EU’s Schengen Area, Structural Funds, and Democratic Governance in Spain
The Schengen Area
The creation of European citizenship in 1992 involved the free movement and residence of the inhabitants of the EU. The Schengen Agreement, signed in 1985, established the order of states’ internal border controls. The agreement’s acceptance involves the elimination of borders between EU states. The decrease in the control of the borders between states has, in return, increased surveillance of borders in the states outside the EU (external borders). One objective of this surveillance is combating illegal foreign immigration. Twenty-five of the 27 EU countries, and Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland, are currently attached to this agreement.
Structural and Cohesion Funds
The EU is one of the richest and most developed areas in the world, but there are differences between developing countries, and there are differences in development levels between regions in the same state. To assist disadvantaged regions and reduce inequalities, the EU created the so-called Structural and Cohesion Funds:
- The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) has, as its main objective, the correction of the main regional imbalances in the EU.
- The EU Social Fund (ESF) is responsible for combating unemployment, confronting the employment opportunities of workers, and improving their standard of living.
- The Cohesion Funds facilitate compliance with programs of economic convergence and finance infrastructure projects related to the environment and transport.
The focus of cohesion was intended for the less developed states of the EU, i.e., those with per capita income less than 90% of the EU average. From 1986 until 2004, Spain and Portugal were largely the focus of many European territories, as they were among the least developed in Europe. This enabled appropriate funding for the improvement of the welfare level of the population of these territories. Per capita income did not reach 70% of the average of EU countries in Spain in 1986. Currently, this per capita income stands at 98% of EU countries. The creation of wealth has allowed them to increase social and political stability. An increase in the consumption of its population has led many companies to sell their products in Spain. The EU enlargements of 2004-2007 meant that many Spanish territories stopped receiving Structural and Cohesion Funds, as many Eastern European countries are less developed compared to Spain and Portugal, countries that have large deficiencies in infrastructure and equipment.
Forms of Government: Democracy
Forms of state political organization:
The Democratic State
It is democratic when citizens participate in government tasks. Direct democracy is when citizens, gathered in assembly, make decisions by referendum. As this is difficult, usually representative citizens shall designate, through elections, their sovereignty. Currently, Western countries have a democratic political system with three pillars:
- Respect for Human Rights contained in the Declaration of Rights adopted by the UN in 1948. Includes individual rights (thought, etc.), collective consciousness (assembly, association, etc.), and social rights (education, health, etc.).
- Popular sovereignty as a source of political power is reflected in the election of representatives by universal suffrage. It also defends the existence of a social contract between governors and governed that establishes the powers and limits of power, control mechanisms, and citizen rights and duties. This contract is specified in the Constitution (Act of Laws that establishes the separation of powers, contains the rules governing the state, and guarantees individual and collective rights).
- Parliamentarism guarantees political pluralism and the division of power. It lies in the legislative parliament, elected by universal suffrage. The parliament elects the government, which has executive power and is responsible for its government before the parliament, where there are different political parties that organize their candidacies in the elections and groups of parliamentarians from the elected members of each party. The supreme authority is exercised by a sovereign, hereditary and lifelong (monarchy), or elected (republics). Its powers are determined by the constitution (e.g., Spain in 1978).
Unitary and Federal States
Democratic states are organized into different levels of power:
- Unitary: Decisions are taken from a political center. There are centralized ones, while others have opted for a more decentralized organization, which recognizes a certain degree of autonomy in the territories, such as Belgium, Spain, or Great Britain.
- Federal: Decentralized power. Territories exercise their own sovereignty. Each of these states has the right to legislate and its own political institutions. Power and responsibility are distributed among the states and the federal power (which deals with international politics, defense, and security), e.g., the United States, Germany, and Switzerland.
Spain
Franco’s death in 1975 began a transition to democracy, which culminated with the adoption of the 1978 Constitution. Spain is a democratic state under a parliamentary monarchy. Sovereignty belongs to the people (over 18 years old), who have the right to elect governors. The head of state is the King. Laws are drafted and approved by Parliament, which chooses the government that corresponds to the direction of state policy. Spanish representative democracy means that, through elections, we elect our representatives. Candidates are included in the lists of a political party, which introduces the program. Each list will have a number of parliamentary votes according to the number achieved.
Elections in Spain
Every citizen is invited to elect their representatives at four levels. The division of powers is one of the principles of parliamentary democracies. In the Spanish state, the legislative function belongs to Parliament, the executive to the government, and the judicial to the courts and judges.
The Parliament
The Parliament (Cortes Generales) is formed by two chambers:
- The Congress: to legislate and approve the budgets of the state. The members of the state (MPs) are elected in general or legislative elections, where different political parties are presented.