http://revista.ieee.es/index.php/ieee 326 Journal of the Spanish Institute for Strategic Studies Núm. 8 / 2016 government of the state in which they will take place, nor authorised by the Security Council given the opposition thereto by a permanent member. This conflict in values, linked to the so-called responsibility to protect, can only be resolved politically and on a case-by-case basis, bearing in mind the open regulation created by the 2005 Organic National Defence Act on authorisation for missions by the Cortes Generales»26. Based on the above-mentioned RIE report, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation presented the Spanish External Action Strategy in February 2015 that had been approved by the Council of Ministers at their meeting on the 26 December 2014 in accordance with the State External Action and Service Act. Under the title of «United Nations», this new document makes direct reference to the responsibility to protect in considering that the reform of the instruments of preventive diplomacy involve the development of this concept. A second issue to which the document refers is the reform of the Security Council in order to achieve better balance and representa-tiveness. While Spain’s proposals for reform do not include an increase in the number of permanent members or the possibility of extending the right of veto to other mem-bers, they do include the possibility of limiting the use of this right: «(…) in certain situations such as atrocity crimes, promoting the obligation to justify motives and increasing the number of vetoes necessary to block a decision»27. THE RESPONSIBILITY TO PROTECT, ONE OF SPAIN’S PRIORITIES AS A NON-PERMANENT MEMBER OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL As a result of the 2014 presentation of Spain’s candidacy to serve as a non-perma-nent member of the Security Council for the 2015-2016 period, the Spanish govern-ment presented a programme of the action lines that the Spanish delegation would follow as a member of this body. Among the thematic action lines suggested in the document, in addition to strengthening preventive diplomacy in the Security Council to deal with crises through early warning systems and mediation, the following was also clearly stated: «We will defend and promote the effective implementation of the Responsibility to Protect, fulfilling the collective responsibility, as stated in the 2005 World 26 «Hacia una renovación estratégica de la política exterior española. Elementos para conectar me-jor el proyecto colectivo de país con el mundo globalizado», op. cit., p. 64. 27 External Action Strategy of February 2015, approved by the Council of Ministers at their meet-ing on the 26 December 2014, in accordance with the State External Action and Service Act, <http:// www.exteriores.gob.es/Portal/es/SalaDePrensa/Multimedia/Publicaciones/Documents/ESTRATEGIA%20DE%20 ACCION%20EXTERIOR%20castellano.pdf>, Consulted: 8 January 2016.
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