European Integration and the Spanish “State of the Autonomies”

Abstract

Spain's accession to the European Community in 1986 challenged the “state of the autonomies” in several ways: On the one hand, the Autonomous Communities lost competencies to the supranational level, whereas, on the other, the central state gained decision-making power (via the EC Council of Ministers) in areas of former autonomous responsibility. Furthermore, substantial parts of European law had to be implemented by the Communities, which were often reluctant to do so. The long struggle for a co-operative model of regional participation within the Spanish European policy was complicated due to heterogeneous preferences of the different actors. Several agreements were reached during the 1990s; more recently, the Zapatero government further strengthened regional participation rights, special privileges being granted to Catalonia by its new Statute of Autonomy. In addition, Spain increased its efforts to improve the position of its regional languages at the European level.