Tag: Spain

Spain's population fell last year for the first time since the 1940s as immigrants fled a five-year on-and-off recession that has sent unemployment soaring.

EU regulators will order shares of Spain's Bankia be valued at just €0.01 each, a European Commission source said on Tuesday (5 March), meaning shareholders including thousands of ordinary Spaniards will be hit hard in a debt-for-equity swap to boost the bank's finances.

The weakening of the social flank in southern Europe has repercussions elsewhere in the EU, putting the trade unions and left-wing parties under further pressure, argue Klaus Busch, Christoph Hermann, Karl Hinrichs and Thorsten Schulten.

Madrid announced on Tuesday (29 January) that it had beaten revenue targets for 2012 as tax hikes offset a shrinking economy, moving the country further away from an EU-IMF sovereign bailout which seemed unavoidable a few months ago.

Britain, and especially London, has become a popular place for tens of thousands of southern Europeans in search of work as the governments of Spain, Portugal and Italy continue to impose austerity measures.

Eurozone finance ministers approved yesterday (3 December) the disbursement of nearly €40 billion to help shore up Spain's strained banking system.

Spain has taken effective action to address its budget deficits in 2012 and 2013, Brussels said, signalling there will be no further escalation of disciplinary budget steps against Madrid, where anti-austerity marches turned violent yesterday (14 November).

Spain has benefited enormously from its EU integration and has been regarded as one of the 'miracles' of the past few decades.  However, major errors were committed that now need to be addressed, argue Ángel Saz-Carranza and Carlos Buhigas-Schubert.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was given a boost for his austerity drive with an election victory in his home region of Galicia yesterday (21 October), but wins for nationalist parties in the Basque Country could prove a headache for his centre-right government.

Rising expectations that Spain will soon ask for a euro zone credit line to help cut its borrowing costs look set to dominate a European Union summit beginning on Thursday (18 October), potentially crowding out talks on a disputed banking union.

Eurozone finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg launched the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) yesterday (8 October), a €500-billion rescue fund for the 17 countries that share the currency. Its first task will be to help Spain recapitalise its banks, but reportedly no discussion took place about Madrid needing a full bailout.

Spain is ready to request a eurozone bailout for its public finances as early as next weekend but Germany has signalled that it should hold off, European officials said yesterday (1 October).

Spain announced a crisis budget for 2013 based mostly on spending cuts on Thursday (27 September) in what many see as an effort to pre-empt the likely conditions of an international bailout.

Spain told euro zone finance ministers on Friday it will set clear deadlines for structural reforms by the end of the month, in a move European diplomats said would pave the way for an aid request before long to help it tackle its debt pile.

More and more Spaniards are enrolling in German language courses, seen as a way for them – and their money – to get out of their country's failing economy. 

European Council President Herman Van Rompuy interrupted his holiday in Seville yesterday (28 August) to visit Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy in Madrid, while Commission President José Manuel Barroso received Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti. A flurry of other upcoming meetings marks the beginning of a heated season.

Austerity measures imposed by Spain’s central and regional governments have left fire brigades short-handed as they battle some of the worst forest fires in years, according to a conservationist and news reports from the parched country.

Spain has for the first time conceded it might need a full bailout worth €300 billion if its borrowing costs remain unsustainably high, a eurozone official said.

Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is caught between a rock and a hard place. On the one hand, his voters are being bled dry on all sides. At the same time, an impatient EU is piling on the pressure to inflict even more pain at speed. It is a difficult balancing act for Rajoy, who needs his voters to believe that he has their best interests at heart under relentless pressure from the markets and the EU, writes Andy Langenkamp.

Many young Spanish and Portuguese citizens are leaving their homeland in search of better opportunities abroad, with former colonies being among the more popular destinations, reports say.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday she was confident that a majority of German lawmakers would back aid for Spain's ailing banking sector at a special sitting of the lower house Bundestag set for Thursday (19 July).

Eurozone ministers agreed early this morning (10 July) to grant Spain an extra year until 2014 to reach its deficit reduction targets in exchange for further budget savings and set the parameters of an aid package for Madrid's ailing banks.