Spain has been an OSCE participating State since June 25, 1973 and chaired the OSCE in 2007. 

Spain is a parliamentary monarchy located between France and Portugal and is a NATO, E.U., and Council of Europe member.  Its economy is highly service-oriented, although it does have a substantial manufacturing base. 

Of its population of 48 million, 74 percent speak Spanish, 17 percent Catalan, 7 percent Galician, and 2 percent Basque.  Approximately 79 percent of the population is Christian, and 19 percent is unaffiliated. There are almost a million Muslims living in Spain, making up 2.1 percent of the population, along with 60,000 Jews, accounting for 0.1 percent of the population.

The Spanish Foreign Minister appeared at a Commission hearing in 2007, and Spain has been the site of several OSCE and OSCE PA meetings over the years.  From 1980 to 1983, Spain hosted the second follow-up meeting of the Helsinki Process, critical to the creation of the OSCE.  Spain was also the location of some of the OSCE’s first meetings on anti-Semitism and discrimination against Muslims. 

In 2002, the Commission held a hearing on post-9/11 OSCE efforts to thwart terrorist financing, which included the Spanish Ambassador to the United States as a representative of the European Union.