expansion of the 
Advisory Commission were already well advanced.  She said 
Spain is very interested in becoming one of the new members 
of the Advisory Commission, primarily because of Spain's long 
history of providing humanitarian aid to the Palestinians. 
According to Martinez, Spain is fully on board with other 
donors on the need to improve transparency and give the major 
donors a bigger say in the activities of the UNRWA. 
 
2. (C) Martinez said Spain was disappointed to learn in Amman 
that, under the draft criteria established by the working 
group managing the expansion of the Advisory Commission, 
Spain would fail to be included among the new members of the 
Advisory Commission.  Specifically, Spain would not meet the 
guideline that a donor would have to have contributed at 
least $5 million over the last three years in order to gain a 
seat on the Commission.  Martinez noted that Spanish 
contributions over the last three years were:  $3.4 million 
(2003), $5.4 million (2004), and $5.1 million (2005).  She 
said these figures excluded contributions by Spanish regional 
governments, which she said totaled approximately $400,000 in 
2004 and would be near the same amount in 2005. 
 
3. (C) The Spanish delegates relayed to the Swedish delegate 
who was managing the working group planning the Advisory 
Commission expansion Spain's frustration at falling just 
short of the criteria for inclusion.  Martinez said the 
Swedish delegation indicated that they would like to include 
Spain, but wanted to be sure that all new entrants met 
objective (vice political) criteria.  According to Martinez, 
the Swedish delegate said the USG was particularly interested 
that the PLO delegation remain observers rather than full 
members of the Advisory Commission.  Martinez said Spain 
understood this and agreed on the need to avoid establishing 
political criteria since that could open the door to 
countries who, for whatever reason, might obstruct the work 
of the Commission.  Martinez said that a member of the USG 
delegation at Amman had made clear to Ambassador Pombo (the 
Spanish delegation leader) that the USG, like Sweden, had no 
objection to Spain's participation in the Advisory 
Commission. 
 
4. (C) Martinez said the Spanish delegation left Amman with 
assurances from the Swedish delegation that the Advisory 
Commission expansion working group would develop new 
objective criteria and that Sweden would send Madrid within 
10 days a new draft UN resolution defining the terms of the 
Advisory Commission expansion.  When Spain did not hear from 
the Swedish delegation for three weeks, they checked with the 
Swedish Embassy.  The Swedish Embassy informed Martinez June 
7 that new criteria for participation in the Advisory 
Commission had been established.  They reportedly told 
Martinez that under the new provisions, a donor had to have 
made a contribution of at least $5 million to UNRWA over the 
two previous years instead of over the last three years, a 
shift that, if approved, would have allowed Spain to joint 
the Advisory Commission.  However, Martinez said the Swedish 
Embassy had indicated to her that the USG had requested that 
the $5 million provided over the last two years be core 
contributions, not the total payments by a country (including 
to emergency appeals).  Since some of the Spanish $5 million 
contributed to UNRWA in each of the last two years was made 
in response to emergency appeals and not as a core 
contribution, this criterion would effectively bar Spain from 
the Advisory Commission. 
 
5. (C) Martinez said Spain understands that it is not 
contributing to UNRWA on a scale comparable to the USG, the 
UK, or Sweden, but insisted that its contributions are on an 
upward trajectory.  More importantly, Martinez said Spain 
would be the only country with a significant diplomatic/aid 
profile in the region to be left out of the Advisory 
Commission.  She said it was especially irksome when it was 
her understanding that some countries that will qualify under 
the new recommended guidelines don't want to be in the 
Advisory Commission while Spain definitely wants to 
participate (she cited Canada, evidently on the basis of a 
conversation with the Swedish delegation).  Martinez said 
Spain agreed with the need for objective criteria for 
membership in the Advisory Commission, but was left with the 
impression that boundaries had been drawn up that 
specifically left Spain out.  She argued that it would be 
equally objective, for example, to establish that the 15 
largest contributors (including historic donor members) could 
be members of the Advisory Commission.  Martinez asked that 
poloff investigate whether there would be any flexibility on 
this issue on the part of the USG. 
 
6. (U) Post would welcome guidance on how to respond to the 
MFA's points on this issue. 
 
MANZANARES