Finance column

It has been revealed that Martinsa-Fadesa, a building company which has recently applied for bankruptcy protection, continued to accept down payments for homes in Spain that had not even obtained building licences. Reports indicate that this has been happening since 2004, and it appears that the company will also lose the land concerned if the homes are not completed before contracts expire. According to reports, some 12,500 families waiting for homes have been making payments to the company.
Foreign buyers, which include hundreds of British people, have also made down payments on holiday or retirement homes, which they too will lose.
Meanwhile, talks continue between the company and the authorities on the sacking of 234 workers, with a new meeting with the unions set for Wednesday.

Fashion house Custo Barcelona says it will begin legal action against rival company Desigual for what it says is “a systematic copying of designs and products”. The news was given by the owner of the Catalan firm Custo Dalmau, who said that the copying was now too much, too obvious, and had been going on for far too long.

The Spanish Social Security system has announced a 12 percent increase in its surplus for the six-month results to June year-on-year. The surplus now stands at 16,734 billion euros.

The Santander Group has announced plans to sell its assurance activities. Reports say that the bank is looking for 6.5 billion euros for its insurance and funds divisions. Axa, Aviva, Allianz, and Genearali are named by the press as possible bidders.

Reports that discounts as high as 30 percent are being offered on last minute deals available at travel agents in Spain due to falling demand this summer. Along with the British, the Spanish are those who ask for most credit when paying for their holidays. Travel agents here admit that there is a “clear slowdown” in the industry, with some sources saying sales are down 10 percent on last year.

Meanwhile, the Ministry for Development has made a proposal to the Ministry for Defence that would bring greater flexibility to passenger air lanes across Spain. The idea is to shorten the routes in order to save fuel, and comes from Minister Magdalena Álvarez, who will be meeting Defence Minister Carme Chacón. There is also a new European idea to make routes more direct by using airspace that has so far been reserved for military use only.

The European Central Bank has said that it will not change interest rates to help Spain, Ireland, or Portugal, underlining that its main mission is to control inflation. Jean-Claude Trichet said in an interview with the ‘Irish Times’ that is was the same as the Federal Reserve in the United States not looking at the particular interests of Missouri, California, or Texas.

 

The International Monetary Fund has reduced its forecast for the growth of the Spanish economy during 2009 to 1.2 percent. That is one half of a point lower than previous forecasts. The IMF keeps it growth prediction for this year at 1.8 percent.

The European Court of Justice has ruled that the increase in power given to the CNE National Energy Commission in Spain was illegal. This increase allowed the CNE to impose conditions during the takeover battle between E.ON and Enel with Acciona for Endesa. It means the court has rejected the claims of the Spanish government, and agreed with the European Commission.
The Government had argued that the public supply of electricity had to be guaranteed.

Competition authorities are investigating whether there has been a pact of prices between several bodegas that produce fino wine in Jérez. Given what are described as “especially serious consequences for consumers”, the case is now one of the priorities of the Comisión Nacional de la Competencia.

Business volume in the service sector fell by 2 percent in May, according to the latest provisional numbers from INE, the National Statistics Institute. Biggest falls were in trade, followed by business services, and transport. Tourism saw an increase of 0.7 percent compared year on year.

Banco Santander is looking for a purchaser for its fund managers, and says that they hope to obtain between as much as 2.5 billion euros.
Newspaper Expansion reports that a deal could be done in the next few months meaning that Santander Asset management could be in new hands. Last year the company generated commissions of 1.89 billion euros and profits of 243 million euros.

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Brussels calls for healthcare without borders

European Union citizens should be able to go to a doctor, dentist, or optician anywhere in the bloc without having to get permission at home first, officials in Brussels said recently.
They also stated that the patient's National Health Service should not only provide information on medical systems elsewhere in the EU, it should even pay for the treatment received, as long as it would have paid for it to be done at home, a legal proposal from the European Commission ran.
"Patients prefer to be treated as close to home as possible, and in the vast majority of cases that can be done within their own country," EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou said as she presented the legal proposal.
"But sometimes the care that people seek can best be provided in another EU country, such as in border regions or particularly specialised treatment," she said.
At present, EU citizens have the right to receive emergency medical treatment in any member state. They can also plan to have treatment in another EU country if their home system cannot provide it soon enough, or if it gives them specific permission to do so.
But if the proposal is adopted by EU member states, their citizens will be able to travel to any other EU member to receive treatment without prior permission, and then claim back the money that their own health service would have paid for the treatment.
The proposal "ensures clear rights and rules for those individuals who need to travel for their health care," Vassiliou said.
The measure is the commission's response to a string of European Court rulings that the right to seek medical care abroad is an integral part of the EU's right to free movement. However, in deference to member states' sensitivities, it does not simply permit blanket state-supported medical travel.
Firstly, member states will only have to pay for treatments that they would have subsidised at home. This clause protects both states that were afraid of seeing their health-care costs rise, and those who were afraid that they might have to end up paying for procedures they do not accept at home, such as abortion.
Secondly, the patient seeking the treatment abroad will have to pay for it up front. While the simplest way to handle payments in terms of administration, critics warn that this clause could make it impossible for the poorest citizens to get treatment.
Thirdly, the legal proposal allows member states to reintroduce the system of prior authorisations if they prove that their hospital system is at risk from a sudden flood of patients going abroad and claiming on treatment at home.
However, only a "small proportion" of citizens are likely to travel abroad to seek care, Vassiliou said.
Figures released ahead of the proposals revealed that four percent of EU citizens had received medical treatment of any kind in a different member state in 2007, while just one percent of the money Europeans spend on healthcare is spent outside their homeland.

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