Although she had no professional experience outside her political party, Pajín was chosen to serve as the Secretary of State for International Cooperation and the President of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) from 2004 to 2008 in the first Zapatero government.

[1] From 2007, she was a member of the World Bank Group’s High Level Advisory Council on Women's Economic Empowerment, which was chaired by Danny Leipziger and Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul.

[2] After briefly serving as Minister for Health, Social Policy and Equality in 2010/11,[3] Pajín remained deputy for Alicante.

In July 2012 Pajín announced that she would temporarily quit politics and consequently her seat in the Chamber of Deputies.

In addition to her committee assignments, she is part of the parliament’s delegations to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly and for relations with the countries of the Andean Community.