| Agency Name: | Cabinet Office |
| Native Name: | Gabinete de la Presidencia del Gobierno |
| Type: | Department |
| Picture Caption: | Seeds Building, Moncloa, Madrid |
| Preceding1: | Ministry of the Presidency |
| Jurisdiction: | Spain |
| Headquarters: | Palace of Moncloa, Madrid |
| Minister1 Name: | TMH Pedro Sánchez |
| Minister1 Pfo: | Prime Minister |
| Minister2 Name: | Óscar López Águeda |
| Chief1 Name: | Antonio Hernando |
| Chief1 Position: | Deputy Chief of Staff |
| Chief2 Name: | Francisco Martín |
| Chief2 Position: | Secretary-General |
The Cabinet of the Prime Minister's Office, officially Cabinet of the Presidency of the Government, is a political and technical assistance body at the service of the Prime Minister of Spain. The Cabinet of the Prime Minister is composed of multiple departments directly responsible to the Premier and coordinated by the Chief of Staff. The Cabinet Office, the officials that work on it, their offices and the departments make up the Office of the Prime Minister.
The functions of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister's Office are freely established by the Prime Minister through a Royal Decree signed by the Monarch. The duties of the Cabinet Office are focused on assisting the chief executive while most responsibilities over Government coordination and Council of Ministers assistance are assumed by the Ministry of the Presidency.
The current duties are:[1]
It is also responsible for the security of the Prime Minister and the Minister of the Presidency and their families, protocol, human resources and Government healthcare, although this duties are carried out by the Secretary-General of the Prime Minister's Office.
The Cabinet was created for the first time in 1976, with the arrival of Adolfo Suárez to the premiership. Despite having been created in 1976, the Cabinet Office wasn't officially regulated until September 1978. The Royal Decree was very short and it only said that the Cabinet was and advisory body to the Prime Minister with the functions that the Primer would like to grant to it.[2]
With prime minister Felipe González[3] the Cabinet Office grow up establishing new departments and functions like knowing the ministerial departments plans. Moreover, at this time the Secretary of State for Relations with the Cortes and the Office of the Spokesperson of the Government depended it from the Cabinet Office.[4]
Prime minister José María Aznar elevated the rank of the Cabinet Office from Undersecretariat to Secretariat of State and continued boosting the Cabinet. Prime minister José Luis Rodrígez Zapatero didn't made many changes, with the exception of the creation of the Economic Office.
It was during the premiership of Mariano Rajoy when the Cabinet Office was granted with the powers that it has today. Most of the current departments were created at that time and in 2012 it granted the Cabinet responsibilities over national security by creating the Department of Homeland Security and granting the Deputy Chief of Staff the direction of the department. With Rajoy the Cabinet Office also received responsibilities over the Government communication policy by assuming the Secretariat of State for Press.
Prime minister Pedro Sánchez suppressed the Economic Office in 2018 and created in its place the Department for Economic Affairs. He also boosted the international matters by creating the General Secretariat for International Affairs, European Union, G20 and Global Security with rank of Undersecretariat in replace of the Department for International Affairs, that had rank of Directorate-General. Finally, he gave more autonomy to the Department of National Security by separating the offices of Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of the Homeland Security Department in two different officials.[5]
The high-officials of the Cabinet are directly nominated by the Prime Minister and appointed by the Monarch.
| Official | Office | Portfolio | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Óscar López Águeda | Chief of Staff | With rank of Secretary of State, the Chief of Staff is responsible for supervising and coordinating all the departments of the Cabinet Office and it is the main adviser to the Prime Minister over political matters. In general, it is in charge of exercising the functions entrusted to the Cabinet Office. | |
| Judit Alexandra González Pedraz | Secretary-General | Prime Minister agenda; security; protocol; Cabinet Office domestic tasks such as HR, media, finance, health, etc. It has rank of Under-Secretary. | |
| Antonio Hernando | Deputy Chief of Staff | Exercising the functions that the Chief of Staff entrust to; helping with the coordination of the Cabinet Office. It has rank of Under-Secretary. | |
| Francisco José Salazar Rodríguez | Secretary-General for Political Planning | Assisting the Prime Minister on political planning. It has rank of Under-Secretary. | |
| Diego Rubio Rodríguez | Secretary-General of Public Policies, European Affairs and Strategic Foresight | Assisting the Prime Minister on the design and implementation of national and European public policies, to promote coordination between ministries to guarantee the comprehensive coherence of government action, to advise the Prime Minister on matters related to the European Union and bilateral relations with European countries, to provide the Prime Minister with the necessary information to exercise his participation in the European Council, carrying out the analysis and monitoring of the programs and actions of the European Union and to analyze the challenges and opportunities of Spain in the coming years and help the country prepare for them. It has rank of Under-Secretary. | |
| Emma Aparici Vázquez de Parga | Secretary-General for Foreign Affairs | Responsible for advicing and assisting the Prime Minister in matters related to his international activity, foreign relations, multilateral and global affairs. Likewise, it is in charge of the preparation and monitoring of international summits and meetings in which the Prime Minister participates. It has rank of Under-Secretary. | |
| Loreto Gutiérrez Hurtado (BG) | Director of the National Security Department | Advising the Prime Minister on National Security matters; Assisting the National Security Council; Government communications; Keeping the bunker of the Palace running and in good condition. It has rank of Director-General. | |
| Director of the Cultural Affairs Department | It assists the director of the Cabinet in his advisory duties to the Prime Minister regarding cultural affairs. |
The current Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez structured its personal Cabinet in the following way:
See main article: Moncloa Chief of Staff. The Office of the Chief of Staff is composed by the Moncloa Chief of Staff and its advisers.
The Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff is composed by the Deputy Chief of Staff and four departments:
Led by the Secretary-General of the Prime Minister's Office, the General Secretariat duties are:
The General Secretariat is composed by three departments:
Because they share assistance duties to the Prime Minister, both Secretary-General and Undersecretary of the Presidency coordinate together their work.
The General Secretariat for Political Planning carries out advisory, support and reinforcement functions in the development of the Government's political program.
The General Secretariat is composed by one department:
The General Secretariat for Public Policies, European Affairs and Strategic Foresight assists the Prime Minister on the design and implementation of national and European public policies, it promotes coordination between ministries to guarantee the comprehensive coherence of government action, it advises the Prime Minister on matters related to the European Union and bilateral relations with European countries, it provides the Prime Minister with the necessary information to exercise his participation in the European Council, it carries out the analysis and monitoring of the programs and actions of the European Union and it is entrusted with the analysis of the challenges and opportunities of Spain in the coming years and help the country prepare for them. It has rank of Under-Secretary.
It is composed of three departments:
It is the responsibility of the General Secretariat for Foreign Affairs, within the scope of the functions assigned to the Prime Minister's Cabinet, to provide advice, support and assistance to the Prime Minister in matters related to its international activity, foreign relations and multilateral and global affairs.
It is composed by a single department:
See main article: Department of Homeland Security (Spain).
The Department of Homeland Security or Department of National Security, created in 2012 and regulated by the National Security Act of 2015,[6] is the department of the Cabinet Office responsible for collecting and analysing information of interest for national security and advising the Prime Minister on such matters.
The Director of the Department was, until 2018, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Cabinet. The director is a member of the National Security Council along with the Chief of Staff.
The headquarters of the department are located in the bunker of the Palace of Moncloa.