De la Rocha, elevated to Secretary of State for Economic Affairs and G-20

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, decided this Tuesday that Manuel De la Rocha will repeat as head of the Economic Office and G-20. The novelty is that he will do so with the rank of Secretary of State. Thus, in accordance with the Royal Decree approving the structure of the Presidency of the Government, published in the BOE, Manuel de la Rocha – who in the last legislature held the position of Secretary General of Economic Affairs and G-20 – will be in charge of the new Office and will perform the functions of Secretary of State.

Among its functions will be the coordination of the areas of its competence and the departments and units assigned to it and, in particular, the advice and technical and political support to the President of the Government on matters related to economic policy. In addition, it seeks to improve its “mediation” function between ministries in the economic area.

The head of the Office of Economic Affairs and G-20 She will be the special envoy of the President of the Government to the meetings that take place at that level of special envoys in the G-20.. The Office of Economic Affairs and G-20 will have a Department of Strategic Projects and Sectoral Policies, whose head will have the rank of general director and to which a Strategic Projects Unit will depend, with the rank of Deputy Director General.

Likewise, the Office of Economic Affairs and G-20 It will have several units, with the rank of General Subdirectorate: Macroeconomic and Labor Policies Unit; International Economy and G-20 Unit and Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan Monitoring Unit.

De la Rocha, degree in Business from the Autonomous University of Madrid, master’s degree in Latin American Studies from the Complutense of Madrid and a master’s degree in Economic Policy from Columbia University, he has worked in the European Commission, the World Bank and different Spanish public organizations. He came to the Government of Pedro Sánchez in 2018, as director of the department that now becomes the Secretary of State. In addition, he was Secretary of Economy of the PSOE between 2014 and 2016.

Besides, David Lucas, former Secretary of State for Transport, will be the new Secretary of State for Housing and Urban Agenda in the recently inaugurated ministry of the branch led by Isabel Rodríguez, according to government sources. Together with Lucas, Rodríguez proposed Llanos Castellanos as undersecretary of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Agenda, and maintains Iñaqui Carnicero in the General Secretariat of Urban Agenda, Housing and Architecture. All appointments were approved yesterday at the meeting of the Council of Ministers.

David Lucas He will thus go from being ‘number two’ in the Ministry of Transport with Raquel Sánchez to leading the only Secretary of State of the Ministry of Housing, a competence that he also addressed as Secretary of State for Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda and General Secretary of Urban Agenda and Housing. In fact, the Government highlights that at that stage it was the one who “devised, promoted and negotiated” the Housing Law, the first of democracy.

At the same time, Lucas programmed the current Affordable Rental Housing Plan and during his time in the previous Ministry, the current State Housing Plan 2022-25 and the Young Rental Bonus were approved. Likewise, he negotiated Operation Camp. Lucas, former socialist mayor of Móstoles (Madrid, 1968) has a Doctor of Law from the Carlos III University of Madrid, specialized in State Public Law, and a master’s degree in Territorial and Urban Policy and Public Law from the aforementioned university.