Emma Apariche Vasquez de Parga, a diplomatic official since 2004 and current Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs of La Moncloa, will be the next Spanish Ambassador to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The government intends to approve his appointment to the Council of Ministers on Tuesday or next week, according to executive sources for El Pais newspaper. The current ambassador to London is José Pascual Marco, who was appointed in August 2021. In August, Spain, the UK, Gibraltar and the European Commission reached a political agreement to redefine the Rock’s relationship with the EU after Brexit. The agreement plans to abolish border controls and could mean the fence will be demolished in 2026.
Aparisi is a person who enjoys the absolute trust of the head of government, and is responsible for Sánchez’s international agenda after the current Foreign Minister, José Manuel Albarés, was appointed ambassador to France in 2020. Without the spotlight or public appearance, the future ambassador participated on behalf of the president in international negotiations and agreements and accompanied him on all his trips abroad. “There is no one in government who does not have the best opinion of Emma,” is how several senior officials and middle managers at La Moncloa Palace define her, highlighting that she is “easy to work with, detail-oriented and humanizes the diplomatic service.” She graduated in law from the Complutense University of Madrid, studied at the University of Bologna under the Erasmus program and completed the Leadership Program for Public Administration at IESE.
The first responsibility that Aparisi held in government, since the summer of 2018, was as Head of the Coordination Unit of the Department of International Affairs and Global Security of the General Secretariat for International Affairs, the European Union, the G20 and Global Security of the Prime Minister, which was then managed by the current Minister of Foreign Affairs. In February 2020, a few days before the health crisis resulting from the pandemic, she was promoted to the position of Director of the Foreign Affairs Department in the Prime Minister’s Office. In November 2023, she rose a step further as Secretary General for Foreign Affairs, to the rank of Undersecretary, which is her current position. “The president has trusted her practically since she arrived at the beginning (of the government). She is also a very organized worker and these virtues have made her rise step by step,” agrees a member of the La Moncloa engine room.
Before working in the Prime Minister’s Office, Abaresi held the second position as Chief/Minister Counselor of the Spanish Embassy in Tripoli (Libya), with its temporary headquarters in Tunisia. Previously, she was an advisory member of the Cabinet of Ministers of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation during the Rajoy government between October 2014 and July 2017, first with José Manuel García Margallo as Minister and later with Alfonso Dastis. For the past two years, she has spent her time as Deputy Assistant Director-General of the United Nations.
Aparesi was appointed to the Permanent Mission of Spain to the United Nations in New York from 2007 to 2012, during the term of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero in La Moncloa. Before that, he worked in that government in the Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and in the Directorate General of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs during the era of Miguel Ángel Moratinos.