Spain is a country.
The Council of Europe ( CoE ; Conseil de l'Europe ) is an international organisation whose stated aim is to uphold human rights , democracy , rule of law in Europe and promote European culture . Spain ( España [ esˈpaɲa ] ) , officially the Kingdom of Spain ( [ Reino de España , links = no ] ) , is a sovereign state located on the Iberian Peninsula in southwestern Europe , with two large archipelagoes , the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea and the Canary Islands off the North African Atlantic coast , two cities Ceuta and Melilla in the North African mainland and several small islands in the Alboran Sea near the Moroccan coast . It is the only European country to have a border with an African country ( Morocco ) and its African territory accounts for nearly 5 % of its population , mostly in the Canary Islands but also in Ceuta and Melilla . With an area of 505990 km2 , Spain is the largest country in Southern Europe , the second largest country in Western Europe and the European Union , and the fourth largest country in the European continent . It is a middle power and a major developed country with the world 's fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP and sixteenth largest by purchasing power parity .