As Secretary General, María Elorza Zubiría is responsible for planning and promoting Basque Government external action and coordinating delegations. Her main mission is to provide support and advice to the Basque government on external action; organise missions of foreign personalities in the Basque Country as well as of the Basque authorities abroad. She also drives development of cross-border and interregional cooperation relations. She also maintains relations between the Basque government with international organisations and consular corps. She specialised in commercial management of exports and international marketing at specialisation course organised in 1992 by the Department of Commerce, Consumption and Tourism of the Basque Government in collaboration with the University of the Basque Country. She holds a European Higher Studies Diploma in economics and management, from the European University Centre of Nancy, France; a Diploma of European Studies from the Institute of European Studies of the Catholic University of Louvain, Belgium; and a degree in economics and business sciences, business branch, financial specialisation from the University of the Basque Country.