Basque Country

Autonomous community of central northern Spain, created in 1979, including the provinces of Vizcaya, Álava, and Guipúzcoa; area 7,261 sq km/2,803 sq mi; population (2002 est) 2,067,600. The region is bordered by the Bay of Biscay to the north and separated from the French part of the Basque Country cultural region by the Pyrenees. Bilbao, the capital of Vizcaya province, is the region's largest city and one of Spain's main industrial centres. Other important cities include San Sebastían, the capital of Guipúzcoa province; Vitoria, capital of Álava province, and historic Guernica.

The militant Basque separatist group Euskadi ta Azkatasuna (ETA) is committed to the independence of the region from Spain, and has been responsible for many terrorist acts. To Basque nationalists the region also includes the autonomous Spanish community of Navarre and the département of Pyrénées-Atlantiques in southwest France.

Basque and Spanish are both official languages of the Basque Autonomous Community. However, Basque is a minority language spoken by just over a quarter of the population in the territory.

Economy The chief economic activities in the coastal provinces of Vizcaya and Guipúzcoa are the mining of iron, copper, lead, and zinc, and metalworking (mainly steel), fishing, and shipbuilding. Álava province is largely agricultural, with corn and sugar beet being the principal crops; the production of wine and cider is also important. Tourism, especially in coastal areas, contributes significantly to the economy.

Recent history In 1936, shortly after the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, the central government granted the three provinces comprising the Basque Country autonomy, and the Basque nationalist leader José Antonio de Aguirre was elected president of the autonomous government. But much of the territory soon fell into insurgents' hands, and when the ensuing fighting ended in 1937 the new Franco regime ended the Basque Country's autonomous status. The region's Basque population continued to express a strong sense of nationalism, and in 1979 the Statute of Guernica granted a degree of autonomy to the region, which elected its first parliament in 1980.

In November 2001, the Basque administration and Spain's central government failed to agree on the renewal of the 20-year-old accord that governed their financial relations. The region runs its own tax system, and its Basque-nationalist government wanted a place of its own at European Union meetings during the discussion of issues that concerned it. However, the Spanish government refused to concede on the matter.