In Spain, the culture of equal opportunities "has very quickly developed" to such an extent that we can say that country has turned "from a newcomer to a pioneer”. This was said by Emanuela Lombardo, a research worker from Complutense University in Madrid, as she spoke at a meeting on "Equal opportunities and human rights" which ends in Rome today. "The transition from the Francoist dictatorship to a modern democracy which is open up to Europe began the speaker lasted about ten years in Spain. In the period intervening between Franco’s death in 1975 and Spain’s entry into the European Economic Community in 1986, Spain set up the National Agency for Equal Opportunities, the Institute De la Mujer, founded in 1983″. Since then, "gender equality policies and equality facilities have very quickly developed both regionally and nationally”. Until the 2007 Equality Act, which "binds the parties to have no more than 60% and at least 40% same-sex nominees”. In addition, the new act sets forth "proactive measures in favour of women to correct any actual inequality between men and women” and the introduction of "a well-balanced presence or composition of men and women in the state administration, in staff selection bodies and in the Board of Directors of state-controlled companies”.
