The CVCE and the European Academy of Yuste Foundation (FAEY) are organising an international conference entitled ‘Spain and the European integration process', which will take place on 16 and 17 April 2012 at the Royal Monastery of Yuste in Cuacos de Yuste, Spain.

The conference is part of the CVCE's current research project ‘Spain and the European integration process', which is devoted to the historical relationship between Spain and Europe in a broad sense from the end of the Second World War to the present day. This project, directed by Dr Cristina Blanco Sío-López, Researcher in European Studies at the CVCE, focuses on the relations of Spain's various institutional, socio-economic and cultural players with the European Communities — today the European Union — and their interactions with other European organisations.

The conference will start with an address by Carlos Closa (IPP-CSIC and the Global Governance Programme at the RSC-EUI), and the programme for the event will also include a round table with Spanish figures who have played a major role in the European integration process, including José María Gil-Robles Gil-Delgado and Enrique Barón Crespo. These two former Presidents of the European Parliament have also granted interviews to the CVCE as part of its ‘Oral history of European integration' project.

The conference presentations were selected following a call for papers launched by the CVCE, in partnership with the FAEY, which focused on four main research clusters:

• Spain's impact on and contributions to the process of European integration.

• The impact of the European integration process in Spain (Spain's Europeanisation).

• A cross-comparison of Spanish and European views on Spain's European dimension.

• A comparative approach to the integration of Spain and Portugal into the European Communities.

The conference will also look at research into the changing interactions and interdependences between Spain and Europe and the strategic areas of Spain's external influence.

Participants at this academic event will include experts and young researchers specialising in various aspects of European studies (history, political science, law and economics) based at universities, research centres, think tanks and government institutions throughout Europe and the United States.

See the programme.