An Irishman (the former Commissioner for Agriculture, Phil Hogan), an Italian (the Deputy Director-General of the FAO, Maurizio Martina) and a Spaniard (the Minister of Agriculture, Luis Planas) are competing for the position of Director-General of the FAO, the main Agriculture and Food agency of the United Nations. Therefore, to symbolize the union of Europe, during the past Cypriot presidency, an unsuccessful attempt was made to work towards a single, solid and strong European candidacy for the election in June 2027, according to sources from the Ministry of Agriculture.
The same sources assure that Ireland (a country presiding over the EU during the second half of 2026) has declared its neutrality in this race for the FAO leadership because it also presents a candidate and, as the future Lithuanian presidency (in January 2027) will leave little room for maneuver regarding the vote, Minister Planas wants to propose a "gentlemen's agreement".
From the Ministry of Agriculture of Spain, the proposal is launched that, if the objective of the European Union is to have a Director-General at the FAO (something that has not been achieved for 50 years), the European candidates with the fewest votes after the first round can withdraw and thus support the one or those who remain in better positions.
Moratinos' Experience
The first time a Spaniard ran for the directorship-general of the FAO was in 2011, when the then former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Miguel Ángel Moratinos, fell just a few votes short of achieving it. Precisely, two of those few votes were from European Union states, which turned their backs on the Spanish candidate, favoring the election of the Brazilian Graziano Da Silva.
Hence Planas' interest in establishing a "gentlemen's agreement" among the member states to support the candidate(s) from the 27.
In political and international terms, there are voices questioning whether the European Union, with a conservative majority, can support a Spanish candidacy defended by the president of the Socialist International, Pedro Sánchez.
Spain, a Model for the World
Since the mandate of the Dutchman Addeke Hendrik Boerma at the head of the FAO ended in 1975, no European has held the position, and the international organization responsible for reducing hunger in the world has been led by representatives from other regions such as Lebanon, Senegal, Brazil, or China.
According to ministerial sources, Spain's candidacy offers multilateralism as a tool to effectively combat malnutrition in the world, an objective that is not achieved more due to war and political conflicts than to the existence of food.
In fact, Planas's team presents Spain as a model of success in the agri-food sector, as in recent decades it has become the fourth largest food producer in the European Union and the eighth in the world.
Likewise, the minister also offers his long and consolidated professional experience in the agricultural sector, as after being, on two occasions, Minister of Agriculture of Andalusia (for two very brief periods of around one year) he is currently the second Minister of Agriculture to have served the longest in office in Spain, (surpassed, by only two months as of the date of this article, by Carlos Romero during Felipe González's era).
Planas knows North Africa well from his time as ambassador to Morocco, as well as the European Union, where he has worked intermittently for different periods.
Therefore, the team of the current Minister of Agriculture is confident that his knowledge of the primary sector, his experience as a senior official and ambassador, along with his consensus-building attitude are excellent assets for his candidacy for the FAO.
The spanner in the works
However, all these virtues may be conditioned by an external factor: Spain already has a representative at the head of one of the UN's international Agriculture and Food organizations, Álvaro Lario, who is the current president of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD.
As Luis Planas well knows, in diplomacy there are many elementary rules that are not written, and having two Spaniards at the head of two world entities that are also closely related could seem strange, although not impossible.
At 73 years old, the Spanish candidate presents a very consolidated career. In addition to the three Europeans, so far the Turkish Mehmet Mehdi Eker; the Angolan Josefa Sacko and a representative from Uganda have presented themselves to run for the position of FAO Director.