Spain seeks private aid for public diplomacy as budget bites
Foreign Ministry says institutions fostering better relations with rest of the world may go under
As the government continues to cut spending throughout the administration, the Foreign Ministry says it wants to extend the partial private funding model of the Casa de America to its five other institutions that promote relations between Spain and Africa, Asia, the Arab world, the Mediterranean, and Israel and the global Jewish community.
The Casa de América is already 40-percent financed by private companies.
The Foreign Ministry says that the institutions’ survival is at stake, and that one has already had to take out a loan to pay its April wage bill. It adds that it will be reducing the salaries of their directors, as well as looking for funding from the countries where each institutions operates.
The budget for the six bodies, which employ 200 people, was 25.5 million euros.