province of Santander was renamed the province of Cantabria. In 1983 the province of Oviedo was renamed the province of Asturias. In 1992 the provinces of Gerona and Lérida changed to use their Catalan language names Girona and Lleida, respectively. License plates from Gerona/Girona were changed from "GE" to "GI". In 1995 the municipality of Gátova was transferred from the province of Castellón to the province of Valencia. In 1997, the province of Palma de Mallorca was renamed the provincia de les Illes Balears (Province of the Balearic Islands, using the Catalan name for the islands). The license plate changed from "PM" to "IB". In 1998 the provinces of La Coruña and Orense changed to the Galician language A Coruña and Ourense. The license plate of Orense/Ourense changed from "OR" to "OU". In the early 2000s, Guipúzcoa officially turned into Gipuzkoa, the Basque language form, as per decision made by the General Council of Gipuzkoa, ratified by the Spanish Parliament in 2011. In 2011, Álava and Vizcaya turned also into Álava/Araba and Bizkaia, as passed by the Spanish Parliament in 2011. Under Article 141 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978, the provinces remain Spain's basic units of territorial organization. They are the basis for electoral constituencies (Article 68) and autonomous communities are normally formed out of one or more provinces, with no province divided between two or more autonomous communities (Article 143). The revised Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia that went into effect in August 2006 ignored the provincial division within Catalonia, replacing it with a division into seven veguerias. However, the number of senators or deputies that Catalonia contributes to Spain's parliament, the Cortes Generales: remained regulated by Article 69 of the Constitution in terms of provinces. While the veguerias project remained controversial, the Catalan government intended to put it into effect in January 2010. However, the 2010 Catalan regional election produced a new legislature which has put these plans on hold. References Informational notes Citations Territorial division Provinces of Spain Subdivisions of Spain