Spain´s Entry into the EU

The June 12, 1985 Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Accession to the European Communities. In Spain , the signing ceremony took place in the Hall of Columns of the Royal Palace, where a speech was delivered by the king Juan Carlos

The signing ended a process that formally began with the request of the Spanish Government to the Council of Ministers of the European Communities on 26 July 1977 under the presidency of Adolfo Suarez.

Finally, in 1985, it was signed. The Heading to the Spanish adhesion was put by the President of Spain, Felipe González. Later, Congress unanimously ratified the accession and January 1, 1986 Spain joined the Union.

Three and a half years after its accession -in June 1989 Spain entered its national currency (peseta) the Exchange Rate Mechanism of the European Monetary System, established by France, Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands and Luxembourg since 1979. Spain also strengthened its integrationist bet signing in June 1991, the Schengen Agreement, delving into the concept of a "Europe without borders", involved the progressive elimination of border controls between Member States.

The Treaty of Maastricht (1992) gave the European Union its current name as the design of the roadmap towards a common currency. That same year, during the Edinburgh Summit, the Member States instituted the so-called Cohesion Fund for environmental projects, transport infrastructure and energy in countries with income levels below 90% of the EU average. As a result, Spain obtained, along with the rest of the received structural funds, invaluable support for the revitalization and regional development.

In December 1995, coinciding with the end of the second Spanish Presidency of the EU, agreed in Madrid the name "euro" for the common European currency, whose implementation took place successfully from January 2002. This Spain made to a participant, as a founding member of the new European currency that has led to the effective realization of a unifying project as EMU aims at economic integration of all member States.

Spain has held the presidency semiannual turn of the Council on four occasions, two of them (1989 and 1995) during the governments of Felipe González; the third (2002), with Jose Maria Aznar, and the last (2010), with Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. Spain's commitment to the process of European integration has always been very intense, assuming a reference Europe of freedom and prosperity for Spain. Reason that, regardless of our different governments, Spain has always supported greater political and economic integration.

The involvement of our country has also evidenced in the remarkable work of the Spanish manager many who have been occupying high positions in the European institutions. The European Parliament was chaired by Spanish three times: Enrique Baron (1989-1992), José María Gil-Robles (1997-1999) and Josep Borrell (2004-2007). For his part, Javier Solana played for a decade, since 1999, the post of High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). Moreover, the European Commission, guardian of the EU treaties institution, has enjoyed the strong presence of Spanish in their respective portfolios of European Commissioners Marcelino Oreja, Pedro Solbes, Loyola de Palacio, Abel Matutes, Manuel Marin, Joaquin Almunia and , from November 1, 2014, Miguel Arias Cañete.

The European Union is the natural framework for political and economic development of our country, and that is why right now Spain assumes its responsibilities promoting a more democratic, closer to citizens, able to respond to challenges more effectively Union and needs of the new century

Finally thanks to the EU we have managed to improve in many areas. If we had not entered the EU Spain he had gotten into a bottomless sea and there had been reborn, as we got to do. The EU has helped us now, we can only thank him and help.

Health in Spain

Healthcare in Spain is known to have great potential in public hospitals as they are given many freedoms, you will not have to pay as in the US, which will only pay for private

Health:

If in 1986 the life expectancy of the Spaniards was 76.4 years today that same index rises to 83.2 years ,there are many factors that have influenced this remarkable progress. Notably, these 30 years in the EU have served to internationalize health coverage through the European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), a free card that gives you access to public health care during a temporary stay in one of the 28 Member States EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, under the same conditions and at the same cost as nationals of that country.

Food security:

Across the European Union there are more and more comprehensive in terms of food consumed controls. Major crises that occurred in the past decade, for example, the "mad cow" have served to strengthen the European dimension of food security.

To do this, it has taken into account all the Community rules governing the recognition of diplomas of doctors and medical specialist, that is:

• Directive 93/16 / EC of 5 April 1993, to facilitate the free movement of doctors and mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other qualifications.
• Directive 98/21 / EC of 8 April 1998 amending Directive 93/16 / EC.
• Directive 98/63 / EC of 3 September 1998 amending Directive 93/16 / EC.
• Agreement on the European Economic Area. OJ L 1, 3 January 1994.
• Act of Accession of Austria, Finland and Sweden. OJ L 1, January 1, 1995.
• Communication (96 / C 393/04) from the list of designations of diplomas, certificates and other evidence of formal qualifications as general medical practitioner published in accordance with Article 41 of Directive 93/16 / EC.

In the EU there are specialties such as:

• Pathological anatomy.
• Anesthesiology and resuscitation.
• General and digestive surgery.
• Family and community medicine.
• Internal Medicine.
• Pneumology.
• Neurosurgery.

PYME (SMEs), Small and Medium Enterprises

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of the Spanish economy are job creators, depositories business know-how and source of innovation, contributing very directly to economic and social cohesion. One of the most ensures SMEs European institutions is the European Investment Bank (EIB). The EIB credit lines established in cooperation with national and local financial institutions, which use the funds to finance investment projects in SMEs.

In the period 1986-2008, the EIB credit lines to Spanish financial institutions totaled 21,000 million euros, representing 22% of total Bank's investments in Spain.

In 2014, the EIB has earmarked 66% (7.854 million euros) of its total investments in Spain to support the Spanish SMEs. This amount, together with the 7,700 million of the Horizon 2020 program for R & D in Europe, make Spain one of the EU countries that benefited most from European funds for SMEs.

Late payment directive:

In 2011 the European Union adopted a new directive which was intended to end the commercial delinquencies, an issue that has affected many Spanish SMEs during the years of economic crisis. Among other things, this directive provides that public authorities are obliged to pay their suppliers within a maximum of 30 days (60 in exceptional circumstances) and that companies can claim interest and compensation for the costs that the breach of the deadlines may cause.

Investment Plan for EU:

In November 2014 the President of the European Commission presented the Investment Plan for the EU which aims to revive the economy and growth in Europe through the promotion of public-private investment in key sectors such as, for example, transport, energy, the digital economy and SMEs.

He also called Juncker Plan provides businesses whose project is selected a guarantee that will allow them to obtain financing more easily, because the most important part of the risk would be covered by the guarantee offered by the Plan and will provide the means for them to find investors for your project.

SMEs are an important part of the plan and are expected to participate in it as they make up 90% of the Spanish production. Keep in mind that for the facilities on financing the Plan Juncker there is no quota at national level. This means that companies must first submit a project are more likely to get funding than submit it later. More information about the Investment Plan of the EU single market

Spanish SMEs take advantage of the free movement of persons, goods and capital of the internal EU market. The objective set by the European Commission for the coming years is that the concept of internal market is transferred to electronic commerce, so that SMEs can sell through Internet products and services not only in the country where it is based but throughout the European Union.

With the aim of helping SMEs to expand their business horizons beyond the EU it is currently negotiating a free trade agreement between the European Union and the United States. Upon completion of the negotiations, the Spanish SME - some already have export experience in the United States - will find it easier to expand beyond the European Union.

Economy in Spain

The entry of Spain into the European Economic Community ( EEC ) on January 1, 1986 accelerated and strengthened economic momentum started. 

The entrance required the country to open its economy , with a strong increase in foreign investment and a modernization drive of the Spanish company to foreign competition. 

There was also an increase in public investment in infrastructure among which were those relating to the splendours of the 92 Barcelona Olympics and Seville Expo . 

There was a tug of consumption also motivated by an enrichment effect caused by the rise in the stock market and the value of property .

 With this, Spain accelerated GDP growth , reduced the public debt, reduced the unemployment rate from 24.4 % to 15 % in three years inflation and fell below 3 %.

• First, the incorporation of Spain to the Monetary Union. The entry into force of the second stage of Economic and Monetary Union of the European Union in 1994 led to a fall in interest rates, which intensified after the introduction of the euro as its official currency replacing the peseta, which left circular in 2002. the rate cuts and the absence of exchange rate risk within the euro zone came to cause the existence of negative real interest rates and encouraged increased investor confidence and a sharp increase credit, which led to increased demand for housing and consumer durables and subsequently increased investment and employment companies favored by the increased demand. This decline in interest rates also brought the birth of the so-called housing bubble, which inflated the price of homes with increases during this period of more than 30% in terms reales.33

• The second cause of lived expansion in Spain was a massive influx of immigrants, mainly from 2002, attracted by a growing demand for employment in the construction sector and some basic low-level services added as hospitality and domestic service. This arrival brought a new impetus to the Spanish consumption and investment and at the same time prevent the strangulation due to lack of labor in certain sectors.

From 2008 to 2012 there was and remains a great economic crisis in our countries but highlighted these 5 years (also 2013 and 2014 were years in which there was a lot of crises but was improving). Currently in 2016 Spain´s economy is very fragile, it´s improving although still a large number of unemployed and that´s  still something that marks our country.

Currently our country is mainly sustained by tourism and leisure activities. In the various sectors we do not include much, for example in a sector in which we highlight in the high-speed trains such as AVE, Spain has to improve a lot and with the help of the EU will get. 

The Education in Spain

The education in Spain is currently regulated by the LOE (Education Law). Although now is being done with the so-called law reform LOMCE.
Spain is the second with more school failure in the EU. The cercentage of students who leave hogh school is 31,2% (2009). The UE has launched an action plan that will help Member States to achieve the goal of reducing by 10% dropout.
Spain currently has dropout rate of 21,4% being the country with the highest dropout rate in the EU.
Stages of education:
-Child education (3-5 years).
-Primary education (6-12 years).
-ESO (Compulsory Secondary Education) (12-16 years).
-High School (17-18 years).
Instead of doing high school you can choose to do vocational training and later make university education. There are different races that can be perfomed as medicine, business administration, law, veterinary, informatic etc.
University courses can last between 4,5 or 6 years, and may vary as like medicine opposition or a particular test to aspire to the quality yiu want to perfom are perfomed.
Spain´s eduaction is known for it´s failure from high school, because it is the first country with the highest percentage in the EU, it was also observed taht the average, for exaple with the Chienese. Classes in Spain have poorer quality compared with other countries in Europe with very good education like Finland.