Spanish accession to the EC had deep consequences on its externalrelations, characterised before accession by protectionism and isolationism. Thearticle focuses on the impact that accession had on Spanish external relations andthe lessons that can be drawn from its experience for candidate countries whichcould be in a similar situation: being a EU candidate with a huge external agendanot always convergent with the EU’s external priorities, and scant resources tomatch perceived external obligations. Spain developed a proactive strategy basedon contributing to the formulation of EU external policies consistent with Spanishnational interests, but there has also been a clear substitution of policies, wherethere was a need to preserve national preferences. Policy substitution througheconomic instruments has accompanied policy transfer and policy convergence,mainly in areas with a low degree of europeanisation