Capital: Madrid
Population: 45 million
Monetary unit: 1 euro (€) = 100 cents
Major language: Spanish
Major religion: Christianity
Life expectancy: 76 years (men), 83 years (women)
International dialing code: +34
Internet domain: .es

State name: Reino de Espana – Kingdom of Spain
Government: Parliamentary monarchy
Topography: In the Northwest and North the Atlantic, Northeast France and Andorra, in the East and South the Mediterranean sea, in the South Gibraltar, Southwest the Atlantic, West Portugal.
Population: Spanish 93,7% (11-17% Catalonian, 4-6% Galician, 3% Basque, 1%) Colombian 0,6%, Ecuadorian and Moroccan each 0,9%, British and German 0,3%.
Regligion: Mainly Roman Catholic, protestant, jewish and muslim minorities.
Demonym: Spanish, Spaniard.
National Holidays: 12. October National Day (Día de la Hispanidad)
International Organisations: UNO and custom UN Organisations, NATO, EU, WEU, OECD, Council of Europe, WTO.

Property: Spain covers with the Balearic and Canary Islands as well as the enclaves Ceuta and Melilla about 85% of the Iberian peninsula. The Country has a total mainland length of 4.872 km and a coastline length of 7.883 km (Balearic Island 1.428 km; Canary Islands 1.583 km), it is flown by rivers, has high dividing mountains (Cantabria Mountains), a dry high-area (Meseta), in the East-West direction mountain chains (Castilla Mountains). The Pyrenee forms the 720 km long North East border to France and Andorra. The andalusian Sierra Nevada exhibits with the highest mountain of the peninsula Mulhacen (3.478 m) the southernmost skiing area of Europe. Largest mountain in Spain is with 3.718 m the “Pico del Teide” on the Canary Island Tenerife.
Climate: In the North and Northwest, temperate oceanic climate with frequent rains, mild winter and fresh summers is dominating. Two third of the Country are summer-dry areas with precipitations of 300 to 700 mm a year and continental climate. Almeria has a unique desert of Europe.
Area and Population: Total population counts 45.003.660 people on 505.988 km² = 89,1 Pers./km². Capital Madrid has 3.183.120 inhabitants. Other larger cities Barcelona 1.606.180, Valencia 815.300, Sevilla 705.175, Zaragoza 665.390, Malaga 558.800, Murcia 423.725, Palma de Mallorca 390.970, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 390.970, Bilbao 350.270, Cordoba 326.190. Yearly population growth (2005-2010) 0,77%, Town population 76,7% (2005). Enclaves : Ceuta 75.845, Melilla 68.085.
Administration: The national territory is subdivided into 17 autonomous communities (Comunidades Autónomas), 50 provinces, 8.111 municipalities and the special areas Ceuta and Melilla. The autonomous communities (Comunidades Autónomas) have independent governments and elected parliaments, the Basque region and Catalonia have their own Police.
Autonomy status 1979: Basque region and Catalonia ; 1981: Galicia ; 1982: Andalusia, Asturia, Aragón, Canary Islands, Cantabria, Castilla-La Mancha, Murcia, Navarra, La Rioja, Valencia ; 1983: Extremadura, Léon, Madrid, Balearic Islands, Castilla.

Spain State and Government

Head of State: King JUAN CARLOS I., as the heir to the throne of General Francisco Franco, proclaimed as the King on the 22. November 1975.
Parliament: Two-chamber parliament “Las Cortes Generales” consisting of “Congreso de los Diputados” (350 Members) and the “Senado” (259 Members, 208 directly elected, 52 proclaimed by the Comunidades Autonomas); elected for a period of office of four years (last elections 14. March 2004).

President of the congress: Dr. Manuel Marin Gonzalez (PSOE)
President of the senate: Javier Rojo Garcia (PSOE)

Industry: In 2003, the industry sector held 18,7% of GDP shares (30,6% with building and construction industry) and employed 13,7% of total workforce. Important branches are the mining, automotive, shipbuilding, chemicals, steel and textile industry. In Catalonia the engineering, textile, metal and building sector are of high presence. Asturia and the Basque region are the centers of the mining and heavy industry due to their large volume of raw materials. Chemical Industry is concentrated on the andalusian Huelva and the catalonian Tarragona. Large significance has the mobile vehicle industry, Spain holds with 3 Million automobiles and other commercial vehicles the worldwide sixth rank. Almost all international manufacturers have their production centers in Spain.

2003;Industrial production (2000=100): Consumer goods (102,0), Capital goods (92,5), Provisional products (101,4), Energy (106,9), Chemicals (108,0), Metals (99,6), Automobiles (97,4), Electrical machinery (86,6), Machinery (92,5).

Production of selected goods (2002): Automobiles (1.000 pieces): 2.313 ; Steel (1.000 tons): 16.409 ; Cement (1.000 tons): 42.388; Electricity (Million kWh): 209.640 ; Wine (1.000 hl): 39.419.

Energy Industry: Spain can cover its energy requirements to only approx 22% and is dependent on petroleum and natural gas imports. 56,6% of the primary energy is being produced of mineral oil, 17,0% of coal, 14,6% of natural gas, 12,8% of nuclear and 1,5% water-power.

Primary energy consumption (2002): 128.600 ktep; 28.375 ktep produced from domestic sources.
Electricity generation (2003): 223,9 Billion kWh.

*ktep = miles de toneladas equivalents al petroleo (is equal to 1.000 tons of mineral oil).

Raw materials: Spain has a large volume of raw materials which are copper, lead, manganese, tin, zinc, tungsten, bauxite, kaolin, marble, sulphur and phosphate. Hard coal is being processed in Asturia and Leon, brown coal in La Coruna as well as petroleum and potassium salt at Tarragona. The once world's largest mercury mine in Almaden (Ciudad Real) was closed in 2003; Iron ore extraction came almost to a standstill after 1996. Spain obliged towards the European Union to reduce the coal mining from 15 to 11 Million tons (1996-2005) and to lower the subsidies (2001: 1,12 Billion Euro) to 4% per annum.

Production (2001, in 1.000 tons): Crude oil 338 ; Hard coal 10.491 ; Brown coal 8.718 ; Iron ore 38 ; Salt 3.840 ; Copper 7,6 ; Lead 35,6 ; Zinc 165,6.

The PP government announced a traffic and infrastructure reform programme (Plan Nacional de Transportes e Infrastructure).

Road and Automotive: Spain has a total road network of 164.139 km, 24,641 km are national highways, 69.459 km roads of the independent communities and 70,039 km province roads. Freeways and expressways are counting a total of 11.406 km, 2.386 km of them are toll highways.

(2004; 18,73 Million automobiles ; 57.000 Million omnibusses ; 4,09 Million freight vehicles ; 1,52 Million motorbikes)

Railway: The railway net is almost broad gauge (1.674 mm) operated by the state controlled Red Nacional de los Ferrocarilles Espanoles (RENFE). The total railway network counts 11.817 km (6.469 km electrified, 2.894 km double-track) RENFE was splitted up because of the privatization progress, RENFE Operadora is the operator of the trains, ADIF (Administrador de Infraestructuras Ferroviarias) is responsible to the track network. All narrow gauges are operated by the state controlled Ferrocarriles de Via Estrecha (FEVE), the independent communities assumed some subnetworks.

Spain has special railways (1.435 mm) for high-speed trains AVE (Alta Velocidad Espanola): Madrid – Sevilla (481 km) Madrid – Barcelona (635 km).

Shipping: Navigation and coastal shipping are important for transportation. The atlantic coast in the northwest is rich of natural harbours. Spain`s merchant fleet counts 1.586 ships (2,37 Million GRT).

366,5 Million tons of freight was transferred in 2002 (Algericas 55,3 ; Valencia 33,0 ; Barcelona 33,0 ; Tarragona 29,7 ; Bilbao 26,3 ; Cartagena 22,1 ; Gijon 20,5 ; Las Palmas 18,4 ; Ituelva 18,3 ; Santa Cruz de Teneriffe 17,4).

Aviation: Spain has 48 airfields, 22 of them are ready for international flights. The most important airports are Madrid (Barajas), Barcelona, Palma de Mallorca, Malaga, Las Palmas and Tenerife-South. After the extension of the airport in Madrid (70 Million passengers), the Barcelona airport should be extended to a capacity of 40 Million passengers until 2020. The largest and most important airline company is the IBERIA (Lineas Aeras de Espana S.A), it transports about 25,6 Million passengers per year, has 26.200 employees, 153 planes and is flying to 136 destinations in 58 countries. Other independent airline companies are Air Europa, Air Madrid and Spanair, which are flying domestic and international destinations.

Tourism: Spain is worldwide on place two of tourism countries. The mediterranean coast and the Canary Isles are principal magnets of tourism. Most visited regions are Catalonia (22,5%), the Balearic Islands (18,3%), Andalusia (14,4%), Comunidad Valencia (9,5 %), the Canaries (20,3%) and Madrid (5,9%).

Revenues from Tourism were 36,871 Billion Euro, a total of 1,622 Million people were employed in the tourism sector in 2003. Over 70% of the visitors came by airplanes.
Visitors by Country: United Kingdom (16,1%), Germany (9,8%), France (7,7%), Italy (2,3%), Netherlands (2,3%), USA (0,9%).

Press: Spain has 132 dailies with a total circulation of 4,2 Million copies. Largest dailies are El Pais (founded 1976; 493.486 copies weekdays), El Mundo (1986; 365.484), ABC and La Razón (1998; 200.455). Edition strongest regional newspapers (Weekdays/Sundays): La Vanguardia (founded 1843; 224.758/334.710 copies), El Periódico de Catalunya (founded 1982; 210.620/280.956), El Correo (founded 1915; 137.886/191.630), La Voz de Galicia (founded 1822; 121.819/164.686), El Diario Vasco (founded 1918; 101.602/123.563).

Edition strongest sports magazines are Marca (founded 1881; 537.150/621.466 copies) and AS (founded 1967; 296.689/339.194).

Television and Radio: The state-owned broadcasting corporation group Radio Televisión Española (RTVE) contains Televisión Española (TVE) and radio station Radio Nacional de España
(RNE). Independent TV and Radio stations are being broadcasted by Red Técnica de Televisión
(Retevisión). Over 99% of the Spanish households own a television and radio device.

TV-Stations under public law are: EITB (Euskal Irrati Telebista), CRTVG (Compaña de Radio Television de Galicia), CCRTV (Corporació Catalana de Ràdio i Televisió), OR (Onda Regional de Murcia), RTVV (Ràdio Televisió Valenciana), RTVM (Radio Televisión Madrid), RTVA (Radio Televisión de Andalucía), RTVCM (Radiotelevisión de Castilla-La Mancha), RTVC (Radio Televisión Canaria).

Independent TV stations Antena 3, Tele 5 and Canal + are holding a market share of 49,8%. The state-owned TV stations TVE, TVE-1, La 2 are holding a market share of 32,4%, the stations under public law 17,7%. In 1994 Sattelite, 1997 Cable and 1999 Digital TV took in service.

RNE (Radio Nacional de España) is broadcasting five programmes nationwide (2,75 Million listeners), REE (Radio Exterior de España) is broadcasting worldwide in seven languages. Largest independent radio is SER (Sociedad Española de Radiofusión) with 4,82 Million listeners.

News Agency: Agencia EFE, Colpisa and Europa Press (all based in Madrid).

Telecommunications: Telefónica de España is the worldwide sixth largest phone company. Retevision is concerned with licensing of phone and mobile services.

(17,8 Million landline; 37,5 Million mobile phone and 9,8 Million internet users.)

Exception courts as well as death penalties are forbidden according to the constitution. The independence of the justice shall be ensured by the immunity of the judges, they can`t be members of parties or trade unions during their period of office. Central Institutions are the constitutional court (Tribunal Constitucional), the Supreme Court (Tribunal Supremo) as well as 17 higher courts of justice (Tribunales Superiores de Justicia) and the general council (Consejo General del Poder Justicia [CGPJ] as the highest justice organ of the independent communities. The Consejo General del Poder Justicia [CGPJ] consists of the President from the Supreme Court of Judicature, 12 judges from all justicial categories and 4 members elected by the congress and senate. The constitutional court consists of 12 judges which are appointed by both parliament chambers, the government and the Consejo General del Poder Justicia [CGPJ] for a term of office of nine years. The constitutional court has the power of decision in constitutional complaints and conflicts between the central state and the independent communities.

Highest judicial authority for non-constitutional questions is the supreme court, whose president is nominated by the CGPJ and appointed by the King. The national court of justice (Audiencia Nacional) supports the supreme court and the territorial courts. In 2001 10.391 single judges were the first level of jurisdiction. The second level of jurisdiction is being negotiated by 17 territorial courts (Audiencias Territoriales) for civil court matters and over 50 provincial courts (Audiencias Provinciales) for criminal cases. Jury courts were introduced in 1996.

Constitution: The constitution defines Spain as a social and democratic state under the rule of law, it declares the parlamentary monarchy as the form of government. The King of Spain is also the head of state, a symbol of the unity of the nation and the commander-in-chief of the defense forces. He suggests the prime minister, who is being elected by the congress in majority. Male descendants of Juan Carlon I. have the succession to the throne.

The Parliament (Las Cortes Generales) consists of two chambers, the House of Representatives (Congreso de los Diputados) and the Senate (Senado). The government is responsible to the House of Representatives. The Senate as the chamber of territorial representation consists of 259 members. The legislative period of both chambers is four years. There is no imperative mandate, active right to vote is 18 years. The head of the government is being elected by the House of Representatives and appointed by the King, he defines the cabinet and the political principles.