Spain as a country with a high investment potential.

After the economic crisis is reaching to an end, worldwide investors are starting to find attractive what was formerly dead-end investment countries.The aim of this entry is to find the sinergies between the Spanish and the EU Market so as to understand the position and the power of Spain in its pursue to achieve a green environmental economy development.

This year’s  World Investment Report offers an action plan for including businesses role as a tool for achieving future sustainable development goals, by taking advantage of the private sector’s positive economic, social and environmental impacts. 

Spain is a major world economic country, being the 7th largest recipient of FDI globally(2010 data). The attraction of Spain for foreign investment lies not only in its domestic market, but also in the possibility of operating with third markets from our country. This is due to the fact that Spain is also a geostrategic position: it belongs to the European Union and is the gateway to North Africa and Latin America. This brings to Spain a priviledge position insofar as Energy, Telecommunications and Toursim sectors.

Likewise, Spain is a modern knowledge-based economy where services account for 70% of economic activity. It is a center of innovation supported by the existence of a highly qualified and competitive costs younger population.

As the report states, "in developed countries, inflows to Europe were up by 3 per cent compared with 2012. In the EU, Germany, Spain and Italy saw a substantial recovery in their FDI inflows in 2013. In Spain, lower labour costs attracted the interests of manufacturing TNCs".(Transnational Companies.)

Despite the overall increase in inflows, recovery was concentrated in a smaller set of economies; only 15 of 39 economies registered a rise. Inflows to Europe were $251 billion (up 3 per cent over 2012), with EU countries accounting for the bulk, at $246 billion. Inflows to Italy and Spain made a robust recovery, with the latter receiving the largest flows in Europe in 2013.

In addition to such, the Spanish tax system is modern and competitive. The tax burden in Spain (measured as the percentage of taxes and social security of GDP) is about five points below that of neighboring countries (EU-27).

• Defining the Legal Structure of Spain.

1. Legal System.

Spain is a State organized in Autonomous Communities (AC). State power is divided between the National Government, said AC. and Municipalities. The NG has responsibilities in those areas where it is granted powers by the Spanish constitution (for example, in foreign and international security policies, customs and financial matters as well as in defence). Further, it is responsible to a great extent for legislation in the field of civil and criminal laws, including civil and criminal proceedings.

The Autonomous Communities as well as the Municipalities have broad autonomy and their own sources of income through taxation. The Autonomous Communities are independent in many areas such as healthcare, education, and land use planning, amongst others. Each Autonomous Community, under the rights conferred by the Constitution own their particular set of rules organized around their Statute, which contains the Autonomous Community's principles of parliament, economic taxation, education, and so on, which are later developed by the autonomous government. For such reason, it is not the same to invest in each autonomous community.

Although private law is governed by national regulations, some AC, due to historical reasons, do have the ability to shape such national legislation by promulgating concrete legal norms which are applicable in preference to the national legislation. An example is Cataluña.

All political parties are involved in the decision-making process and the main parties are also represented in the executive branch at federal and cantonal levels.

The legislative authority at the national level is the Spanish parliament. AC are represented by the Senate, which has more of a secondary legislative importance in Spain.

Spain is a civil law country. Therefore, the Spanish legal system depends heavily on written codes as a primary source for authoritative statements of law. Judicial decisions are of secondary importance. The common law rule of binding precedent (stare decisis) does not apply. However, judicial decisions, especially from the Supreme Court, can have a certain weight as equal treatment requires a court (as any other agent of the state) to treat the same case equally and in line with the view of the highest court of the land.

Next entry will be dealing with Imports.