France and Spain
Political relations
France and Spain enjoy an extremely close relationship of trust, driven by law enforcement and judicial cooperation which has helped to weaken ETA over the long term, and by concrete cooperation projects in interconnections (energy and transport), a field that is crucial for both countries. Our cooperation is also based on the desire for greater cooperation on the future of the European Union, given our closely converging views on European issues.
More than 370 agreements, treaties and bilateral conventions have been signed by our two countries, particularly since the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees by Louis XIV and Philip IV on 7 November 1659 on Pheasant Island, on the French-Spanish border, and right up to the “Treaty of Barcelona”, signed on 19 January 2023. This makes Spain one of the countries with which France has signed the most bilateral agreements.
On 19 January 2023, the date of the 27th Spanish-French Summit in Barcelona, the President of the French Republic Emmanuel Macron and the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, signed a treaty of friendship and cooperation between France and Spain. This text enshrines the closeness and trust that characterize the relations between the two countries, as well as a shared European ambition. It sets forth a new phase in Franco-Spanish friendship.
French presence in Spain and Spanish presence in France
Ambassador of France to Spain: Kareen Rispal
Ambassador of Spain to France: Victorio Redondo Baldrich
Consulates-General of France: Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Seville
French community: 81,000 on the consular register (estimated unregistered nationals: around 60,000)
Spanish community in France: between 190,000 and 230,000 people
Summits and visits
The close bilateral ties are also evidenced by many bilateral visits:
- The French President received Mr Pedro Sánchez in Paris on 21 March 2022.
- The French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs visited Madrid on 4 April 2022.
- The Spanish Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, Mr José Manuel Albares Bueno, was received in Paris by the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, Ms Catherine Colonna, on 6 June 2022.
- President Macron met with Mr Pedro Sánchez and the Portuguese Prime Minister, Mr António Costa, in Brussels on 20 October 2022, and again on 9 December at the EU Med Summit in Málaga, notably to discuss energy interconnections and the H2Med project.
- The Barcelona Summit on 19 January 2023 brought together, in addition to the French President and the President of the Government of Spain, 10 members of the Spanish Government and 11 members of the French Government, to hold bilateral consultations.
- The Ministers of State for European Affairs met in Bordeaux on 4 May 2023 for consultations regarding the preparation of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.
For the latest declarations, see the website of the French Embassy in Madrid.
Economic relations
Our trading relationship is very strong (€95.7 billion in goods and €16.3 billion in services in 2023), but France’s trade deficit with Spain grew, with the trend reversing in the context of the health crisis, remaining negative for the fourth year running in 2023 (€5.2 billion). In terms of goods, France is Spain’s leading customer, third-largest supplier and fourth-largest foreign investor (some €60 billion in foreign direct investment stock and 3,400 French subsidiaries that generate 352,600 jobs). In services, France is Spain’s second-largest customer and second-largest supplier. Spain is our fifth-largest customer (7.6% of our exports) and fifth-largest supplier (6.8% of our imports). Spanish foreign direct investment stock in France reached €55.5 billion in 2022. Spain is France’s eighth-largest investor (1,300 subsidiaries and 56,900 jobs). The intensity of these ties was highlighted at the fourth MEDEF-CEOE economic forum which took place on 27 and 28 November 2023 in Madrid.
Cultural, scientific and technical cooperation
French-Spanish cooperation can be seen daily through extensive educational, linguistic and cultural exchanges. A branch of the Centre Pompidou was inaugurated in Málaga on 28 March 2015. The French cultural cooperation and action network is dense in Spain, formed by Institut Français branches or centres (Barcelona, Bilbao, Madrid, Seville, Valencia and Zaragoza) and 19 Alliance Française branches.
The French school network in Spain is the largest in Europe (22 schools) and third-largest globally, behind Lebanon and Morocco. French is the second most-popular foreign language in Spain (1.4 million students). In France, more than 3.25 million secondary school students study Spanish.
Spain has the world’s biggest network of schools that have been endorsed by LabelFrancÉducation (119), which recognizes the best bilingual schools. The “BachiBac” programme, which allows students to obtain the French Baccalauréat and the Spanish Bachillerato simultaneously, is offered in 117 schools in Spain. France is the third most popular host country among Spanish students in mobility programmes (around 6,000 per year). An agreement on university networks was signed in February 2017. This mobility is part of dynamic academic cooperation marked by more than 3,000 inter-university agreements, 220 dual degree programmes and 16 European university alliances that include French and Spanish partners.
Scientific and technical cooperation is based on cooperation agreements between the major French research and development institutions such as the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), the French Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), the National Institute for Agronomic Research (INRA) and the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (IFREMER), and their Spanish counterparts. In the field of humanities and social sciences, the Casa de Velázquez, which is both a research centre and a hub for artistic creation focusing on the Mediterranean and Latin American spaces, is part of the network of French schools abroad.
Other cooperation
Police cooperation, and particularly counter-terrorism, which was historically centred on the fight against ETA and is now largely focused on the fight against Islamist terrorism and narcotics trafficking, continues to produce very good results. With a view to collective memory and historiography, on 1 October 2018, France transferred sealed ETA-related judicial proceedings to the Spanish authorities, in the presence of the French Prime Minister, Mr Édouard Philippe, and the President of the Spanish Government, Mr Pedro Sánchez.
In cross-border cooperation, interconnections are a key political and economic issue for Spain and France. These include rail infrastructure (Perpignan-Barcelona high-speed line) and electrical interconnections (a cable between Baixas and Santa Llogaia, doubling electricity capacity, was inaugurated on 20 February 2015, and a project for a submarine cable in the Bay of Biscay received €578 million in European funding in January 2018). The announcement on 20 October 2022 of the launch of a Barcelona-Marseille green energy corridor (H2Med project) shows the constant commitment of both countries in this field.
Updated: 13 August 2024