The European Union’s annual report on Turkey’s accession negotiations, which have advanced at a snail’s pace since they were opened nine years ago this month, is like an end of term student report card. If an overall grade were to be assigned to Turkey it would be a C, with the comment that the government was trying harder but still had a long way to go to obtain the mark that would enable the country to join the EU.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/commentary-chislett-turkeys-eu-accession-trying-harder-but-still-failing#.VDftxSmSyyM

Even before Spain’s crisis and despite some notable political, economic and social achievements, the country’s image abroad and within Spain was out of sync with reality. This situation worsened during the recession, which is now over but the gap persists.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/ari43-2014-chislett-distance-between-spains-image-and-countrys-reality#.VC2GNimSzwd

My review of what’s happening in Spain. This one covers two months as it is not published in August when Spain closes down.
Otherwise, published every month since 2004.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/wcm/connect/3482cb80459422c2898be911646dbfa9/109_InsideSpain_ElcanoNewsletter.pdf?MOD=AJPERES&CACHEID=3482cb80459422c2898be911646dbfa9

The victory of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister for the last 11 years and an increasingly authoritarian and polarising figure, in the first round of the country’sfirst presidential election by popular vote, marks a significant turning point in the political life of a nation that has been a sluggish EU candidate since October 2005.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/commentary-chislett-erdogan-turkey-new-sultan#.U_17poCSzwd

The programme of reforms and austerity measures has set Spain on a path of accelerating growth, but the legacy from the crisis is such that unemployment will remain very high for several years yet.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/wp9-2014-chislett-spain-turns-corner-but-legacy-from-crisis-persists#.U-CWMICSyyM

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister for the last 11 years and an increasingly authoritarian and polarising figure, will run in the presidential election on 10 August. No one expects him to lose, least of all Erdogan himself.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/commentary-chislett-turkey-erdogan-run-first-direct-presidential-election#.U7gkeo2SyyM

Spain has the EU’s sixth-largest stock of direct investment abroad. After a period of consolidation following the onset of Spain’s recession in 2009, which led some of the main multinationals to sell assets regarded as non-strategic, particularly those that needed to reduce their debt levels, companies are investing again. Almost two-thirds of the total revenues of the blue chip Ibex-35 companies are generated abroad. At the forefront of Spain’s new wave of internationalisation are the big construction and infrastructure companies.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/ari31-2014-chislett-spanish-direct-investment-abroad-rebounds#.U7ghbI2SyyM

Spain was the world’s third most popular country for tourists in 2013, after France and the US, and it looks like having another bumper year, with international arrivals forecast to set a new record of around 63 million (16.3 million more than the nation’s population).
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/commentary-chislett-spain-flourishing-tourism-mainstay-economy#.U47zhZS1Z9R

The Spanish economy is now firmly out of recession and jobs are beginning to be created, particularly in the services sector, but the stubbornly high unemployment rate will not dip below 20% until 2017, according to the government’s forecasts.
http://www.realinstitutoelcano.org/wps/portal/web/rielcano_en/contenido?WCM_GLOBAL_CONTEXT=/elcano/elcano_in/zonas_in/commentary-chislett-spanish-economy-growing-hardly-denting-unemployment#.U30QrJSSzwc