SPAIN IRKED ON UNRWA ADVISORY COMMISSION

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