Spain has announced this week measures to impose a 14-day quarantine on international travellers. These spark new doubts over the tourism sector. Only the new EU coordinated plan for tourism, which recommends reopening borders and reviving the sector, could cancel the Spanish government’s decision.
Israel Rafalovich | In the last few days a saying has frequently been heard in the corridors of the European Commission: “Spain is not Italy. With the new Spanish government it is now a Spanish spring.”
Last week the Council decided that Spain and Portugal’s recent efforts to reduce deficit were not enough. This lead to the two countries being fined, the first time this happens since the inception of the euro.
The sale of Telefonica’s O2 to Hong Kong telecoms giant Hutchison remains up in the air. And the European Commission (EC), which has the final responsibility for the outcome of the transaction, is still being a dog in a manger, under pressure from the UK authorities.
Nick Malkoutzis via Macropolis | The nexus of Greece’s most challenging problems, and perhaps the ones that will make or break the current government, were indirectly highlighted by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras last week.
MADRID| By The corner team via Presseurop|In a time when Europe is trying to reinforce its identity it is very difficult to understand that the European Comission has decided to end its financial support to such an intelligent project as Presseurop, the first Pan-european multilingual news and debate site. Its closing down on Friday marks the end of a journalistic experiment with civic dimension, says the European press.
By Carlos Díaz Guell, in Madrid | Following the steps taken by the Spanish government to increase the requirements of capital provisions to the banking system from 7% to 30%, that is some €30 more billion, the Eurogroup, seen the distrust generated by the Bank of Spain’s actions, asked the Rajoy government to commission an independent valuation of property assets on the balance sheets of financial institutions. The international financial authorities and…