Spanish cucumbers absolved
Spanish cucumbers were initially suspected of being the source of the EHEC bacterium which caused a stomach flu epidemic in Germany and elsewhere in Europe; more than 300 cases have been reported so far. Two of the 15 deaths in Germany have been officially attributed to the deadly E. coli strain. According to current information, the EHEC bacterium has not been found on the Spanish produce.
Rubalcaba PSOE candidate
Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, present Minister of the Interior, will be the PSOE candidate in the 2012 general elections, after Prime Minister Zapatero wisely announced he would not be standing. The Minister is widely respected, but he has only 10 months to get the capsized ship of the socialists upright.
Rubalcaba was not elected in members primary elections, nor even by a party congress, as demanded by some leaders, but in a meeting of the Federal Committee.
Court investigates leaders of Valencia PP
The Valencia Regional Supreme Court is investigating a number of PP and Valencia Government leaders in connection with the wide-ranging “Gűrtel” corruption case. Amongst those to appear before the judge are President Francisco Camps; Vice-President Vicente Rambla; the previous President of the Valencia Parliament; Milagrosa Martinez; the previous Director of the Valencia Tourist Ministry; Rafael Betoret; the previous National Treasurer of PP Luic Barcenas; Cristina Ibanez, Director of PP in Valencia, Ricardo Costa, the previous General Secretary of Valencia PP, Vice-secretary David Serra and Yolanda Garcia, Treasurer of the PP Parliamentary Group....
Deficit of state reduced
The State deficit fell 53% to 2,450 million euros in the first quarter of the year, although most Regions are still in the red, with only Aragon, La Rioja and Galicia managing to create a surplus. The deficit of the Regions reached 4,995 million in the same quarter.
Foreign tourists spend more money
Foreign tourists spent 4,217 million euros in Spain during April, 24.1% more than in the same month last year. The average spent amounted to 894 euros per person, 2.5% more than last year.
CAM close to insolvency
Saving bank Caja de Ahorro Mediterranea has a solvency coefficient of 8.54%, very close to the minimum of 8% required by the Bank of Spain. In the first quarter it had net profits of 39.8 million euros, a fall of 37% on the same period last year. Unpaid loans represent 8.5% of total loans.
Inflation falls to 3.5%
Inflation in Spain fell from 3.8% in April to 3.5 in May. The fall resulted from lower prices for gasoline and travel. Inflation has been steadily rising over the past 9 months.
Car sales down 26% in May
For the eleventh consecutive month, new cars sales fell again in May to just 76,000 units; 26% down on the same month last year. In the four first months of the year car rental companies bought 16,700 units, up 2.3% on last year.
Electricity readings every second month
The Government has decided that electricity companies must from now on read meters every second month. This will end the confusion which has been caused by some companies using estimated readings for five months, with actual reading only being made every sixth month. However, estimated reading may continue if clients agree.
Greek illness contaminates
The possibility that the International Monetary Fund will turn off their 'spring' of credits with the UE making a real intervention, has caused considerable concern in financial markets. On Monday the interest rate being demanded by investors in Greek bonds had risen to more than 26%. Spain was also affected, the country risk going from 233 points to 240, while the interest rate on government bonds over 10 years rose to 5.40%.
Court: 18% “mora’-interest abusive
The Court of Alava has declared as abusive an interest of 18% for non-payment of loans with mortgage guarantee. Using the laws for the protection of consumers, the court has limited the interest on unpaid instalments to 2.5 times the legal interest at the time the loan was agreed.
2,000 hectares forest burned on Ibiza
On the Balearic island of Ibiza 2,000 hectares forest was destroyed by fire despite efforts by fire-fighters to stop the catastrophe. A thousand people had to be evacuated and seven hundred guests in hotel Paradise Beach in Portinatx had to be moved to other hotels. A man who was 'smoking out' bees has been arrested as the presumed originator of the fire.
Euribor continue upward move
The Euribor index is moving upward, making mortgages more expensive again. At the end of May it reached 2.148%, the highest since January 2009. The index is expected to rise further during the remainder of the year, to 2.5 to 3%.
Land bond classified as “garbage”
Caja de Madrid, Bancaja and 5 smaller saving banks have formed two banks, Bankia and Banco Financiero y de Ahorros (BFA). Rating agency Standard & Poor’s have classified long term bonds issued by Bankia as A-, whilst bonds from BFA are given a BBB- rating; below what is considered “garbage." BFA bonds consist to a great degree of bad loans, especially those backed by property in the form of land.
From the horse’s mouth:
Property group G-14 (a Spanish business group consisting of 13 major Spanish construction companies) warns that the real estate sector in Spain will
continue on its downward trend in the short-term with house sales falling
8.3% in 2011 compared with 2010. The Group estimates 450,000 transactions will be completed, which would be the lowest level since 2005, when they started keeping records on trends and forecasts of real estate in Spain.
Angry protests continues
The 'angry people' protests continue in the central squares of Madrid, Barcelona, Malaga and other cities. Tens of thousands of participants are demanding “real democracy” and an end to corruption and the two-party system.
Sentence of European Court of Justice: The Mountain giving birth to a Mouse
By Per Svensson
Thousands of European citizens abused in connection with the purchase or ownership of a property in Spain, and especially in the Valencia Region, are reading in astonishment the news report that the European Court has upheld the infamous Valencia property laws, and are asking, "Can this be true?"
No, it is not true! What happened is: After the investigations made by the European Parliament as a result of 15,000 individual reports on urban planning abuses in Spain, the European Commission felt compelled to bring Spain to the European Court. However, they did not present the abuses suffered by individuals to the court, but only the more technical issue that the announcements for bids of execution of the PAI’s (Integrated Urban Plans) of a certain size, should also be published in the official Boletin of the European Union.
The original urban planning law (LRAU) in the Valencia Region did not oblige property developers to do so. When the Commission denounced it to the European Court, the Valencia Government introduced a new law (LUV) where this obligation was included. It seems the trick has worked with the 'formalistic' European Court.
Comments of MEP Auken
The Danish Member of the European Parliament, Margrete Auken, who led the delegation of deputies investigating the urban planning abuses for the third time, presenting their conclusions in the so called “Auken Report” which was adopted by an overwhelming majority in the Parliament, has commented to the Luxembourg Court's ruling:
She respects the decision of the ECJ with regard to the case brought by the European Commission and which was mentioned in recital AA of the her Report;
Emphasises that this case was brought by the Commission under the power conferred upon it under the Treaty, which is a discretionary power with which the Parliament is not associated; notes that the Court rejected the Commission's request to reopen the oral procedure which it had sought in order to obtain clarification regarding several perceived errors and omissions contained in the Advocate General's Opinion;
Considers that although this decision represents a setback for many persons living in the Valencian Autonomous Region who had set their hopes on a successful legal case brought by the Commission, it does not impact on the rights of European citizens to their legitimately acquired property as stated by the European Parliament in Recital N of the same resolution, nor does it undermine in any way the many other principles, recommendations and proposals contained in the Auken Report, notably paragraphs 3, 4, 18.
I repeat the Recital N that MEP Auken refers to: “whereas Parliament considers that the obligation to cede legitimately acquired private property without due process and proper compensation and the obligation to pay arbitrary costs for unrequested and often unnecessary infrastructure development constitute a violation of an individual's fundamental rights under the ECHR and in the light of the case-law of the European Court of Human Rights” and also the articles she mentions:
“3. Considers that the competent regional authorities should suspend and review all new urbanisation plans which do not respect the strict criteria of environmental sustainability and social responsibility and which do not guarantee respect for the rightful ownership of legitimately acquired property, and to halt and cancel all existing developments where criteria laid down in EU law, notably as regards the award of urbanisation contracts and compliance with provisions relating to water and the environment, have not been respected or applied;
4. Requests the Spanish authorities to ensure that no administrative act that would oblige a citizen to cede legitimately acquired private property finds its legal base in a law which has been adopted after the date of construction of the property in question, since this would infringe the principle of non-retroactivity of administrative acts which is a general principle of Community law (see the judgment of the Court of Justice of 29 January 1985in Case 234/83 Gesamthochschule Duisburg [1985] ECR 327) and would undermine guarantees affording citizens legal certainty, confidence and legitimate expectations ofprotection under EU law;
18. Believes, nevertheless, that the absence of clarity, precision and certainty with regard to individual property rights contained in existing legislation, and the lack of any proper and consistent application of environmental law, are the root cause of many problems related to urbanisation and that this, combined with a certain laxity in the judicial process, has not only compounded the problem but has also generated an endemic form of corruption of which, once again, the EU citizen is the primary victim, but which has also caused theSpanish State to suffer significant loss;”
PP (Promoters Party?) and constructors threaten
The PP led Valencia Government and the property developers have started a publicity campaign trying to persuade people that the ruling of the European Court is an approval of the Valencia urban planning laws and practices. They are threatening to ask for compensation from those who led the defence of the abused individuals and who brought the 15,000 cases to the European Parliament, just as they threatened some years ago to take the Association “Abusos Urbanisticos NO” and us, to court for damaging the property business.
The answer to the threats can only be the same now as last time:
We would love to be taken to court by the promoters for attacking their activities, presenting thousands of European citizens as witnesses.
We maintain our recommendation to European citizens, not to buy a property in Spain.
David Stevenson, Money Morning: What Spain has in common with Egypt
At 9.3% of GDP, the Spanish 2010 budget deficit – what the country needs to borrow each year – wasn’t the worst in the eurozone. But it’s still far too high for comfort.
So Spain has also been forced to tighten its belt. Slashing state spending is the only way it can persuade the markets to lend the cash it needs.
In turn, the austerity programme is causing plenty of all-round angst. No wonder. The jobless rate stands at a staggering 21%, while youth unemployment is more than twice as high. Even those in work are being squeezed. The cost of living is climbing at 3.5% a year while average wages are shrinking.
Many Spaniards have become sufficiently angry to take to the streets. Heavy-duty protests have now carried on for over a week.
“From the outside looking in”, says Gregory White in Business Insider, “it resembles the situation in Egypt in many ways”. It’s hardly surprising that the government is pretty unpopular.
Not a good time to be running for re-election, you’d say.
Spain’s regional governments may be hiding an army of skeletons
Unfortunately, that’s just what’s been happening. The ruling Socialists have been desperately trying to cling onto power in the local and regional weekend’s elections. And they’ve taken a pounding at the polls – the opposition Popular Party has a near-10% lead, reports the BBC.
Although the prime minister has ruled out an early general election, this result could already mean more trouble for Spain. Government changes could signal “a potentially nasty surprise”, reckons Jonathan House in the Wall Street Journal. We could see “the revelation of piles of undisclosed debt in local governments that could undercut the country's drive to avoid an international bailout”.
Why does he think that? Because it’s happened before. “Five months ago a government change in Spain’s Catalonia region revealed a budget deficit over twice as big as previously reported”, he says.
“A growing chorus of economists, local politicians and business leaders say new governments are likely to discover, as Catalonia did, piles of ‘hidden debt’ owed to health clinics and other suppliers.”
You’re getting the picture.
Sure, yields on Spain’s ten-year bonds – what the country has to pay to borrow – have jumped from 4% last October to 5.6% this morning (you can keep track of this every day on the bond yield page of our website). But that’s been based on what the market already knows.
If bigger debt “skeletons come out of the closet in coming weeks”, says House, “Spain’s cost of funding could continue to rise”. This would “throw the country back into the limelight after it’s struggled to demonstrate it doesn’t need to be bailed out like Greece, Ireland and Portugal”.
Expat protest against Spanish bank
30th May 2011
EXCLUSIVE by James Bryce
EXPAT customers of one of Spain's leading banks are protesting over claims
that it has misled them over their savings.
Michael Davenport, 61, insists he was lied to when he opened what he thought
was a standard savings account at La Caixa's Calahonda branch in 2007.
But when the businessman tried to access some of his savings three years
later, he was told he would have to wait for at least another six years.
Indeed, scouring the small print, Davenport, originally from Cheshire,
discovered that the money was tied up in mortgage bonds until 2016.
"And I was told that the only way I could access it was if someone bought
the bonds on the secondary market, which would incur commission charges," he told the Olive Press.
The father-of-one, who runs Davenport Investments in Calahonda, has now
discovered that there are many others who have also lost out.
Various forums and a dedicated Facebook page is full of investors, who claim
they have been similarly misled.
These include a 77-year-old woman who is not able to access her savings
until 2017.
"I am amazed that they didn't give us the full facts," said Davenport. "I
signed the paperwork in good faith. I didn't have any reason to suspect that
they would lie to my face.
"I think people need to be warned," added Davenport, who is now protesting
outside the bank each week.
A financial expert Gwilym Rhys Jones told the Olive Press: "These are
sophisticated investment products designed for sophisticated investors. The
customers should have been given the copy documents at the time of signing
the contract."
Last night La Caixa said: "We have a formal complaints procedure for
customers to follow."
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