An increasingly important area within Spain's external activities is international co-operation policy.

In the PSOE's 1982 election manifesto, the strengthening and co-ordination of international co-operation had been established as an additional necessity.

The drafting in 1986 of the Annual International Co-operation Plan and, in 1988, the Spanish Agency for International Co-operation, made it possible to merge institution and group together dispersed responsibilities in this field and improve co-ordination between the various departments.

Especially significant was the Co-operation Plan for 1993, since it was is the first to be drafted by the Spanish Government as a member of the Development Aid Committee of the OECD. In that plan, the provision for international co-operation expenditure was 306,873 million pesetas, while OfficiaL Aid for Development would total 156,816 million pesetas, i.e. 0.2428% of estimated GDP for 1993.

International co-operation is divided into two main sections: multilateral co-operation, with an expenditure for 1993 of 184,351 million pesetas, and bilateral co-operation, with 122,522 million pesetas, basically orientated towards Africa and above all to Latin America.

The figures for 1994 are the following:

International Cooperation:

     1. BILATERAL................120,229 MILLION PESETAS 
     2. MULTILATERAL.............135,602 MILLION PESETAS
     ---------------------------------------------------
     TOTAL.......................255,831 MILLION PESETAS
     ===================================================

Official Aid For Development:

     1. BILATERAL................101,980 MILLION PESETAS
     2. MULTILATERAL..............65,216 MILLION PESETAS
     ---------------------------------------------------
     TOTAL.......................167.197 MILLION PESETAS
     i.e. 0.2619% of estimated GDP for 1994
     ===================================================

On November 9th, 1994, the Budget Committee of the Spanish Congress passed an amendment tabled by the Socialist Group and supported by Convergencia i Unio, whereby 0.35% of the GDP will be set aside for development aid in 1995, while at the same time leaving open the possibility of reaching 0.5% by means of extendible credits.

Following this measure, the "Plataforma del 0.7%", an organization grouping together all the associations fighting to increase aid to the Third World, which has been carrying on a series of campaigns since March 1994, has announced that it will consider "re-structuring the campaign strategy" and removed the solidarity camps that it maintained in twenty or so Spanish cities.

The socialist amendment comes with a credit of 32,500 million pesetas (to be added o the sum of almost 185,000 million already set aside in the budget) to be used for development aid projects in Third World countries.

The symbolic 0.7%, which has become a rallying point, was the proportion that the UN called on the developed countries to give at the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. However, few countries have complied. By approving 0.35% of the GDP for Third World aid, Spain becomes one of the most generous countries in the international ranking of development aid, behind Norway (almost 1.2%), Sweden and Denmark (about 1%), Holland (almost 1%), France (0.63%) and Finland (0.62%).

The IPS Daily Journal (Inter Press Service news agency), published on 9 May, 1995, an article in which the IPS said the following:

MADRID, May 8 (IPS) - Spain is setting an example to other western countries in the field of cooperation with the Third World, says Gus Speth, Administrator of the U.N. Development Programme, (UNDP). Speth, wound up a two-day visit to Madrid before the weekend meeting Foreign Minister Javier Solana and Spanish non-governmental organisations (NGOs). During his short stay here, Speth also signed an agreement with the Spanish government granting funds worth 5.2 million dollars, four million of which were earmarked for financing development projects. The remainder will pay for Spanish workers to be employed on UNDP programmes in various countries of the South. Speth told IPS that an NGO campaign to get Spain to increase its contribution to development, to the point where it would amount to 0.7 percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), was the most impressive effort being made in this direction. This was even more remarkable as other countries were currently decreasing their contributions, he said. The NGOs' drive, which attracted the interest of thousands of young people, succeded in getting parliament to increase its original budget appropriations for development cooperation from 0.27 percent of GDP to 0.35 percent. They came after parliament had earlier approved a sharply reduced budget. The parliamentary decision represented a breath of hope and served as an example to other countries, both in Europe and on the other side of the Atlantic, Speth said. Speth also noted Spain's 1995 contribution to UNDP was 30 percent more than last year. If every country followed this example, UNDP would be in a position to do much more to encourage sustainable development, he said. At his meeting with NGOs, he proposed the creation of a network or alliance for sustainable development made up of people of good will, whether from government, civil society, or business world...

For more information, please write to:

     AGENCIA ESPANOLA DE COOPERACION INTERNACIONAL      
     Avenida de los Reyes Catolicos, 4
     28040 MADRID (Spain)

     And ask for the book (only available in Spanish)
     PLAN ANUAL DE COOPERACION INTERNACIONAL
     (Previsiones para 1994)

     ** The book gives you a detailed and specialized information about
     the Annual International Cooperation Plan for 1994 (Plan Anual
     de Cooperacion Internacional, PACI, 1994) **

Thank-you, very much.