# Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations

The Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations, currently named Secretary of State for Territorial Policy is the highest official of the Ministry of Territorial Policy responsible for the development of the Government's policy about Spain's territorial organization as well as responsible for the relations between the central government and the regional and local authorities.
It's also responsible for the supervision of the decentralized departments of the central government in the regions and impulse and coordination of the Conference of Presidents (the main forum of collaboration between the Prime Minister and the regional leaders), as well as the Presidency of the Council of Official Languages in the General Administration of the State.
Directly from the Secretary of State depends the Secretary General for Territorial Coordination.

## History

The need to create a department focused on the coordination of the different state administrations appeared after the approval of the Constitution, which established a decentralized state composed of different autonomous communities. Given this, the Ministry of Territorial Administration was created in 1979 and was in force until the end of 1986.
In 1987, the Ministry of Public Administrations was created, which assumed the powers over the civil servants and the territorial organization, creating a Secretariat of State focused on the relations of the different administrations called the Secretary of State for Territorial Administrations.
In 2000, the Secretariat of State changed its name to Secretariat of State for the Territorial Organization of the State and changed its name again in 2004 to Secretariat of State of Territorial Cooperation until 2011 when PM Rajoy in an effort to reduce the deficit of the State, reduced the governmental apparatus integrating this Secretariat of State in the Secretariat of State for Public Administrations (in charge of the civil servants and now also of the relations between administrations) and the Ministry of Public Administrations also merged with the Ministry of the Treasury.
In 2016, with the economical improvement, the Secretariats of State of Public Function and Territorial Administration were separated again and the latest was integrated with its Ministry in the Ministry of the Presidency.
Since 2018, the Ministry for Territorial Administrations recovered its independence and was renamed Ministry for Territorial Policy and Public Function (taking the competencies over the civil servants from the Ministry of the Treasury). Briefly, from 2020 to 2021 the Secretariat of State assumed all the competences about civil service.

## Structure

Under the Secretary of State are the following officials:
* The Secretary General for Territorial Coordination
** The Director-General for Regional and Local Cooperation
*** The Deputy Director-General for Regional Cooperation
*** The Deputy Director-General for Bilateral Relations with the Autonomous Communities
*** The Deputy Director-General for Local Cooperation
** The Director-General for Regional and Local Legal Regime
*** The Deputy Director-General for the Autonomous Legal System
*** The Deputy Director-General for the Local Legal System
*** The National Coordinator of the Internal Market Information System
** The Director-General for the General State Administration in the Territory
*** The Deputy Director-General for Institutional Relations of the General State Administration in the Territory
*** The Deputy Director-General for the Coordination of the General State Administration in the Territory
*** The Deputy Director-General for Human Resources of the General State Administration in the Territory
*** The Deputy Director-General for Financial and Properties Management of the General State Administration in the Territory
*** The Inspectorate of Services of the General State Administration in the Territory

## List of secretaries of state

| No. | Image | Name | Term of office | Term of office | Term of office | Ministers serving under: | Prime Minister appointed by: |
| No. | Image | Name | Began | Ended | Days of service | Ministers serving under: | Prime Minister appointed by: |
| 1º | | José Francisco Peña Díez | 28 February 1987 | 11 May 1996 | 3360 | Joaquín Almunia AmannJuan Manuel EguiagarayJerónimo SaavedraJoan Lerma i Blasco | Felipe González |
| 2º | | Jorge Fernández Díaz | 11 May 1996 | 23 January 1999 | 987 | Mariano Rajoy | José María Aznar |
| 3º | | Francisco Camps | 23 January 1999 | 1 April 2000 | 434 | Ángel Acebes Paniagua | José María Aznar |
| 4º | | Gabriel Elorriaga Pisarik | 6 May 2000 | 20 April 2004 | 1445 | Ángel Acebes PaniaguaJesús PosadaJavier ArenasJulia García-Valdecasas | José María Aznar |
| 5º | | José Luis Méndez Romeu | 20 April 2004 | 14 May 2005 | 389 | Jordi Sevilla | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
| 6º | | Ana Isabel Leiva Díaz | 14 May 2005 | 14 July 2007 | 791 | Jordi Sevilla | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
| 7º | | Fernando Puig de la Bellacasa | 14 July 2007 | 25 April 2009 | 651 | Elena Salgado | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
| 8º | | Gaspar Zarrías | 25 April 2009 | 24 December 2011 | 973 | Manuel Chaves González | José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero |
| 9º | | Antonio Beteta | 24 December 2011 | 12 November 2016 | 1785 | Cristóbal Montoro | Mariano Rajoy |
| 10º | | Roberto Bermúdez de Castro Mur | 19 November 2016 | 19 June 2018 | 577 | Soraya Sáenz de Santamaría | Mariano Rajoy |
| 11º | | Ignacio Sánchez Amor | 23 June 2018 | 29 June 2019 | 371 | Meritxell Batet | Pedro Sánchez |
| - | | Miryam Álvarez Páez Acting | 29 June 2019 | 30 January 2020 | 215 | Luis Planas | Pedro Sánchez |
| 12º | | Francisco Hernández Spínola | 30 January 2020 | 3 February 2021 | 370 | Carolina Darias | Pedro Sánchez |
| - | | Miryam Álvarez Páez Acting | 3 February 2021 | 24 February 2021 | 21 | Miquel Iceta | Pedro Sánchez |
| 13º | | Víctor Francos Díaz | 24 February 2021 | 21 July 2021 | 147 | Miquel Iceta | Pedro Sánchez |
| - | | Miryam Álvarez Páez Acting | 21 July 2021 | 1 September 2021 | 42 | Isabel Rodríguez García | Pedro Sánchez |
| 14º | | Alfredo González Gómez | 1 September 2021 | 6 December 2023 | 826 | Isabel Rodríguez García | Pedro Sánchez |
| 15º | | Arcadi España García | 6 December 2023 | Incumbent | 284 | Ángel Víctor Torres | Pedro Sánchez |