PAÍS VASCO (AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY)

The Basque Country (/ˈbæsk/, /ˈbɑːsk/; Basque: Euskadi [eus̺kadi]; Spanish: País Vasco [paˈis ˈβasko]; French: Pays basque) is an autonomous community of northern Spain. It includes the Basque provinces of Álava, Biscay and Gipuzkoa.

The Basque Country or Basque Autonomous Community was granted the status of nationality within Spain, attributed by the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The autonomous community is based on the Statute of Autonomy of the Basque Country, a foundational legal document providing the framework for the development of the Basque people on Spanish soil, although the territory of Navarre was left out and made into a separate autonomous community.

Currently there is no official capital in the autonomous community, but the city that holds the Basque Parliament, the headquarters of the Basque Government and the Basque Autonomous Community's President's residency (Ajuria Enea Palace) is Vitoria-Gasteiz, located in the province of Álava. Whilst Vitoria-Gasteiz is the largest municipality in area, with 277 km² (107 sq mi), Bilbao (or Bilbo in Basque) is the largest in population, with 353,187 people, located in the province of Biscay within a conurbation of 875,552 people.

The term Basque Country may also refer to the larger cultural region (Basque: Euskal Herria), the home of the Basque people, which includes the autonomous community.

Politics

Government

The current laws configure the autonomous community as a federation of its present-day three constituent provinces. These western Basque districts kept governing themselves by their own laws and institutions even after the Castilian conquest in 1200. The new king upheld their institutional system issued from the consuetudinary law prevalent in Basque and Pyrenean territories. This limited self-government, similar to the one for Navarre, was partially suppressed in 1839 and totally in 1876 in exchange for an agreement on tax-collection and a number of administrative prerogatives. These in turn were suspended under Franco for Gipuzkoa and Biscay, but restored by the Spanish Constitution of 1978. The political structure of the new autonomous community is defined in the Gernika Statute, which was approved by a majority in a referendum held on 25 October 1979. Nowadays it is one of the most decentralized regions in the world; in this regard it has been described as having "more autonomy than just about any other in Europe" by The Economist.

The post-Franco Spanish Constitution of 1978 acknowledges "historical rights" and attempts compromise in the old conflict between centralism and the different national identities (Basque, Catalan, and Galician). A specific approach to the national realities in Spain was eventually diffused by granting autonomous administrations and parliaments to all regions of Spain (e.g. Castile and León, Catalonia, the Valencian Community, etc.), while the Basques, Catalans, and Galicians were acknowledged with historic specificity. Provincial governments (diputación foral) with actual relevant attributes (taxation, etc.) were restored only in the autonomous communities of the Basque Country and Navarre, after the latter detached from the Basque political process. The provinces in the Basque Country still perform tax collection in their respective territories, but with limited margin in decision making under the Spanish and European governments. Under this intricate system, the Diputaciones Forales (Basque: Foru Aldundiak) administer most of each of the provinces but are coordinated by the autonomous Basque Government (Spanish Gobierno Vasco, Basque: Eusko Jaurlaritza).

The autonomous community has its own police force (the Ertzaintza), controls Education and Health Systems, and has a Basque radio/TV station. These and only some of the powers acknowledge in the Gernika Statute have since 1980 been transferred to the Autonomous Community by the Cortes Generales under the Gernika Statute.

The seats of the Basque Parliament and Government are in Vitoria-Gasteiz, so this is the capital city de facto, but the Basque Autonomous Community has no capital de iure. The Parliament is composed of 25 representatives from each of the three provinces. The Basque Parliament elects the Lehendakari (President of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country) who forms a government following regular parliamentary procedures. Until 2009 all Lehendakaris (even those in 1937 and during the exile) have been members of the Basque Nationalist Party (Euzko Alderdi Jeltzalea) (moderate and Christian-Democrat) since 1978. Despite their continued leadership role, they have not always enjoyed majorities for their party and have needed to form coalitions with either Spain wide parties or left-leaning Basque nationalist parties, often governing in a difficult minority position. Since 1982 until the late 1990s, Basque nationalists ideologically closer to ETA refused to turn out in the Basque parliament, a significant wedge of the parliament.

Currently, the Basque Government is headed by Iñigo Urkullu (PNV). In the 2012 Basque parliamentary election, the PNV obtained a plurality of the votes, followed by the left-wing nationalist coalition EH Bildu (Eusko Alkartasuna, Sortu, Alternatiba).

Present-day political dynamics

ETA's permanent ceasefire (2010-2011) opened the possibility of new governmental alliances and has enabled EH Bildu's electoral success and rise to governmental institutions (Gipuzkoa, capital city Donostia).

Territorial issues

The statute, insofar as it is addressed and provides an administrative framework for the Basque people, provides the mechanisms for neighbouring Navarre to join the three western provinces if it wishes to do so, since at least part of it is ethnically Basque. The Basque Government used the "Laurak Bat", which included the arms of Navarre, as its symbol for many years. The Navarrese Government protested, and tribunals ruled in their favour. The Basque Government replaced it with an empty red field.

Navarre is one of the historical Basque territories and even claimed by the Basque nationalists as the core of the Basque nation. There are also two enclaves surrounded by Basque territory—Treviño (Basque: Trebiñu) and Valle de Villaverde (Basque: Villaverde-Turtzioz)—which belong to the fellow neighbouring communities of Castile and León and Cantabria respectively, for which a legal connection to the Basque Country has become an on-off matter of political discussion.

Economy

The Basque Autonomous Community ranks first in Spain in terms of per capita income, with gross domestic product (GDP) per capita being 40% higher than that of the European Union and 33.8% higher than Spain's average in 2010, at €31,314. Industrial activities were traditionally centered on steel and shipbuilding, mainly due to the rich iron ore resources found during the 19th century around Bilbao. The Estuary of Bilbao was the center of the Basque Country's industrial revolution during the 19th and the first half of the 20th century. These activities decayed during the economic crisis of the 1970s and 1980s, giving ground for the development of the services sector and new technologies.

Today, the strongest industrial sectors of the Basque Country's economy are machine tool, present in the valleys of Biscay and Gipuzkoa; aeronautics in Vitoria-Gasteiz; and energy, in Bilbao.

The main companies in the Basque Country are: BBVA bank, Iberdrola energy company (both of them have their headquarters in Bilbao), Mondragón Cooperative Corporation—MCC, the largest cooperative in the world—Gamesa wind turbine producer and CAF rolling stockproducer. MCC's business leadership in the Basque Country hangs in the balance after Fagor, its flagship cooperative of household appliances and goods manufacturing, declared bankruptcy in 2014.

8 in 10 Spanish municipalities with the lowest unemployment rates lay across this autonomous community in 2015, standing out such towns as Arrasate, Portugalete and Barakaldo with a strong manufacturing industrial make-up. The Basque Autonomous Community ranked above other communities in Spain in terms of resilience in the face of the economic crisis, going on to become a beacon and matter of study in Europe.

In 2013 the Basque Country outperformed Spain in several parameters, but economic overall figures were highly variable. Spanish figures are subject to conspicuous seasonal fluctuation, relying on its tourist and services sectors, while Basque performance is rather based on mid- and long-term results according to its more industrial approach. Unemployment in this autonomous community rises to 15.76% (12.75% in Gipuzkoa), the lowest in Spain at a percentage higher than the EU average (10.8%), but still way ahead of the Spanish overall of around 26%, the second highest rate in the EU.

In regards to GDP performance, 2013 was a negative year for the Basque Autonomous Community. It underwent a decline rate in GDP of -1.9%, somewhat higher than the Spanish percentage, -1.2%. In the last term of 2013, the public debt of the Basque Autonomous Community stood at 13.00% of its GDP, totalling 3,753 € per capita as compared to Spain's overall 93.90%, totalling 20,383 € per capita.

Basque Government's high-ranking officials, as well as Basque-based party leaders and personalities, have protested and voiced their concern for the detrimental effects austerity measures passed by the Spanish Government as of 2011, overruling Basque taxation powers, may be having on industry and trade, especially export. The former have strongly advocated for a participation along with Navarre in the Ecofin with a full membership, in order to defend Basque interests in line with its own reality and fiscal status, and not as a Spanish subsidiary.

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