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Entry Year in EU: |
1986 |
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Seats: |
54 |
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Seats Percentage of EU: |
7.4 |
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Votes: |
27 |
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Votes Percentage
of EU: |
8.4 |
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Population: |
40.2 |
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Population Percentage of EU: |
8.8 |
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Area: |
504782 |
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Area Percentage
of EU: |
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Density: |
80 |
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Budget Contribution: |
8957286488 |
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Budget Contribution of EU: |
8.51 |
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GDP: |
1081332 |
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GDP Capita: |
26009 |
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GDP Nominal: |
28012 |
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Spain
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Spain, officially the Kingdom of Spain (Spanish: Reino de España, unofficially in Galician: Reino de España; Catalan: Regne d'Espanya; Basque: Espainiako Erresuma; Occitan: Regne d'Espanha), is the largest of the three sovereign nations that make up the Iberian Peninsula—the others are Portugal and Andorra—located in Southern Europe. To the west and to the south of Galicia, Spain borders Portugal. To the south, it borders Gibraltar and, through its cities in North Africa (Ceuta and Melilla), Morocco. To the northeast, along the Pyrenees mountain range, it borders France and the tiny principality of Andorra. |
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History
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The indigenous peoples of the Iberian peninsula, consisting of a number of separate tribes, are given the generic name of Iberians. This may have included the Basques, as one of the pre-Celtic people. The most important culture of this period is that of the city of Tartessos. Beginning in the 8th century BCE, Celtic tribes entered the Iberian peninsula through the Pyrenees and settled throughout the peninsula, becoming the Celtiberians. The seafaring Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians successively settled along the Mediterranean coast and founded trading colonies there over a period of several centuries.
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Politics
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Spain is a parliamentary monarchy, with a hereditary monarch and a bicameral parliament, the Cortes Generales. The executive branch consists of a Council of Ministers presided over by the President of Government (comparable to a prime minister), proposed by the monarch and elected by the National Assembly following legislative elections.
The legislative branch is made up of the Congress of Deputies (Congreso de los Diputados) with 350 members, elected by popular vote on block lists by proportional representation to serve four-year terms, and a Senate or Senado with 259 seats of which 208 are directly elected by popular vote and the other 51 appointed by the regional legislatures to also serve four-year terms.
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Administrative divisions
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Spain consists of 17 autonomous communities (comunidades autónomas) and 2 autonomous cities (ciudades autónomas; Ceuta and Melilla).
Andalusia (Andalucía)
Aragon (Aragón)
Principality of Asturias (Principáu d'Asturies in Asturian/Principado de Asturias in Spanish)
Balearic Islands (Illes Balears in Catalan / Islas Baleares in Spanish)
Basque Country (Euskadi in Basque/País Vasco in Spanish)
Canary Islands (Islas Canarias)
Cantabria
Castile-La Mancha (Castilla-La Mancha)
Castile and Leon (Castilla y León'' in Spanish/Castiella y Llión in Leonese)
Catalonia (Catalunya in Catalan/Cataluña in Spanish/ Catalunha in Aranese)
Extremadura
Galicia (Galiza in Galician/Galicia in Spanish)
La Rioja
Madrid
Murcia (Región de Murcia)
Navarre (Nafarroa in Basque/Navarra in Spanish)
Land of Valencia (Comunitat Valenciana in Valencian /Comunidad Valenciana in Spanish, as official denominations).
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Geography
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Mainland Spain is dominated by high plateaus and mountain ranges such as the Pyrenees or the Sierra Nevada. Running from these heights are several major rivers such as the Tajo, the Ebro, the Duero, the Guadiana and the Guadalquivir. Alluvial plains are found along the coast, the largest of which is that of the Guadalquivir in Andalusia, in the east there are alluvial plains with medium rivers like Segura, Júcar and Turia. Spain is bound to the east by Mediterranean Sea (containing the Balearic Islands), to the north by the Bay of Biscay and to its west by the Atlantic Ocean, where the Canary Islands off the African coast are found.
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Economy
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Spain's mixed economy supports a GDP that on a per capita basis is 87% that of the four leading West European economies. The centre-right government of former Prime Minister Aznar worked to gain admission to the first group of countries launching the European single currency, the euro, on 1 January 1999. The Aznar administration continued to advocate liberalization, privatisation, and deregulation of the economy and introduced some tax reforms to that end. Unemployment fell steadily under the Aznar and Zapatero administration. It now is 8.7% (December 2005). Though still unacceptably high, this level of unemployment compares favorably to rates of 20% and above in the early 1990s. Growth of 2.4% in 2003 was satisfactory given the background of a faltering European economy, and has steadied since at an annualized rate of about 3.3% in mid 2005 and 3.5% in the first quarter of 2006. There is a widespread concern, however, that the growth is too concentrated upon a few sectors. |
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Demographics
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The Spanish Constitution, although affirming the sovereignty of the Spanish Nation, recognizes historical nationalities.
The Castilian (called both español and castellano in the language itself) is the official language throughout Spain, but other regional languages are also spoken. Without mentioning them by name, the Spanish Constitution recognizes the possibility of regional languages being co-official in their respective autonomous communities. The following languages are co-official with Spanish according to the appropriate Autonomy Statutes.
Catalan (català) in Catalonia (Catalunya), the Balearic Islands (Illes Balears), parts of Valencia (València) (as Valencian)
Basque (euskara) in Basque Country (Euskadi), and parts of Navarre (Nafarroa). Basque is not known to be related to any other language.
Galician (galego) in Galicia (Galicia or Galiza).
Occitan (the Aranese dialect). Spoken in the Val d'Aran in Catalonia.
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Identities
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The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities," a carefully chosen word in order to avoid "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation.
But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different regional identities, some of them even conflicting.
Castile is considered by many to be the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros) in 1518–1520.
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Minority groups
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Since the 16th century, the most important minority group in the country (though not the biggest in number) have been the Gitanos, a Roma group. Other historical minorities are Mercheros (or Quinquis).
There's also a very reduced number of guanche people, the original natives of the Canary Islands (a Spaniard insular region located off the northwestern African coast).
The number of immigrants or foreign residents has tripled to 3,691,547 (not including the 2nd nor 3rd generations of descendents of these inmigrants, who were already born in Spain and are holders of the Spaniard nationality)in less than ten years, according the latest figures (2005) of National Statics Institute. They currently make up around 8.5 % of the official total population. The rise of population in Spain in recent years was largely due to them. Nearly half of all immigrants have neither residence nor work permits.
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Religion
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Roman Catholicism is the most popular religion in the country. According to several sources (CIA World Fact Book 2005, Spanish official polls and others), from 80% to 94% self-identify as Catholics, whereas around 6% to 13% identify with either other religions or none at all. Spain is also the location of one of the Roman Catholic church's important holy cities; Santiago de Compostela. It is important to note, however, that many Spaniards identify themselves as Catholics just because they were baptised, even though they are not very religious at all (in fact some polls show that 14% do not believe in any God). According to recent surveys (New York Times, April 19, 2005) only around 18% of Spaniards regularly attend Mass. Of those under 30, only about 14% attend.
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