Bilbao – An example for Spain and Europe?

Recently I’ve raised questions about the sustainability of fiscal devolution in Europe at a time of financial crisis but my visit to Bilbao earlier this week showed that they are not always in conflict.

Bilbao City Council has rightly been recognised internationally for its long term programme of debt and deficit reduction, which has enabled it to eliminate the city’s debt while pursuing the economic regeneration to promote recovery from the decline of traditional industries in the 1980s and 1990s.

To adapt a phrase from the UK political vocabulary, Bilbao started to “fix the roof while the sun was shining” in the growth years of the 2000s and is now better placed than many national and sub-national administrations to cope with the shocks arising from the economic crisis.