Spain and Portugal in the European Union. The first fifteen years

Abstract:

This work is imbued with a strong sense of gratitude by the editors on behalf of the Spanish and Portuguese people for both the opportunity to contribute and the benefit that their accession to the European Union has provided. It arises from a celebration of fifteen years of membership and a conference held in November 2001 at Harvard University to mark the occasion. The contributors represent a distinguished array of political scientists, economists, historians and sociologists. Their papers examine how the integration process has affected political, economic and social developments in Spain and Portugal over the last fifteen years.

The work is divided into two parts. Part one examines political and sociological aspects of the integration process with papers on topics such as European Integration and Civil Society in Spain, Portugal and Eastern Europe, and Spaniards' Long March towards Europe. Part two addresses the economic and social aspects with such papers as Portugal's European Integration - Good Student with a Bad Fiscal Constitution, Spain in the EU - Fifteen Years may not be Enough, Redesigning the Spanish and Portuguese Welfare States, and The Role of the State in the Labour Market. Writers seek to bring out the lessons which might be used in the integration process at the eastern borders of the EU, exploring the difference between the two countries and the difference between these countries of the Iberian peninsula and those of Europe's east and south east.

The work will interest scholars and students of European studies and integration politics as well as policy researchers.

Sebastián Royo is Assistant Professor in the Government Department at Suffolk University in Boston and affiliate and co-chair of the Iberian Study Group at the Minda de Gunzberg Center for European Studies, Harvard University.

Paul Christopher Manuel is Professor and Chair of the Department of Politics at Saint Anselm College, Research Director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, and affiliate and co-chair of the Iberian Study Group at the Minda de Gunzberg Center for European Studies, Harvard University.