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Business Over Tapas (26th  SEP13)

By Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner

miércoles 22 de octubre de 2014, 11:21h

A digest of this week's Spanish financial, political and social news aimed primarily at Foreign Property Owners: with Lenox Napier and Andrew Brociner. For subscriptions and other information about this site, go to businessovertapas.com - email:  [email protected] - Note: Underlined words or phrases are links to the Internet. Right click and press 'Control' on your keyboard to access.

Editorial:

It looks like pragmatism is winning out over idealism. The latest news is that the Health Minister has agreed to let smokers have at it while pulling levers in the slot machine rooms of Eurovegas. The health of the croupiers is thus respected. With this slightly grotesque precedent in mind, perhaps we could now persuade the ecologists to stop threatening people's houses and allow Spain to start selling retirement homes again.

Housing:

'Illegal tourist accommodation is a reality. A firm called 'Tourism & Law' estimated that 5.7 million people were housed in private homes during 2012. Around 15% up on one year earlier. How can the hospitality industry combat this phenomenon?

CEO Javier del Nogal explains that the best way to do this is through 'La Ley de Competencia'. "One can always make a complaint when it can be demonstrated that these accommodations have a significant and competitive impact on the rest", explained the lawyer in a conference organized by his firm and the Gremi d'Hotels of Barcelona last week.

However, del Nogal invited reflection on the situation. "Would the type of tourist who stays in these unregulated apartments be willing to pay more to go to a hotel or a regulated apartment?", he asked rhetorically.

Del Nogal considers that the growth of tourists preferring to stay in private homes is largely caused by 'the crisis' and by the ease of the Internet to find accommodation'... From 02B.

The Telegraph on unexpected property bills: - 'Approximately one million Britons live in Spain permanently or maintain holiday homes there. The worst effects of the global recession have seen property prices plummet, representing a golden opportunity to pick up relative bargains. For those unable to sell, it provides a significant headache.

Fewer and cheaper sales not only spell bad news for owners and vendors - they have also caused concern on the part of Spain’s tax authorities, which have seen their take decrease due to the slowdown in the property market. In order to reverse the situation, tax officials have taken more proactive steps, resulting in an increase in reviews of sale prices and the transfer taxes paid when properties are bought'...

'The European Parliament Petitions Committee has called for a fair compensation system for all owners whose houses were demolished or expropriated under the old Spanish Coastal Law. This is set out in a report, approved by the majority of the members of the Committee, who made a visit to Madrid a few months ago to discuss the reform of the Coastal Act with the various Spanish authorities and organisations, and consider whether it violates European laws on environmental protection and private property. The Parliament has received numerous complaints in recent years from European citizens affected. The text of the report states that the MEPs “recommend that the Spanish authorities establish a system of full and fair financial compensation for all legal owners whose property has been the subject of demolition or expropriation by application of the Coastal Act”. According to the report – which was approved with 16 votes in favour, three against, and six abstentions – such compensation “should reflect the value of the property.”'... From Kyero.

So, how are things over at the Hotel Algarrobico in Carboneras, Almería? The 20 storey illegal hotel, built between a Natural Park and the shoreline, had work stop on the building as it neared completion in 2006. - 'The Andalucían Minister of the Environment and Land Management (Medio Ambiente y Ordenación del Territorio), María Jesús Serrano, said on Tuesday that “she is waiting for the entire judicial procedure to finish its course through the courts” in relation to the Sun Azata hotel in the area of El Algarrobico in the Almería town of Carboneras, prior to “ordering, if need be, the demolition of the site”'... (From Ideal.)

Just along the coast, Helen and Len Prior, who live between their garage and a wooden shed erected on the site of their home in a quiet area outside Vera, demolished in January 2008, celebrated their 50th anniversary last Saturday. Life must go on. (picture and story at Spanish Shilling).

A major (and grotesque) article on the 'Urban boom' in El País this weekend begins with 'The real estate boom has passed, but bricks placed in full fury, as some urban councillors looked the other way, remain well glued to the ground. Environmental prosecutors still have "serious problems" in executing the demolitions of illegal structures. Owners are trying to delay the arrival of the bulldozers in any way they can, such as looking for faults in the judicial process, or discovering new clauses in the law, such as the Ley de Costas. The town halls, who must share responsibility since they should ensure the urban legality, argue in many cases that do not have funds to address these issues. "We are up against a brick wall," says Patricia Navarro, the environmental prosecutor for Cadiz'... The article reveals that there are some 300,000 'illegal homes' in Andalucía, perhaps another 50,000 on the Valencian coast and still more in Cantabria (the article seems vague, like the Spanish ecologists themselves, as to numbers). Here's a paragraph dealing with the Almanzora Valley in Almería: - 'A group of foreigners affected by urban excesses committed in the Valle del Almanzora (Almería), where there are 12,000 illegal constructions, has appealed to the European Court of Human Rights. For now, a local judge has suspended the order of demolition on the home of a British couple to wait and see the result of the international demand. Gerardo Vázquez, lawyer of the AUAN local property owners association, is calling for an urgent change in the rules. 'It is a Byzantine system', he says, 'it is clear that the system has failed by the number of so-called illegal dwellings on the table'.

Tourism:

'Non-package tour foreign tourists visiting Spain increased 5.6 percent in August to represent 71 percent of the total, according to data from the survey of Frontur.

Up to August, our country received 42.3 million tourists, 4.5% more than in the same period in 2012, after a summer record thanks to growing markets like the Nordic and the Russian ones, and a push from the more traditional sectors, such as the French or the British.

Just in August, 8.3 million international tourists arrived in Spain, an increase of 7.1%, marking a new monthly record high. The Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, called this month "historic" and is confident that the money spent by visitors also broke record highs by overcoming 40.4 billion euros, which is 7% more than in the same period of last year'...  From Preferente.

Finance:

'Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy told the Senate on Tuesday that the government has raised its economic growth forecast for next year to 0.7 percent from 0.5 percent. The Popular Party leader said the new figure will be included in the state budget proposals for 2014, which the Cabinet will approve on Friday.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal on Monday, Rajoy said that Spain would pull out of recession in the current quarter, with GDP rising between 0.1 and 0.2 percent'... From El País in English. Rajoy also told the Wall Street Journal that 'Spain is out of recession but not out of the crisis'...

More than 500 municipalities across Spain are close to bankruptcy, and have requested  Government rescue. To survive they request that their depleted municipal coffers should be protected from areas where they are over-extended. On the other side of the scale, there are almost 3,500 municipalities spread across the country who can show a healthy balance. From El Confidencial.

How much did the failed Olympic bid cost Spain? El País in English investigates: - '"We're all paying for this," muttered a disgruntled civil guard when the Madrid 2020 delegation arrived at Madrid's Barajas airport, after the city had lost out on the Olympic Games in Buenos Aires. The Air Europa flight, which was carrying politicians, athletes, businessmen and journalists, was paid for by the airline. Accommodation in Argentina came from the coffers of the bid, which had been partly filled with public money.

Air Europa's contribution was one of a series of private sponsorship deals for Madrid's candidacy, which topped up funds from the city and region's coffers. The full budget for Madrid 2020 is due to be made public soon. In the meantime, EL PAÍS has used official accounts and reports, as well as explanations from members of the bid team, to estimate the direct costs of the capital's third failed attempt to secure an Olympic Games. "Madrid 2020 has been very austere and cheaper than the previous bids," said Popular Party Madrid Mayor Ana Botella. But by how much?'...

'The amount of cement consumed in Spain declined by 23.4% during the month of August compared with the same month in 2012, to stand at 886.005 tonnes, as reported by the employer's association 'Oficemen'. Demand for this product continues to fall this year and so since the beginning of the crisis, which at the end of 2012 had already accumulated a drop from 2008 of 70%'... From El Mundo.

Corruption:

'Spanish police have identified property worth an estimated 87.9 million euros owned by disgraced businessman Gerardo Díaz-Ferrán, who had declared himself bankrupt in order to avoid paying creditors, radio station SER reported last Thursday.

The former head of the Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations (CEOE), the country's largest employer group, is currently in the Soto del Real jail in Madrid province where he is facing charges of fraud and money-laundering'...  From El País in English.

An interesting figure in Spanish jurisprudence, the Chief Anti-corruption Prosecutor. His job, as an employee of the ministry of the Interior, is apparently to make sure that corruptionb thrives. How else to interpret news items like 'El fiscal protege a Rajoy y se opone a que declare en el caso Bárcenas. Anticorrupción rechaza también que testifiquen Rodrigo Rato y Mayor Oreja, que también figuran como perceptores de sobresueldos en los papeles del extesorero', a title in Tuesday's Público which continues: 'The anti-corruption Prosecutor is opposed that the Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, together with former ministers Rodrigo Rato and Jaime Mayor Oreja, should testify as witnesses in the Bárcenas case, prosecution sources told Efe today'... El Huff Post runs a similar story: 'The anti-corruption Prosecutor has opposed in a letter handed in to the judge Pablo Ruz that the President Mariano Rajoy, former vice-president Rodrigo Rato and former minister Jaime Mayor Oreja should declare as witnesses in the Barcenas case, as has been called by the accusation ADADE (a group of anti-fraud lawyers)'... Other odd stories of the anti-corruption prosecutor are gathered together here and include gems like 'Anti-corruption prefers to turn the page: it is opposed to investigate the destruction of the Bárcenas hard disks', 'First steps of an agreement behind the curtains? Anti-corruption stalls the investigation into Chaves and Griñán' and  'Anti-corruption requests to cancel inquiry into Bankia sale of preference shares'. 1, 2 and 3.

Politics:

'The Minister of Justice, Alberto Ruiz-Gallardón, defended in a Congressional plenary session the "personal honesty in all his public performance throughout his life" of President Mariano Rajoy, and said that such conduct is a source of "pride" and "example to others".

Answering José Luis Centella, a spokesman for the Izquierda Unida who had spoken of "lies" and the "lack of credibility of Rajoy in the Bárcenas Case”, the Minister solemnly added that,"not only in my personal capacity, but as a member of the Partido Popular – a party that is deeply proud of having contributed to the construction of many years of democracy in this country"'...  He'll go far. Story at El Huff Post.

El Mundo. Electricity rates to go up again... - ' The Minister of Industry, Energy and Tourism, José Manuel Soria, said on Wednesday that if the Government had not approved the package of measures to slow down the 'tariff deficit' over the last two years of legislature, the price of electricity that consumers paid would have risen over that time by a massive 42%, and he assures us that 'such a situation would never be acceptable to this Government''...    

A comparative study of electricity costs in Europe here.

Spain's wiliest politician, Esperanza Aguirre, thinks that we should learn to imitate Catalonia rather than to denigrate her. - '"Spain would do well to know and appreciate Catalonia and the Catalans, starting with the language", she said in the Círculo Ecuestre in Barcelona last week.

"A call for independence, if you wish it, does not shock me”, she added, “but it must be done within the law. The law prohibits secession, but the law does not prohibit changing the law”'....  From El Huff Post.

'The Catalan President, Artur Mas, believes that 'Catalonia feels affection for Spain but no longer has confidence in the Spanish State', an opinion that encourages him to keep his commitment to hold a sovereign consultation in 2014, using at the time 'all the democratic and legal mechanisms' available. Mas made these statements at the beginning of the debate on General Policy that started on Wednesday afternoon in the Catalonian Parliament and will continue through Friday'...   From El Mundo.

'A new inheritance law has been introduced by the Junta de Andalucía, aimed at combating tax fraud. This will prevent Andalusians from freely disposing of their money from their bank accounts during the year prior to their death in the case that this is deemed to be 'foreseeable'(!)...

...According to the Andaluz Minister for Finance and Public Administration María Jesús Montero, situations have been detected in which "transfers on bank deposits" from a potentially moribund person towards "the accounts of relatives" in order to "avoid the payment of such a tax" have become commonplace. This new rule will make it impossible, therefore, to perform operations on bank deposits that may be suspected of simply being a transfer of money to avoid inheritance tax'...  From El Mundo.

'Gibraltar's chief minister has been targeted by the Spanish tax-man in the latest attempt to deflect attention away from the PP corruption scandal. Fabian Picardo and various other members of Gibraltar’s government are being investigated to ensure they are complying with Spanish tax regulations. Picardo owns two properties on the Costa del Sol, one in Sotogrande and another near Benahavis'... From The Olive Press.

Courts

'The reform of the criminal code approved by the Government has aroused criticism among one group of judges. The spokesman of the progressive association of Judges for Democracy (JpD), Joaquim Bosch, said on Friday that the reform of the criminal code does not conform to the needs of modern society and it "takes us back to times prior to the Constitution"'...  From Público.

From Público: - 'The theft of a bag of nuts in a shop or a pen in a stationery store will be considered as a crime 'un delito' rather than, as hithertoo, a theft 'un hurto'. The draft Criminal Code approved by the Government punishes as an offence the subtraction of any item "without the permission of its owner", although its value is under 400 euros, the current legislative limit for a theft to be considered small-time'...

The reform in property law means that all theft will be regarded as a crime, with punishment typically between six and eighteen months in prison. The judge will however be allowed to show leniency if the stolen items are of little value or the victim is – apparently – wealthy. The new law of the Penal Code, passed last week, includes some added penalties against white-collar crime, corruption and file-sharing.

A great story in El País tells of a British 'villain' called Jason Coghlan who, while in jail in Málaga, had plenty of time to study both law and the Spanish judicial system (with its many pitfalls) and is now advising Britons who have run foul of the Law in Spain as how to deal, not only with the way things are done here, but with the people who 'do them'. Jason, free and with his time as a 'villain' behind him, now works as a go-between and ensures that the lawyers do their job properly. He should have a brilliant future...

Various:

'Hospital budget cuts and new charges for medicine are blocking healthcare access to hundreds of thousands of people in Spain, including the seriously ill, a top health charity warned on Tuesday. Despite the government's recent claims that the economic crisis is easing, Medicos del Mundo said last year's spending cuts were hitting the most vulnerable people and raising health risks'...  More at The Local.

'The Minister of Health, Social Services and Equality, Ana Mato, said on Wednesday that it would be “a perfect foolishness and irresponsibility" if the Government rejected projects generating economic wealth for Spain "without even looking at them" such as the Eurovegas project. Mato responded in this way to a question from the Socialist parliamentarian José Martínez Olmos on whether the Government would value economic interests over health protection by changing the anti-tobacco law at the request of the promoters of this leisure project to be built in Madrid'... From Público. But wait... Breaking News...  an article out early Thursday in El Mundo is titled 'Sanidad gives way to Eurovegas, there'll be smoking in the rooms without croupiers'. It seems that those poor souls who like to play in rooms dedicated to tragaperras – coin swallowing slot machines – may be able to smoke as their plastic cups of euro coins are emptied.

There's an idea going round that Spain might move to the same hour as Britain, that's to say, put the clock back. Spain used to enjoy British time, but moved forward to – let's call it German time – when Franco wanted to become more European. Does it make sense to return..? Will we be a happier people..? Will Gibraltar follow Spain's lead..? All this and more will be decided in time.

'Their three-hour lunch breaks have long been the envy of workers in neighbouring countries, their business meetings often start late and millions of them rarely get to bed till well after midnight. But now Spaniards face growing pressure to give up their siestas, bring their working day into line with the rest of western Europe - and switch their clocks to the same time zone as Britain.

A parliamentary commission has called for fundamental reform to traditional working hours and practices as part of Spain's effort to break out of recession and reduce the chronic unemployment that has dogged its economy for the best part of a decade'... A story from The Telegraph suggests that Spain's crisis is down to the lifestyle enjoyed here (long may it last!).

'It's got what many believe is the greatest club football team ever assembled -- FC Barcelona. Not to mention one of the planet's greatest collections of art -- at the Prado museum in Madrid. Then there's the food, which this year we suggested was the greatest cuisine in the world right now.

What makes Spain such a cultural powerhouse?

Size doesn't hurt. It's Western Europe's second-largest country (after France) in terms of area, and the world's third-largest exporter of wine, fruits and vegetables. But it's the incredible diversity of its people and passions that holds the key to understanding Spain's eternal appeal'...  With videos and editorial, CNN presents '11 Things to Know Before Visiting Spain'.

How does Spain get away with things we would never approve of in Israel? Not so silly maybe. See Commentary Magazine:  - '...Europe denounces Israeli actions as unacceptable even as it deems the exact same actions by Spain unexceptionable. There’s a name for such double standards, and it isn’t “human rights.” It’s known as hypocrisy'.

Finally:

A list of public servants... with private interests. Oh Dear, there's a minister or two here...

 

 

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