100 posts
Spain’s Unemployment Continues To Rise
Spain’s EU harmonised seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate (which is the interesting number) went up again in July, according to the latest data from Eurostat. It rose to 20.3% from 20.2% in June. So despite a double digit fiscal deficit, Spai...
On The Shoulders Of Giants – How Spain Is Destined To Follow In Germany’s Footsteps
The current generation of policymakers seem to be like Captains of large ocean liners, out there on the high seas, bereft of either compass or adequate charts, trying hard to calm there worried passengers by telling them nothing is amiss. But the cha...
How Many Times Can One Driver Fall Asleep At The Same Wheel (And Live)?
“Break the thermometer, then you won’t have a fever.” - Former Polish President Lech Walesa Watching the TV news here is Spain at the moment is often a rather discomforting and sad affair. The normal menu seems to consist of a constant stream o...
The cost of living
An interesting article on Spanish website Cotizalia.It looks at recent Eurostat data, which shows that, since the euro came into force, Spain and Greece have seen the highest increases in the cost of living throughout the EU. In comparison to the res...
Controlling The Uncontrollable: Spain’s National Addiction To The Use Of “Dinero B”
Well, before we go any further, I would like to make clear that what I am going to talk about in this post is not anything illegal, or even irregular (things like this must be going on in almost all Euro Area countries even as I write). Bending of th...
Spain channels Reagan
The Spanish government are about to take a very robust line with their air traffic control.The Spanish Government has announced that it will use military air traffic ontrollers to guarantee air traffic over the country if necessary.It comes after a w...
A Tale of Two Construction Markets
More contrasts between Britain and Spain, both of which suffered savage downturns in the housing and construction sectors.
"Fuera de Europa face frio"
I just came back from beautiful sun shining Madrid where with our communication group and national coordinators had two days discussion on communicating Europe and most importantly engaging citizens! Just one day before the end of the Spanish presid...
EU summit faces Spain’s woes and a Slovak threat over Greece
Rumours are flying thick and fast that the troubles of Spain’s banking sector will require emergency attention at Thursday’s summit of European Union leaders in Brussels. But it appears highly improbable that Spain will ask for help fr...
The Nixon option
(I will spell things out a bit more in this post than I might have if we didn’t have an infusion of NYT readers, but probably I should anyway. Some of our readers don’t know a lot about economics.) We’ve been debating the wisdom of...
EU: Stability programme Spain
Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain: The abbreviation PIIGS has become shorthand for five troubled economies in the 16 member eurozone. Their total population is about 132 million, which is about 40 per cent of the euro area total (almost 330...
The Economic Consequences of Mr. Hugh
Edward Hugh and Paul Krugman and even Dani Rodrik are in agreement, as Ed meets the elite; although we don’t know how much Spain’s external account needs to swing towards surplus in order to get the economy growing, we know it needs to be...
Whither Spain – Towards Finland or Argentina?
Well, here I am spending my last day in Sitges, attending the annual meeting of the Circulo de Economía (which is why I have been so silent of late). This annual meet-up tends to attract many of the leading participants in Spanish economic and polit...
Madrid
I had an amazing time in Madrid this past weekend – my first visit to that city. After several weeks in cold, rainy Brussels it was a welcome respite. It also made me realize just how much I’m starting to miss being in a big city.Madrid reminded...
A familiar song
When Prime Minister Zapatero announced a few weeks ago their plan to reduce the Spanish budget deficit, he said that the main problems of the Spanish economy are a 20% of unemployment rate and an 11.2% rate of public deficit. He was wrong again. Defi...
Spain Emerges From Recession?
Well it is now official - or at least as official as it is going to get: the Spanish economy sneaked back into growth by a short head during the first three months of this year. According to data published in the Bank of Spain’s quarterly repor...
What A Difference A Day Made!
According to a once famous statement by the British Prime Minister Harold Wilson, a week is often a long time in politics. But when it comes to financial market crises we seem to follow a pattern more reminiscent of a line from the Dinah Washington...
Why We Don’t Want To Have The “Instruments of Torture” Used in Spain
We may not want the instruments of torture, but if the Spanish government doesn’t do something to change course and restore growth to the economy, they will be applied. This post is just to draw the attention of anyone who might be interested...
No ACTA transparency from Spain
The Spanish Secretary of State to the EU, Mr. Diego López Garrido, just visited us in IMCO, the European Parliament’s committee for consumer protection and the internal market. He talked for about half an hour in very general terms: ”The...
We've been here before
The Spanish EU Presidency yesterday decided to shelve a vote on the proposed AIFM Directive on hedge funds and private equity due to "a last-minute intervention by Gordon Brown", according to the FT. The talks apparently stalled on British concerns o...
9 Challenges for the Spanish Presidency
Showing global leadership in EU’s external policies in a time of crisis: SOLIDAR calls on the Spanish Presidency in its responsibility for the Europe 2020 strategy and preparations for the 2010 review of the Millennium Development Goals, to use key...
EU Council information assessment early 2010
The Lisbon Treaty was supposed to bring about a European Union “in which decisions are taken as openly as possible and as closely as possible to the citizen”. Almost two months into the new year 2010, several reasons have contributed to the modes...
Spanish FM: Spain's presidency in EU is opportunity to create solid foundation for cooperation with Azerbaijan
Miguel Angel Moratinos, Foreign Minister of Spain, presiding in the EU, spoke in an exclusive interview with Trend News European Desk. READ MORE...
Spain shoots the messenger
But a real policy difference lurks in there...
Spain’s Incredible Consumer Confidence Index
According to Spain’s Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO) the ICC-ICO (consumer confidence index) went up in January by 6.1 points from its December value and is now at its highest level since August 2009. This confidence improvement is largely...
EU-US summit: egotistical wrangling
Everyone agrees that the European Union must get its act together. The wrangling over the next EU-US summit shows that the EU won’t get it’s act together until the egotism of Member State leaders is brought under control. Now it’s the turn...
Success in Spanish: Everyone agrees that good things shall be done
I just came across a press release by the Spanish celebrating the success(es) of their first month as the rotating Council presidency.""The institutions and our partners have given their full and unconditional backing for the fundamental objectives o...
After Greece, and Portugal, Does Spain Come Next?
Well, the Spanish government are due to announce their 2009 fiscal deficit number this morning, together with their adjustment plan for reducing the annual fiscal deficit to below 3% of GDP by 2013. This rather distasteful news will be presented to t...
The Spanish EU presidency: Opportunities in development finance
The start of 2010 sees Spain take the EU presidency for the second time since it joined the EU in 1986. As presiding country, Spain is in a key position to push for stronger deals on development finance. Addressing issues such as aid, capital flight,...
Spanish development NGOs call for another Europe to eradicate poverty
The Spanish Development Cooperation NGOs Platform launched this week in Madrid its manifesto for the EU presidency. Under the slogan 'We want another Europe! Let's stop talking about poverty and eradicate it, the platform underlined the need for: Pol...
London’s Cultural Industries set to benefit from the Spanish Presidency
Addressing the Culture and Education Committee yesterday, Spanish Culture Minister Mrs. Gonzales-Sinde gave priority to the consolidation of culture as a factor for economic growth and social cohesion. As a London MEP I was obviously interest...
Abuses in Spain
Recently there have been more problems for British property owners in Spain who have been served demolition notices on the houses they own, as reported here. The latest incident involves demolition notices being served on with properties in a small v...
Kick-start
Open Europe has a short article in this month's edition of Parliament Magazine, detailing how the Spanish EU Presidency could contribute to getting Europe's economy back on track. We argue:Instead of trying to make economic underperformance illegal...
On the Spanish Presidency Programme
In addition to the Jean Monnet Conference, taking place today in Madrid, where the Jean Monnet professors, chief executives, university rectors, experts and EU representatives participate; and the conference “Paths of Democracy of Europe”, takin...
Near Nada: EU General Affairs Council 25 January 2010
The quantity and quality of information ahead of the General Affairs Council meeting Monday 25 January 2010 is derisory. The agenda tells us that the ministers will be occupied between 10:00 and 15:00 hearing and discussing one agenda item, the Spani...
Spain, best organic grower is COATO in Murcia
Granted with the Agricultural ministry MARM's 22nd award "Food from Spain 2009", the Murcian co-operative COATO is the best Spanish organic company in 2009, with the largest organic cultivated surface in Europe. The ministry MARM underlined the compa...
Spain's EU Presidency Greeted With Skepticism
Spain's six-month rotating presidency of the European Union, which began on Jan. 1, 2010, is off to a bumpy start. With the Lisbon Treaty now in effect, the traditional role of the EU rotating presidency has been downgraded. Responsibility for many i...
So, who’s running the EU now?
BRUSSELS — On January 1, Spain became the first country to take over the six-month rotating EU Council Presidency since the Lisbon Treaty went into effect a month earlier. To Madrid, therefore, falls the challenge of shaping how the new and i...
Green Leader Welcomes New EU Presidency Focus On Gendered Violence
12 January 2010 - Green Party leader and Euro-MP Caroline Lucas has praised the Spanish government for its solid commitment to [...]...
Spain’s Kites Keep The EU Rotating Presidency Flying High
How many days can a Spanish kite stay in the air? About four, to judge from the speed with which Germany and the UK have shot down a proposal from José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s prime minister, to introduce binding mechanisms to en...
Mr Bildt went to Madrid
Our blog post Mr Bildt goes to Madrid (8 January 2010) tried to show that the presidency of the Council of the European is – and should be – more restricted under the Lisbon Treaty (despite the fact that Sweden marketed its presidency of the Coun...
Mr Bean Meets The Three Wise Men
Last Wednesday was Epiphany. In Spain it is also a public holiday - Los Reyes Magos - a festival which celebrates the visit of the three wise men who came from the East to find the infant Jesus. Coincidentally on the eve of Epiphany this year the Mon...
The Spanish Presidency Priorities - the same game but different rules
"Following a smoothly run yet challenged Swedish Presidency, the Spanish take on the mantle of the rotating EU Presidency for the first half of 2010. In doing so, they inherit many of the challenges faced by the Swedes."...
Spain toes the line – Sinuous screen represents the European ‘journey’
All of Brussels let out a sigh of relief yesterday as Spain unveiled its decidedly non-controversial art installation to mark the start of the six-month Spanish EU Presidency. The installation in the lobby of the Justus Lipsius building presents a...
Is Spain Getting Left Behind?
This not unreasonable question was asked today by Ralph Atkins on the FT’s Money Supply Blog: The economic news from Spain has turned more worrisome. Eurozone purchasing managers’ indices for manufacturing showed the region’s recovery hummi...
