Business Over Tapas

Editorial:

Well, it’s hot!

Housing:

‘Eight years after the real estate bubble officially burst, all the existing indicators point to the sector’s crisis being over, although there are still some loose ends and some kind of legacy, such as the banking sector’s non-performing loans. But the data shows we can definitively put behind us an enormous problem which was a threat for the economic system for too long...’. The Corner says that ‘Spain’s Property Crisis is about to Pass into History’.

A feature in El País discusses the uncontrolled speculative building in Marina D’Or which began back in 1983.

From El Confidencial: ‘3,500 unlicensed houses in the desert: Camposol, the British nightmare in Murcia. Thousands of English people bought houses in Mazarrón. Now they have had enough: report that no escrituras, while some are in ruins and others were built in a dry river bed’. An interesting and complete report here.

‘Maura Hillen, who has campaigned tirelessly for expats affected by planning abuses in southern Spain, has been awarded an MBE. The head of Abusos Urbanisticos Almanzora No! (AUAN), an organization that campaigns for the legalization of homes declared illegal by planning authorities has been appointed an honorary Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE), for services to the British community in Spain.

Originally from Ireland, Hillen has steered the lobby group that represents more than 500 expat members with homes in the Almanzora Valley in Almeria, southern Spain...’. From The Local. We are sure that the Readers of Business over Tapas join together in sending to Maura our warmest congratulations.

‘The Valle del Almanzora in Almería is making plans ahead of ‘Brexit’. The Association of Municipalities in the Valle del Almanzora has not shown indifference to the decision of the UK to leave the European Union. The President of this body, Antonio Ramón Salas, has chosen the town of Zurgena to start work on the matter; by collecting suggestions, concerns and the general opinion of the British public and then to design a new series of actions to reduce the possible effects of Brexit. The mayor of Zurgena, Luis Díaz, and Councillor Jim Simpson, recently held a meeting in the Town Hall with Antonio Ramón Salas, when they discussed the possible consequences and reactions to the exit of the UK as a member State of the European Union...’. From Typically Spanish.

Tourism:

‘The Mar Menor is one step away from collapse by pollution. The symptomatic proliferation of toxic algae has led the Ministry of Health of Murcia to ask the Agriculture and Environment departments in the Region (both governed by the PP) for urgent and constant monitoring. But the reaction comes eighteen years after the first warnings. The situation is at the limit, according to the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and the University. The Prosecutor's Office has opened an investigation into the actions of the Hydrographic Confederation of the Segura, the regional Government, local farmers and the surrounding municipalities. The report is from El País.

There’s no doubt but that endless paperwork slows down Spain (while creating pointless jobs and protecting monopolies). An article here at El País about the travails of those who wish to rent out their apartments to tourists for short lets.

In the Basque Country, a hotel will soon not be able to earn its five stars if the receptionist doesn’t greet the guests in Euskera – the Basque language, says El Español with horror.

‘End of the Costa dream: Brexit to end cheap holiday and ex-pat homes. ‘Brexit’ is set to spell the end of a dream held by millions of Brits of retiring in sun drenched Spain...’. The item comes from a trash British paper called The Daily Star.

Finance:

‘Spain is hunting around for ways to avoid a whopping EU fine for having broken government financing rules, and hence a change to corporation tax has been announced. But it’s a complicated and somewhat fussy way of doing things, and designed just to bring in more money for 2017. The 2012 change to corporation tax will be modified again. Large companies will be expected to pay a percentage of the tax on expected profits in advance on their annual tax declarations. If they over-pay, they can apply for a compensation on the following July’s tax return. The government hopes to bring in an additional six billion (6,000 million) euros via this method, along with an addition billion from a crack-down on tax fraud, and a further 1,5 billion by paying lower interest on government debt...’. Story from David Jackson. The subject is also reported at Economía Digital here: ‘De Guindos undertakes in Brussels to establish by 2017 a minimum rate for this valuation. The goal, to reduce the deficit below 3%’.

La Opinión de Málaga says that in 2015, ‘more European residents left Málaga than came’. The reason, says the newspaper, was the worry about Spanish taxes, especially the famous Modelo 720.

From Mark Stücklin’s Spanish Property Insight, discussinga relatively new tax scheme that the Spanish Treasury introduced last year that works similarly to the UK’s popular non-domicile tax arrangement, and which could make Spain a more attractive destination for wealthy expats when word of this pilot scheme gets around.: ‘The Spanish Tax Office quietly, albeit boldly, introduced a tax scheme last year inspired by the popular UK’s non-domiciled tax regime which has proven most successful at attracting foreign investments (particularly in the Greater London area). It is a lukewarm attempt to attract high-achievers and create wealth fostering job creation...’. More here.

‘Corruption costs the Spanish tax-payer 87,000 million euros per year. Every day an average of seven people involved in corruption cases are arrested in Spain and in the last four years a total of 7,140 people have been detained’. LaSexta TV has an article and a video here.

General Elections June 26:

Still no solution in sight, as the PSOE says it will not support Mariano Rajoy’s bid for a new Conservative government. El Mundo reports. The leaders of the other main parties are equally against a Rajoy-led government here and here. Late news from Spanish RTVE says that Ciudadanos will now vote ‘no’ for Rajoy in the first round, and abstain in the second.

Politics:

From El País in English, an interview with Manuela Carmena. ‘Madrid Mayor: “Cities can end the democratic apathy”. In a joint interview by EL PAÍS, Le Figaro and La Repubblica, Manuela Carmena takes stock of her first year in office and talks about politics, ideology and the larger role of cities in the world’.

The Catalonian CDC Convergència Democràtica party has changed its name to the Partit Demòcrata Català, the PDC. Artur Mas is the likely leader of the party. More at El País. ‘...The Catalan party’s renaming is part of an attempted makeover of the party’s public image, tarnished by several years of allegations and court cases over corruption and illegal financing that have contributed to its sharp drop during the past year in public opinion polls and in voter preference at the ballot box...’. From Progressive Spain.

Corruption:

The state says that it has proven impossible to regain the 313 million euros lent to the America’s Cup in Valencia from 2007. Story at El Mundo here.

‘The Spanish Tax Agency has launched a major raid against fraud at nightlife venues across Spain. The move comes at the height of the summer season, with clubs in full swing. Officers have taken away large amounts of undeclared money and computer equipment.

More than 500 tax inspectors and other law enforcement officers have already searched the premises of over 100 companies that run bars, pubs, nightclubs and other entertainment venues in 11 regions of Spain...’. From El País in English here.

Gibraltar:

‘The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Andalusian Government showed different approaches on Tuesday to addressing the future of Gibraltar with the upcoming departure of the UK from the EU. Spain’s chief diplomat José Manuel García-Margallo said that the ‘Brexit’ is "the best opportunity for Spain" to recover the colony since the Treaty of Utrecht, the spokesman of the Junta de Andalucía said that sovereignty of the colony was not a priority...’. In contrast to the aggressive dreams of the minister, the Andalusians are generally more in favour of minimizing the effects of the British referendum, in the hope of keeping better commercial relations with the UK. From El País.

Brexit:

The Brexit is neatly summed up by Charlie Hebdo in an article (en Anglais) here.

‘The British community in Spain is the largest in the EU: there are 297,000 Britons resident in Spain, according to January data from the National Statistics Institute. After the political earthquake created by Brexit, a large part of this community is now seeking dual nationality from the Spanish government to protect their rights as European citizens. For this to happen, there will have to be a change in the Spanish law. To this end, some 25,000 people either born in Spain or residents who have worked there for over 10 years have organised a petition which has gathered over 1,500 signatures in just one day...’. From The Corner. The subject is also examined by El Mundo.

From The Independent: ‘Brexit: Home Office loophole could see hundreds of thousands of EU students have their UK stay cut short. Home Office is already at the centre of a full inquiry over its treatment of overseas students in Britain’.

From Dispatches: ‘Dear Brits: This is what it’s like to be a non-EU citizen’.

From El Cano Royal Institute: ‘English are the exception — Europeans dig the EU’. An interesting article by a Spaniard called Miguel Otero-Iglesias. An excerpt: ‘...The English, especially those forming “Little England,” have always been uncomfortable in the EU. The eurozone crisis only reinforced this feeling. English exceptionalism has many sources: Westminster’s democratic tradition; its imperial past; and its special relationship with the U.S. English as the world’s lingua franca, and the City of London its most prominent global financial centre. Britain is extremely proud of its seat in the U.N. Security Council and its nuclear weapons. All this makes a large majority of English believe they are primus inter pares in the EU club. This sentiment is exceptional...’.

An interesting site for pro-Europeans is the European Movement International here.

A group of Britons in Mijas, Málaga, have started a group called ‘Brexpats in Spain’ to see what can be done about the ‘Brexit’ issue. Story at La Opinión de Málaga.

Media:

The Secretary for Political Analysis for Podemos is Carolina Bescansa. Carolina says that the reason that a million Podemos votes stayed home on Election Day was down to the mediatic insistence on ‘Venezuela stories’, including the supposed ‘illegal finance’ of the party by Venezuela’s leaders. ‘A lie repeated often enough becomes a truth’, she says. More at El Plural.

From the Basque Ikusle: ‘Eduardo Inda (editor of OK Diario) is accused of "publishing false dossiers" and acting as "a media hit-man from the sewers of the Interior Ministry"’. The article says that for Inda ‘the end justifies the means’.

Trolls and bots used to champion one’s candidate and confuse the opposition. Such is politics these days. Here, some cyber-help for Susana Díaz, want it or not.

Various:

‘The British people voted on 23 June 2016 to leave the European Union (EU). The government will negotiate new arrangements with the EU including on issues affecting British nationals living and travelling abroad. The negotiations to leave the EU may take up to 2 years or more. The government has made clear that we want the legal rights of British nationals living in European countries, as well as EU nationals in the UK, to be properly protected...’. The British Government gives advice for British nationals travelling and living in Europe here.

From Typically Spanish: ‘Ilias Fifa obtained the gold medal in the 5,000 m at the European Athletics Championship in Amsterdam. Since he smuggled his way into Spain, when just 17 years old, by hiding on the axle of a lorry from his native Tangiers into Spain. Ilias Fifa has been training under Rafa Caro which resulted in his success on Sunday...’.

Since 2012, Spain has lost 1.6 million young people under the age of 34 to jobs or opportunities abroad. This phenomenon has helped push upwards the average age of the remainder in Spain, from just 28 a hundred years ago, to the current average of 41 years old today. At the same time, life expectancy has grown from the year 1900, with just 34.8 years, to today’s 82.7 years. Story at El Huff Post.

Matthew Levin, from New Jersey, gored by a bull in the Pamplona run on Wednesday, told reporters from his hospital bed that ‘it was the best experience of his life’.

See Spain:

Spain’s 350 best beaches. An interactive map from El País here.

Letters

Lenox, mate, You traduce us. We might be in favour of a Brexit but not of the chaos. It wasn't inevitable. It reflects the fact that the markets hadn't 'factored in' a majority for a Brexit - neither you nor I expected it - and also that no one in the public eye really knows what to do now. But if, like me, you read Richard North's EUReferendum blog every day, you'd know that there is a detailed plan but that the dreadful leaders of the Brexit campaign ignored it completely. It's now being used by civil servants to advise whoever is now planning the next steps.

The chaos will pass, the pound will rise again - it's been lower in the last 10 years against the euro - and things will return to normal. Or something like it. The Germans can be relied on to ensure common sense prevails. Especially once Plonker Juncker has been booted out.

Cheers, Colin.

Hi Colin - my interest in the referendum and its result is strictly through the filter of Spain - and it looks terrible! (Don't worry, I have a few other correspondents who agree with you!).

Hope all well, Lenox

Lenox, please allow me? :

Rather than allow piffle like this to appear perhaps you could widen your reading to take in all political views (and factual). I find this really grotesque as well as totally false and

infantile (in its bigoted ignorance it is even worse than the Guardian?).

There were almost no reasons (other than selfishness = ME, ME, ME) for supporting the Remain campaign whereas those for leaving this totally undemocratic, corrupt economic dead-zone were myriad and it will be far better we are outside the tent when the mierda falls upon it (which is likely to be sooner rather than later).

No Brexit supporter of any kind wants any foreigners to leave the UK - just as we must remain where we are and each under the same conditions. Anything else is too stupid to even contemplate.

But for UK democracy and our Courts of Law are returned to us in addition to all the economic reasons etc.

Give the dreadful Guardian a rest, eh? Perhaps try the Spectator, the Telegraph & Sunday Times?

Un saludo, JD

Hi JD, Thanks, you may be right, I don't know about the UK and the pros and cons (I'm apparently standing with the ‘48 percenters’), but I'm looking at it from the point of view of home-owners and investors in Spain. If the UK leaves the EU, then for the ex-pats here, things will either be worse, or far worse.

Un abrazo, Lenox

Letter sent to H E Simon Manley:

4 July 2016

Dear Mr Ambassador

I am a retired official of the British Council, now resident in Spain. I wonder if you have fully understood how the British are being portrayed by the Spanish press, as a laughing stock. During my 35 years of the Council, Britain may have been disliked, but until now no one has found us this ridiculous.

Two years ago, I wrote to the Prime Minister, advising him not to hold the referendum. Since then, the previous Ambassador to Spain, Mr Paxman, assured us not to be worried. I understand that you have had to write a similar letter. Even the worst case scenario can become yet more disastrous. We are also at risk of losing Scotland and Northern Ireland.

In addition, the Brexit movement has encouraged xenophobia to the extent of causing the murder of MP Jo Cox. A few days ago I saw that the doors of a Spanish school in London were painted with the words “foreigner scum”. How have we sunk to this level? How have I worked 35 years in the British Council, only to find that people in Britain think like that?

I have also seen how the Brexit supporters have lied and lied on the BBC, without the BBC being able to refute such lies. These lies have been repeated constantly despite being manifestly untrue. For example, the claim that we paid £350,000,000 from the NHS to the EU which is of course not true and even Gove, Duncan Smith and Farage now say that it was “only an estimate”. The campaign was based on many such populist untruths.

This referendum is a complete fraud. In addition, the Government did not allow me to vote. I have always paid my tax in full because I pay it in Britain. So why was I disenfranchised? Many of us have lost the right to vote on an issue which concerns us deeply.

Furthermore, the Government failed to remember that the United Kingdom contains four countries, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Is it right that Scotland and Northern Ireland should be forced to accept a decision so contrary to the desires of their people?

Finally, we had to hear the nauseous Donald Trump, to tell us to vote for Brexit, though Brexit campaigners were indignant because Barack Obama advised us to vote remain.

Is there no way to escape from the disastrous situation in which Cameron has left us? Surely our new Government and the Scottish Premier could defeat the Bill in the Parliament?

Yours sincerely

William Campbell

Finally:

We Europeans living in another EU country not our own don't have many rights, not enough, and maybe even fewer with the spectre of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union. We must have representation in Brussels: an agency and an appropriate number of Members of the European Parliament to protect our interests and our rights as Europeans. To ensure our protection and our freedom of movement, we also seek to obtain an internal European Passport. We will talk to both our local politicians and to Brussels. We will not send more empty petitions to London or Madrid. There are 20 million of us. We are The Europats. Write to [email protected] with your support.