On it’s 20th birthday as a key EU member state, Spain celebrates the European identity and looks ahead with confidence in the Peninsula’s potential to be “Everything Under The Sun”

By John Dough

In 1986, the Kingdom of Spain lived a historic moment, becoming a full member of what was then known as the European Community. The formal incorporation of the Iberian Peninsula into the larger European context was seen as the beginning an era, and now, twenty years down the line, the transformation of the country’s economy into one of the EU’s strongest is an undeniable reality.

Today’s Spain can barely recognize the timid peninsula that emerged from the Franco regime thirty years ago to become a role model for the evolution of the old Europe into a democratic, single-currency union of 300 million citizens. Despite the country’s complex identity issue, Spain’s European vocation has been steadfast with the single currency and the recent European Constitution, approved by popular vote last year. The European identity has been seamlessly incorporated, and the growing weight of Spanish key-sector companies in the larger EU context is a case in point: modern Spain feels comfortable in Europe, because in a very real sense, it grew up there. The Secretary of State for the Economy, Mr. David Vergara, makes a point of not forgetting the vital contribution of the European Funds. “It is the Europeans who have allowed Spain to build the structures of a modern economy,” he says.

Following a period of EU-entry reforms, the Spanish economy began revving up it’s engines for a growth run that has been on track for ten years and counting. Last year marked new milestones in economic growth, outperforming the majority of EU members despite the inflation hike brought on by rising oil prices. According to the IMF, Spain’s GDP growth reached 3.4 percent in 2005, and is expected to reach 3.25 percent in 2006, more than twice the median EU-25 growth rate of 1.5 percent. At the same time, average income in Spain rose to 98 percent parity with the EU-25 median, while the country’s historic unemployment rates reached a 26-year low at 8.7 percent. In fact, Spain generated 6 out of every 10 new jobs in the entire EU zone last year, and became one of a few countries in the world to run a budget surplus.

In 1986, the Kingdom of Spain lived a historic moment, becoming a full member of what was then known as the European Community. The formal incorporation of the Iberian Peninsula into the larger European context was seen as the beginning an era, and now, twenty years down the line, the transformation of the country’s economy into one of the EU’s strongest is an undeniable reality. Today’s Spain can barely recognize the timid peninsula that emerged from the Franco regime thirty years ago to become a role model for the evolution of the old Europe into a democratic, single-currency union of 300 million citizens. Despite the country’s complex identity issue, Spain’s European vocation has been steadfast with the single currency and the recent European Constitution, approved by popular vote last year. The European identity has been seamlessly incorporated, and the growing weight of Spanish key-sector companies in the larger EU context is a case in point: modern Spain feels comfortable in Europe, because in a very real sense, it grew up there. The Secretary of State for the Economy, Mr. David Vergara, makes a point of not forgetting the vital contribution of the European Funds. “It is the Europeans who have allowed Spain to build the structures of a modern economy,” he says.

Following a period of EU-entry reforms, the Spanish economy began revving up it’s engines for a growth run that has been on track for ten years and counting. Last year marked new milestones in economic growth, outperforming the majority of EU members despite the inflation hike brought on by rising oil prices. According to the IMF, Spain’s GDP growth reached 3.4 percent in 2005, and is expected to reach 3.25 percent in 2006, more than twice the median EU-25 growth rate of 1.5 percent. At the same time, average income in Spain rose to 98 percent parity with the EU-25 median, while the country’s historic unemployment rates reached a 26-year low at 8.7 percent. In fact, Spain generated 6 out of every 10 new jobs in the entire EU zone last year, and became one of a few countries in the world to run a budget surplus.