Cablegate: Education Secretary Spellings Meets with Key

VZCZCXRO6478
PP RUEHAST
DE RUEHMD #1835/01 2011522
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 201522Z JUL 06
FM AMEMBASSY MADRID
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0305
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHLA/AMCONSUL BARCELONA 1984

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 MADRID 001835

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SENSITIVE
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DEPT PLEASE PASS DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
ECA -- TFARRELL

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL KPAO SCUL SP
SUBJECT: EDUCATION SECRETARY SPELLINGS MEETS WITH KEY
SPANISH LEADERS

REF: STATE 113838

MADRID 00001835 001.3 OF 002

1. (SBU) SUMMARY: During her June 29-July 2 visit to
Madrid, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings met with Vice
President de la Vega, Foreign Minister Moratinos, Education
Minister Cabrera, and Madrid Community President Esperanza
Aguirre. Vice President de la Vega emphasized the need for
continued and expanded educational interchange between Spain
and the U.S. She proposed a bilateral agreement to expand
either university exchanges or joint research and development
that could be signed by Secretary Rice during her anticipated
visit to Spain in the fall of 2006. FM Moratinos renewed
Spain's offer to fund both a hospital and a school in Iraq.
Secretary Spellings and Madrid Community President Aguirre

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discussed the No Child Left Behind Act, which Secretary
Spellings helped create in 2000. Aguirre said Madrid is
modeling its new education initiative after the U.S. program.
Education and Science Minister Cabrera proposed creation of
an EU education network to attract more American graduate and
beyond students and scientists to Europe. END SUMMARY.

2. (U) U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings paid
a four-day visit to Spain from June 29 to July 2. Secretary
Spellings met with several high-level Spanish leaders in
Madrid and shared views on the importance of research and
development programs at the University level. as well as the
No Child Left Behind Act. Spellings also met with Spanish
Fulbright students and faculty and spoke at a business
breakfast of the American Chamber of Commerce. She gave an
interview to Madrid's second leading daily El Mundo (circ:
408,000) in which she discussed the university system in the
U.S. and the No Child Left Behind Act.

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FM Moratinos
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3. (SBU) In a June 29 meeting with Foreign Minister Miguel
Angel Moratinos, Moratinos told Spellings that the GOS would
like to fund both a hospital and a school in Iraq. Moratinos
asked Spellings to work with Department and others to help
the GOS identify a specific school project. He made a
similar request to Ambassador Aguirre for details on a
hospital to fund. (NOTE: This offer was in response to a
request by S that Spain fund either a school or a hospital
during a June 19 meeting with Moratinos in Washington. Per
reftel, we have proposed and Moratinos has agreed to fund a
children's cancer hospital in Basrah. While the GOS has
agreed, the payment details have not been finalized. The GOS
has not made any announcement on the hospital, and Post
requests Department not announce the project until we
coordinate with the GOS. END NOTE.)

4. (U) Moratinos also emphasized Spain's desire for
US-Spain cooperation in educational development in North
Africa, acknowledging Secretary Spellings' leading role in
BMENA in this area. Moratinos proposed coordination between
a U.S. university in Ifran in Central Morocco and a new
university being launched under the auspices of the Spanish
and Moroccan monarchs called "The University of the Two
Kings" located in Northern Morocco. Secretary Spellings and
Ambassador Aguirre expressed gratitude for Spain,s desire to
work with the U.S. in these areas and undertook to develop
concrete ideas.

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VP de la Vega
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5. (SBU) Spellings met with Vice President Maria Teresa
Fernandez de la Vega on June 30. De la Vega began by noting
the recent meeting between Secretary Rice and FM Moratinos as
a sign of the improving bilateral relationship. De la Vega
proposed a bilateral agreement to expand either university
exchanges or joint research and development that could be
highlighted by Secretary Rice during her anticipated visit to
Spain in the fall of 2006. (NOTE: Post is developing several
ideas to share with the Department on these and related
issues such as IPR. END NOTE.) De la Vega emphasized the
need for continued and expanded educational interchange
between Spain and the U.S., and emphasized the "wonderful
partnerships" between Spanish and American universities that
already existed. Noting that her government's top education
priorities are student interchange and university-level
applied research and investigation, de la Vega put forward
the idea of establishing a bilateral team in the respective

MADRID 00001835 002.3 OF 002

Education ministries to work on improving the exchange of
students and teachers.

6. (SBU) De la Vega said she has always been impressed with
U.S. research programs and would like to improve Spanish
programs with help from the U.S, particularly in the
pharmaceutical field. De la Vega noted with regret that many
of Spain's best and brightest go to the U.S. to study.
Secretary Spellings replied that she had said the same thing

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about Spanish institutions earlier in the day. The
Ambassador noted that pharmaceutical research would be
difficult in Spain due to weaknesses in Spain's Intellectual
Property Rights laws which could impede patenting of new
discoveries. The Vice President denied that there are any
problems with Spain's current IPR laws.

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Esperanza Aguirre
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7. (U) Secretary Spellings' June 30 meeting with Esperanza
Aguirre, President of the Community of Madrid (equivalent to
a state governor in the U.S.), focused on the No Child Left
Behind Act. Esperanza Aguirre would like to send the
Community of Madrid's Director of Education to the U.S. to
consult with the Department of Education sometime in the near
future, noting that Madrid is currently working on an
education initiative modeled after the U.S. act. Secretary
Spellings said she would be happy to have her Department host
a Spanish visitor. Like VP de la Vega, Aguirre also was
concerned with the state of Spanish research institutions and
was committed to improving them.

8. (SBU) Ambassador asked Aguirre about the newly announced
ETA negotiations. Aguirre, a key leader in the Popular Party
which is vehemently opposed to negotiations with ETA,
expressed her deep concern about the Zapatero government's
ETA policy. She refuted any equation of the ETA situation
with the Northern Ireland peace process, saying that ETA
alone was the only party doing the killing. She expressed
her strong view that President Zapatero should not negotiate
until ETA had proven its disarmament, but she believes that
negotiations will eventually be possible.

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"Transatlantic Network of Knowledge"
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9. (U) Prior to her meeting with Minister of Education and
Science Mercedes Cabrera Calvo-Sotelo, Secretary Spellings
witnessed the signing of a letter of intention between
Ambassador Aguirre and Cabrera. This letter will promote the
strengthening of scientific research ties between the U.S.
and Spain. Cabrera and FM Moratinos are working together on
a Spanish initiative to create a "Transatlantic Network of
Knowledge" that Moratinos said is "a proposal to engage the
USA in the education and scientific system of the EU." While
still in the brainstorming phase, the intent of this plan is
to create an education and scientific network within the EU
that would attract American graduate, post-graduate and
post-doctoral students and scientists to Europe. Secretary
Spellings expressed interest in the idea.

10. (U) Secretary Spellings cleared this message.
AGUIRRE

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