47-660: France–Spain relations are bilateral relations between France and Spain , in which both share a long border across the Pyrenees , other than one point which is cut off by Andorra . As two of the most powerful kingdoms of the early modern era , France and Spain fought a 24-year war (the Franco-Spanish War ) until the signing of the Treaty of the Pyrenees in 1659. The treaty was signed on Pheasant Island between
94-469: A bilateral relationship. States with bilateral ties will exchange diplomatic agents such as ambassadors to facilitate dialogues and cooperations. Economic agreements, such as free trade agreements (FTAs) or foreign direct investment (FDI), signed by two states, are a common example of bilateralism. Since most economic agreements are signed according to the specific characteristics of the contracting countries to give preferential treatment to each other, not
141-475: A generalized principle but a situational differentiation is needed. Thus through bilateralism, states can obtain more tailored agreements and obligations that only apply to particular contracting states. However, the states will face a trade-off because it is more wasteful in transaction costs than the multilateral strategy. In a bilateral strategy, a new contract has to be negotiated for each participant. So it tends to be preferred when transaction costs are low and
188-539: A status in its diplomatic relations, after Germany (1963) and Italy (2021). As a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine , new proposals for the transport of natural gas through Europe were reconsidered. In this sense, France , Portugal and Spain would discuss the distribution of costs and the deadlines for new energy projects, which would bring green hydrogen from the Iberian Peninsula to
235-516: Is a Spanish exclave surrounded by the French département of Pyrénées-Orientales . In 2023, the municipality of Llívia had a total population of 1,511. It is separated from the rest of Spain by a corridor about 1.6 km (1.0 mile) wide, which includes the French communes of Ur and Bourg-Madame . The Segre river , a tributary of the Spanish Ebro , flows through Llívia. Llívia
282-602: Is also estimated that 144,039 people in France were born in Spain. Currently, it is estimated that there are more than 125,000 French residents in Spain and more than 275,000 Spanish residents in France. Furthermore, after English , French is the second most studied foreign language in Spain, while Spanish is the second most studied foreign language in France. With a dual nationality agreement, French and Spaniards can acquire nationality without giving up their nationality. France
329-416: Is one of the largest trading partners of Spain. In March 2015, Philip VI of Spain chose to go to France as its first diplomatic visit since his accession. The visit was widely regarded as a way to hail the excellent bilateral relations between France and Spain. Since May 2022, both countries finalize their first Friendship Treaty . In this way, Spain would be the third country with which France reaches such
376-565: Is the first country outside the Ibero-American sphere with which Spain signed an agreement of this nature. Bilateral relations Bilateralism is the conduct of political, economic, or cultural relations between two sovereign states . It is in contrast to unilateralism or multilateralism , which is activity by a single state or jointly by multiple states, respectively. When states recognize one another as sovereign states and agree to diplomatic relations, they create
423-597: Is the only issue. The two countries share a hospital in Llívia, as well as other local initiatives. The enclave is accessible from Spain via a 1.8 km (1 mile) long road that up until the implementation of the Schengen Area in 1995 was considered a "neutral road" as defined in the Treaty of Llívia. The road was designated as being a custom-free route across which the French were allowed free access from one part of
470-584: The Battle of Vitoria . The Bourbon king Ferdinand VII was imprisoned by Napoleon, but still remained recognized as Spanish monarch by Napoleon's adversaries. He returned to the throne in 1813 after the defeat of the French in the Peninsular War . In 1820, a military uprising in Spain lead to a liberal government, the Trienio Liberal , to come to power. Two years later, Ferdinand VII lobbied
517-825: The Carolingian dynasty ), against the Al Andalus Muslim kingdom. Barcelona was a County of the Frankish Empire , under protection of the Frankish King/Emperor. This vassalty of Marca Hispanica and Navarre to the Frankish empire remained effective up to 985. At that point, because his armies were mobilized in the Verdum's county, Lothair of France and his Byzantine allies did not assist Navarre and Marca Hispanica in its defense against
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#1732766081338564-566: The First World War when many politicians concluded that the complex pre-war system of bilateral treaties had made war inevitable. This led to the creation of the multilateral League of Nations (which was disbanded in failure after 26 years). A similar reaction against bilateral trade agreements occurred after the Great Depression , when it was argued that such agreements helped produce a cycle of rising tariffs that deepened
611-587: The Principality of Catalonia in a revolt against the Spanish crown. Western Flanders , roughly equivalent to the modern French department of Nord , was also ceded. An anomaly of the treaty was that although all villages in Roussillon were ceded to France, Llívia was deemed to be a city and was therefore retained by Spain to the present day as an exclave 3 kilometres (2 mi) into France. The treaty
658-605: The Roman Empire . While the term "Spain" may be improper when used to refer to France–Spain relations before the union of the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon in 1476, there has always been important relations between what are now France and Spain. One important feature of those early relations was that counts from the Marca Hispanica and Navarre fought shoulder to shoulder with Frankish Kings (during
705-470: The Treaty of San Ildefonso in 1796 as part of their shared opposition to Britain. The relationship spoiled after defeat in 1805 at the Battle of Trafalgar , and in 1808, French Emperor Napoleon invaded Spain and named his brother Joseph as King of Spain as part of a plan to get closer to invading Britain's ally, Portugal. The British under the Duke of Wellington drove the French out of Spain in 1813 following
752-401: The war of the stop signs . During the vote for Catalan independence in 2017, 561 out of 591 votes cast in Llívia were in favor of independence. The referendum was deemed illegal by the Spanish courts, but the Spanish police did not intervene to stop the vote in the town. The Esteve Pharmacy , located in Llívia's municipal museum, is a complete 18th-century pharmacy donated to the town by
799-574: The Caliph, implying that they failed to defend Barcelona from the Arabs. Almanzor did not stay in the cities (the first assault was launched 6 July 985; withdrew their troops 23 July), but this incursion was arguably the first step of a process of independence of the county of Barcelona from the kingdom of France, and heralded what would become the Aragon kingdom . While independent of France and integrated in
846-760: The Crown of Aragon, Barcelona remained legally a county of France and the King of France retained a de jure right to vote in the Barcelone Courts in the next centuries. This situation generated numerous territorial conflicts between the two kingdoms to control what is now the south of France and the north of Spain (the support of Aragon to the Count of Toulouse, death in Perpignan of Philip III of France married to Isabel of Aragon , and Albigenses Crusades are some of
893-646: The Franco government as the legitimate government of Spain and agreed to return Spanish property of various types (including, among others. weapons and munitions, gold reserves, art and livestock) previously in the possession of the Republicans to the Nationalists. In return, the new Spanish government agreed to good neighborly relations, colonial cooperation in Morocco, and made informal assurances to repatriate
940-479: The German and Italian fascists resulted in a military buildup in colonial Morocco, in spite of the promise of cooperative policy in that area. Spain was however unwilling to be drawn into World War II , and had announced its intentions to remain neutral in German expansionist designs to France as early as the 1938 Sudeten crisis . This scepticism towards Spanish involvement on German behalf was further strengthened when
987-552: The Pyrenees in 1659 ceded the comarques of Roussillon , Conflent , Capcir , Vallespir , and northern Cerdanya ("Cerdagne") to the French Crown. The treaty thus established the Pyrenees as the border between France and Spain, while separating Northern Catalonia from Catalonia. However, the treaty stipulated that only villages were to be ceded to France, and Llívia was considered a town ( vila in Catalan), since it had
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#17327660813381034-636: The Spanish government got news of German cooperation with the Soviet Union, formerly a supporter of the Spanish Republicans during the civil war, under the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact . Although Spain remained neutral, Spanish volunteers were allowed to fight on the side of the Axis powers as part of the German "Blue" 250th Infantry Division . With the restoration of the French government in
1081-628: The balance between France and Spain has shifted somewhat. The balance has also changed because of the democratization of Spain since the death of Franco in 1975. France , Spain , and the United Kingdom were the main European Union (EU) member countries that classified the ETA organization as a terrorist group . In addition, this group was also associated with the IRA terrorist group. France
1128-656: The corridor to another and for the Spanish to travel freely between Puigcerdà and Llívia. This road is the joint property of Spain and France and is designated in Spain as part of the N-154 and in France as jointly part of the Route nationale 20 and the RD68. The road has been the subject of controversy over the years, particularly due to a number of stop signs placed by the French authorities and removed overnight by those opposed to them. This lasted for several years and became known as
1175-555: The death of the last Habsburg king of Spain, Charles II , the French House of Bourbon , led by Louis XIV , staked a claim to the Spanish throne. The war ended with the Bourbon Philip V being recognised as King of Spain. The House of Bourbon remains on the Spanish throne to the present day. The wars were very expensive; despite Mexican silver Spain declines economically. Revolutionary France and Bourbon Spain signed
1222-572: The defeated Republican Army. No conclusion was reached and the French authorities allowed the Nationalists to occupy Llívia. France had tentatively supported the Spanish Republicans during the civil war, and had to readjust its foreign policy towards Spain in the fact of the Nationalists' imminent victory. On 25 February 1939, France and Francoist Spain signed the Bérard-Jordana Agreement , in which France recognized
1269-789: The economic downturn. Thus, after the Second World War , the West turned to multilateral agreements such as the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Despite the high profile of modern multilateral systems such as the United Nations and World Trade Organization , most diplomacy is still done at the bilateral level. Bilateralism has a flexibility and ease lacking in most compromise-dependent multilateral systems. In addition, disparities in power, resources, money, armament, or technology are more easily exploitable by
1316-585: The end of the war, most notably Pierre Laval , who was turned over to the Allies in July 1945. One French report claimed that 100,000 Nazis and collaborators were sheltered in Spain. The Soviet Union declared there were 200,000 Nazis in the country and that Franco was manufacturing nuclear weapons and intended to invade France in 1946. With the advent of the Cold War , relations gradually improved. The Pyrenean border
1363-755: The execution of the Communist guerrilla Cristino García in Spain. The Franco government criticized the action, commenting that many refugees from France had used the same border to escape to safety in Spain during the war. Several days after the border closing, France issued a diplomatic note with the United States and Britain calling for the formation of a new provisional government in Madrid. Additionally, Spain's formerly close relationship with Italy and Nazi Germany led to suspicion and accusations. Some Nazis and French collaborators fled to Francoist Spain following
1410-470: The family who owned it, on condition the contents remain in the town. There are records of pharmacists practising in Llívia since medieval times. The pharmacy has a large display of albarelli , a type of ceramic jar used in pharmacies, as well as antique drugs, and one of the most important collections of prescription books in Europe. Escola Jaume I is located in Llívia. It was built in the 1950s. As of 2016
1457-583: The latter part of the Second World War, relations between Spain and France became more complex. Exiled Spanish Communists had infiltrated northern Spain from France via the Val d'Aran but were repelled by Franco's army and police forces. The border between the two countries was temporarily closed by the French in June 1945. The border between France and Spain was closed indefinitely on 1 March 1946, following
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1504-448: The member surplus, which corresponds to " producer surplus " in economic terms, is high. Moreover, this will be effective if an influential state wants control over small states from a liberalism perspective, because building a series of bilateral arrangements with small states can increase a state's influence. There has been a long debate on the merits of bilateralism versus multilateralism . The first rejection of bilateralism came after
1551-571: The monarchs of Europe to help him restore his power, to which France responded by sending 60,000 troops which overthrew the liberal government and re-installed Ferdinand as the absolute monarch . When the Nationalist forces of General Francisco Franco were victorious at the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, there was discussion of Llívia , a small exclaved Spanish city 3 km (2 mi) into France, becoming territory of
1598-513: The more developed and democratic France, which had a labour shortage in the aftermath of the Second World War . The Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, resident in the French capital Paris since 1901, was refused naturalisation shortly after Franco took control of Spain, but remained in Paris until his death in 1973. A Eurostat publication in 2016, estimated that 122,385 French citizens live in Spain and 128,000 Spanish citizens live in France, while it
1645-629: The more than 400,000 refugees that had fled from the Nationalists' Catalonia Offensive into France in early 1939. Philippe Pétain , later the leader of the Vichy regime during the German occupation of France , became the French ambassador to the new Spanish government. Spain would later undermine the spirit of the Bérard-Jordana Agreement when the Spanish entry into the Anti-Comintern Pact and subsequent alignment with
1692-607: The most famous examples) and played a significant political role in the start of the Catalan Revolt which ended with the treaty of Pyrenees . The Franco-Spanish War broke out in 1635, when French king Louis XIII felt threatened that his entire kingdom was bordered by Habsburg territories, including Spain. In 1659, the Treaty of the Pyrenees ended the war and ceded the Spanish-possessed Catalan county of Roussillon to France, which had supported
1739-556: The rebel French general Raoul Salan found sanctuary among Falangists in Spain for six months in 1960–61. Nevertheless, some commercial relations were done, the French finance minister visited Madrid in April 1963 to conclude a new commercial treaty. When Spain was led by general Francisco Franco, the French believed that ETA attacks were aimed at overthrowing the government of Franco, and did not feel targeted by ETA. The reason for this
1786-509: The rest of the continent. On 19 January 2023, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and French President Emmanuel Macron signed a Treaty of Friendship between both countries. During the Roaring' 20s , France was the scene of major art exhibitions attended by famous Spanish artists, such as Joan Miró , Joaquín Sorolla , Pablo Picasso or Salvador Dalí . The Spanish Civil War and hardship immediately after spurred Spanish migration to
1833-510: The scene of the siege by which governor Abdul Rahman Al Ghafiqi of Muslim Spain rid himself of the Moorish (Berber) rebel Uthman ibn Naissa ("Munnuza"), who had allied himself with Duke Eudo of Aquitaine to improve the chances of his rebellion, ahead of the Battle of Tours (732 or 733), also known as the Battle of Poitiers. Following the Franco-Spanish War (1635–1659) , the Treaty of
1880-596: The status of the ancient capital of Cerdanya. So Llívia remained a Spanish enclave within France and did not become part of the Kingdom of France . This situation was confirmed in the subsequent Treaty of Llívia, signed in 1660. Under the Nationalist government of Francisco Franco , residents required special passes to cross France to the rest of Spain. Today, with these countries in the Schengen Area , there are no frontier formalities and cross-border infrastructure
1927-399: The stronger side in bilateral diplomacy, which powerful states might consider as a positive aspect of it, compared to the more consensus-driven multilateral form of diplomacy, where the one state-one vote rule applies. A 2017 study found that bilateral tax treaties, even if intended to "coordinate policies between countries to avoid double taxation and encourage international investment", had
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1974-519: The two nations, which has since been a condominium , changing its allegiances each six months. Both nations are member states of the European Union (and both nations utilize the euro as currency) and are both members of the Council of Europe , OECD , NATO , Union for the Mediterranean , and the United Nations . The entire mainlands of both Gaul and Hispania were possessions of
2021-410: The unintended consequence of allowing "multinationals to engage in treaty shopping, states' fiscal autonomy is limited, and governments tend to maintain lower tax rates." Ll%C3%ADvia Llívia ( Catalan pronunciation: [ˈʎiβiə] ; Spanish : Llivia Spanish: [ˈʎiβja] ) is a town in the comarca of Cerdanya , province of Girona , Catalonia , Spain . It
2068-548: Was re-opened again in February 1948. Several months later France (along with Britain) signed a commercial agreement with the Franco government. Relations further improved in 1950 when the French government, concerned about international subversion, forced the Spanish Communist Party to leave France. Franco-Spanish relations would become more tense with the rise to power of Charles de Gaulle , especially when
2115-472: Was signed on Pheasant Island , an uninhabited, unserviced island in the Bidasoa river between the French commune of Hendaye and the Spanish municipality of Irun. Both settlements, and therefore their countries, took sovereignty of the island for six months out of each year. After Philip IV of Spain defeat, Marie-Thérèse of Austria, Infant of Spain, was married to the king of France Louis XIV. In 1701, after
2162-479: Was the help that regime of Franco gave to the terrorist organization OAS and because of that when ETA started to kill people de Gaulle gave them shelter in the French Basque Country, the so-called Le Sanctuaire . However, when the attacks continued after the death of Franco, France started a collaboration with the Spanish government against ETA. In recent years, due to an improving economy in Spain,
2209-636: Was the site of an Iberian oppidum that commanded the region and was named Julia Lybica by the Romans . It was the capital of Cerdanya in antiquity , before being replaced by Hix ( commune of Bourg-Madame , France ) in the Middle Ages . During the Visigothic period, its citadel, the castrum Libiae , was held by the rebel Paul of Narbonne against King Wamba in 672. As the "town (or 'city') of Cerdanya," 8th century Llívia may also have been
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