Paper presented at the CONVERGE Project Workshop, Université Louis Pasteur (BETA), Strasbourg, 7-8 January 2000.The objective of the present work is to analyse and assess the influence of the innovation process in the economic development of Spain, essentially since her incorporation into the European Community in 1985-86. Along this exercise, the existence or not of a system of innovation should be lighted as well as the relevance of the regionalisation of Spain politics to those processes. This analysis has to be placed into a dual, and significant, context. On one side, the position of Spain in relation to Europe and her policies; regional, innovation, research and development. On the other, the socio-economical characteristics and evolution of Spain along the last fifteen years. These contexts shall be confronted against the current theoretical framework on the systems of innovation and the economic and regional development.This work has been supported by a grant from the TSER Programme, DG Research, European Commission.