The transformation of Spain over the past three decades from the dictionary definition of an authoritarian back-water into a prosperous modern democracy is a great European success story.

For the first time, helped by European Union regional policy and structural aid, wealth has spread throughout what for centuries had been an unevenly developed country, where it had developed at all. Spain entered the European club as a middle income economy but its per capita income has now converged on close to the EU average while, in overall size, the Spanish economy is the eighth largest in the world. It has cause for satisfaction.