News
The people’s paper ISSUE NO. 1868
22 - 28 April 2021
Heated row A ROW between a couple in the La Corte neighbourhood of Malaga City resulted in the pair being arrested for drug offences after police were called following reports of a heated dispute at the property only to uncover an indoor plantation of 143 marihuana plants. They also face electricity fraud charges.
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TARGET REACHED Covid closures
Vital aid THE Commonwealth of Municipalities of the Costa del Sol Axarquia has hosted a meeting to raise awareness about financial aid available from the Junta de Andalucia aimed at alleviating the situation suffered by firms, workers and the self-employed as a result of the pandemic. Mayors and representatives from the tourism industry were present.
Shock plan NERJA Council has stressed its ‘Shock Plan’ will continue to help families in situations of economic vulnerability and risk of social exclusion. The aim of a new initiative, for which €30,000 has been allocated, is to provide mobile internet devices for beneficiaries of municipal aid for access to new technologies.
Motril port A BOAT carrying 22 illegal immigrants of Maghreb origin, all of them adult males, was spotted by a merchant ship in the Alboran Sea and subsequently transferred to the port of Motril during the early hours of Tuesday, April 20, where Cruz Roja (Red Cross) medical teams attended to the arrivals.
FREE • GRATIS
ANIMAL CENTRE: No abandoned pets have been put down and adoption figures are up. THE Malaga Municipal Ani‐ mal Health Centre has reached its target of p u t t i n g d o w n n o a b a n‐ doned pets. According to Spanish newspaper Sur, the Munici‐ pal Animal Health Centre’s figures showed it had reached its commitment to p u t t i n g d o w n n o a b a n‐ doned pets. Only two animals had to put down during the first three months of the year, both for illness reasons. Councillor for Environ‐ mental Sustainability Gem‐ ma del Corral said the fig‐ ures were the result of working with charities and improved public awareness. She said: “If we consoli‐ date these data in the com‐
ing quarters, Malaga will be a city of zero sacrifice; the next step will be to achieve zero abandon‐ ment, which is the key to not having to sacrifice any animal.” The Malaga animal cen‐ tre had previously eu‐ thanised large numbers of abandoned pets, with 1,982 animals slaughtered in 2011. Since then, the number of abandoned pets in Malaga has declined every year, resulting in a 93 per cent drop in the number of dogs being put down, from 1,093 in 2011 to 78 in 2020. The centre says it now only euthanises animals for health reasons.
Councillor del Corral said the reduction in deaths came following help from animal charities, including the Society for the Protec‐ tion of Animals, Dogs of M a l a g a , A M A N a n d C i r i‐ ana. Adoption figures had al‐ so continued to improve, with adoption of dogs ac‐ counting for 16 per cent of income in 2011, to 27 per cent last year. The new state and An‐ dalucian regulations on an‐ imal welfare and protec‐ tion which are currently being approved include many of the measures and policies that Malaga has implemented for years, in‐ cluding canine DNA for identifying animals.
AN Axarquia town closed a public school and has sus‐ pended its weekly market amid a rise in Covid cases. Nuestra Señora de Monsalud public school in Alfarnate closed this week due to an increase in Covid infections in the municipality and the public has been asked to only leave the house when ‘strictly necessary.’ The school was closed on Monday and Tuesday, April 19 and 20, and the town’s Friday market has been sus‐ pended. Mayor Juan Jesús Gallardo took to social media to re‐ port that the town council is in contact with Axarquia Health and Education Department, as well as the manage‐ ment at Hospital Comarcal de la Axarquia and the local health centre. He stressed that “all the measures must be supervised by the rest of the public administrations.” According to data from the Andalucian Institute of Statistics and Cartography, Alfarnate, with a population of 1,065 people, has a cumulative incidence rate at 14 days of 2,910.8. “The data is not encouraging and the total number of people affected between contagions and direct contacts can be between 200 and 250 people,” said the mayor. “The only way to stop the chain of infections is to con‐ fine ourselves and leave the house only when strictly nec‐ essary,” he added while wishing a speedy recovery “to all those infected along with encouragement and strength.”
TAKE CARE: All measures must be supervised.
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Tourism Campaign IN the countdown to the high season, Malaga is working on the reactivation of tourism plans when increased mobility in European countries is expected. In the Tourism Forum’s monthly meeting, the councillor for Tourism and Promotion, Rosa Sánchez, suggested they will launch several promotional campaigns in the high priority market for Malaga which are the UK, France, Germany and the Scandinavian countries. Sánchez also said the group has virtually participated in the ITB Berlin international trade fair and several online forums with tour agents and operators. She explained that work also continues on the ‘safe Malaga’ campaign, which aims to detect Covid-19 earlier through antigen testing. Carlos Rubio, president of the Malaga Port Authority, also attended the meeting and announced the main measures implemented to support the recovery of the cruise market.
Challenge Meeting 2021 THE Enrique López Cuenca Stadium will host the second edition of the 2021 Challenge Meeting on May 12, which brings together the best national and international athletes who will compete in various categories. The event will start at 8pm and have a limited capacity of 500 spectators, it will be broadcast live over the internet. Daniel Rivas, the sports councillor, accompanied by the president of the Andalucian Federation and Vice-president of the Spanish Federation, Enrique López Cuenca, the president of the Nerja Athletics Club, Francisco Ortega ‘Ayo’, sponsor of the event and athlete from Nerja, Francisco Urbano, made the announcement this morning. The councillor highlighted the importance of the event, saying: “Last year it became the first official event with the public in Spain after the period of confinement. This year there will be a greater number of elite athletes, so we will enjoy this
MEETING: Agreement has been reached.
show even more, taking into account that many are preparing for their qualification in the Tokyo Olympic Games.” He also thanked the sponsors, Restaurante Pulguilla and Merendero Ayo, for their involvement in the event and emphasised the city council’s commitment to carry on supporting this type of event in Nerja.
Almuñecar Vaccinating a New Age Group ALMUÑECAR has begun vaccinating a new age group those aged between 63 and 64. According to Almuñecar cCouncil, residents aged 63 and 64 were called to receive their vaccine, while it said the number of vaccinations will now increase. In addition to administering doses at the health centre, the facilities of the Francisco Bonet stadium are also being used. The news comes after Almuñecar said the move has seen those aged between 73 and 79 receiving their vaccines at the Francisco Bonet stadium. Councillor for Security, Francisco Robles, visited the centre alongside the head of Civil Protection to see the rollout of the vaccines.
Velez-Malaga Pedestrianising ACCORDING to Velez‐Malaga council, the mayor, Antonio Moreno Ferrer, held a meeting with a group of citizens to discuss the plans regarding pedestrianising Calle Canalejas. The council said: “As part of the urban transformation project in the centre of
Velez‐ Malaga and the pedestrianisation of the main commercial arteries, the mayor of Velez‐Malaga, Antonio Moreno Ferrer, and the councillor for Infrastructure, Juan Gar‐ cia, met on Wednesday April 21 with the group as part of a process of citizen partici‐ pation.”
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Workers Stage Protest THE announcement by Swedish clothing retailing gi‐ ant, H&M, that it will close its stores in Granada, has sparked protests from work‐ ers in the city, who took to the streets outside the store to show their disgust at the action, claiming that the real motive behind the closure is to obtain more profits at the expense of the workers it wants to lay off. The Federation of Ser‐ vices, Mobility, and Con‐ sumption (FeSCM) of UGT Granada, consider that the ERE that H&M intends is not justified, if the benefits of the company are taken into account, with the union stat‐ ing that previous reductions in sales personnel in the stores had a direct impact on the quality of service to H&M’s customers prior to the pandemic. UGT also say that they fail to believe “the change in the customers’ way of buying” as being an excuse to say that online sales exceed the sale in physical stores, and do not acknowledge the al‐ leged losses or low prof‐ itability of the stores in the province, since it is known by UGT that one of the stores being closed is quite prof‐ itable.
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NIBS EXTRA Health day VELEZ-MALAGA has put together a programme of activities to raise awareness about gender equality which includes physical workshops and online conferences aimed at women to coincide with ‘International Day of Action for Women’s Health’ on Friday, May 28. In addition, during May and June, there will be mindfulness, yoga and other disciplines.
Spruce up ALMOST €30,000 has been spent adapting, clearing and reinforcing the slopes and pathway that leads from the oil mill in Calle del Río to the main rock area in Algarrobo thanks to an aid programme ‘LEADER Rural Development Strategy,’ subsidised by the Junta de Andalucia.
Book day A HIKING route through the municipality of Iznate has been organised by the local council to celebrate International Day of the Book in which those taking part will be able to tour the fountains and other emblematic places in the town and read a story or anecdote at each one.
Water works A NEW 230-metre long PVC sewage collector is being constructed in Nerja’s Avenida Del Mediterráneo and Calle Antonio Ferrandis Chanquete as part of major hydraulic works at a cost of €130,000 to solve overflow issues and avoid flooding of apartments and other properties in Calle Merida.
Stormy one WIDESPREAD rain is predicted this week across Axarquia with the State Meteorological Agency (AEMET) stating that after several days of ‘pleasant temperatures,’ the atmosphere will become ‘unstable’ from Thursday, April 22 until the end of the weekend with the possibility of at least two storms in the region.
Bike lane A BIKE lane project that will connect Nerja and Maro is progressing as the council puts out a tender for the €967,000 contract to construct to “reinforce the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, promoting transport without emissions to the environment and sport among our neighbours and visitors,” stressed Nerja mayor José Alberto Armijo.
22 - 28 April 2021
Housing project to ‘combat loneliness’ RINCÓN DE LA VICTORIA T own H all has revealed plans for a co-op housing project for those between the ages of 50 and 70 in the area on El Cantal. The ‘pioneering’ Tartessos Malaga co-housing initiative will provide 68 houses and will hopefully be ready in summer, councillors said. This will also create 20 jobs and the project, costing €6 million will be funded by private investors, councillors explained. Miguel Ángel Jiménez, the urban planning councillor, said that the cooperative
NEW INITIATIVE: Will provide 68 houses in the complex. housing project is a “new lifestyle model based on efficiency and sustainability.”
He also said that potential residents would need to have “clear values on com-
munity living” and that it was designed to “combat loneliness.” According to Jiménez, in 15 years time one in three households will only have one inhabitant and almost half of those people will be over 65 years of age. Work is due to start early next year and the complex will also have common areas such as a cafeteria and dining room, a swimming pool, allotments, gardens, a doctor’s surgery and a nurse’s room, rehabilitation facilities and space for outdoor activities.
‘Sun’ awards for restaurants THREE Axarquia restaurants have been awarded ‘Sun’ awards in the Repsol Guide 2021. The prestigious awards follow an unprecedented challenging year for the hospitality sector with continued restrictions and safety guidelines due to the pandemic. In presenting the awards, director of the Repsol Guide, Marie Ritter,
Budding Artists THE Junta de Andalucia is to invest €100,000 in budding artists. The Junta de Andalucia has reaffirmed its support of lo‐ cal culture by contributing to a new edition of the Iniciarte programme, an initiative launched by the Ministry of Culture back in 2016 aimed at the promotion and projec‐ tion of emerging Andalucian art. Earlier this week, Patricia del Pozo, the minister of Cul‐ ture, announced that €100,000 would be allocated to the programme for 2021. On Thursday, April 15, Ini‐ ciarte called on all budding artists aged between 18 and 35 who were born in or legal‐ ly reside in Andalucia in the next 30 days to submit sam‐ ples of their work. Thus, the initiative is not only open to Andalucians in‐ terested in the creation or re‐ search of the visual arts, but to people of all nationalities residing in the community.
gave an emotional speech. “While the world stopped, gastron‐ omy, instead of putting on the brakes, stepped on the accelerator. The blinds had to be lowered but cooking continued on the stove, adapting the business model to a new, uncertain and variable reality,” she said. The eateries awarded in Axarquia
are Chinchín Puerto in Caleta de Velez, El Acebuchal in Competa and El Yantar located in Mezquitilla, with‐ in the municipality of Algarrobo. The guide praised the seafood on offer at Chinchín Puerto, the game meat, local stews and recipes of Arab heritage at El Acebuchal and the ‘sim‐ plicity and flavour’ of the seafood dishes at El Yantar.
Paraglider Rescued A BRIT paraglider has been rescued after a flight with an intended beach landing went wrong. The British paraglider had intended to land on the beach, but instead ended up strand‐ ed in a tree after he took off from El Salao. Luckily for the British paraglider, aged in his
30s, was not injured dur‐ ing the paragliding flight which went wrong, al‐ though he did remain in the eucalyptus tree for around an hour, before local fire services were able to rescue him. According to Local Po‐ lice the pilot had to be rescued after he was left “dangling over a road.”
New Bike Lane
A NEW project will connect Nerja and Maro. When speaking about the new bike lane, José Alberto Armijo, mayor of Nerja, said: “The Head of the Infrastructure Service, Antonio Dorado, has favourably reported the construction project of this important action that will reinforce the safety of cyclists and pedestrians, promoting transport without emissions to the environment and sport among our neighbours and visitors. This bike lane is included in the Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP), which was ap‐ proved by the Plenary of the Corporation. It is al‐ so included in the Sustainable and Integrated Ur‐ ban Development Strategy of Nerja (EDUSI), 80 per cent co‐financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and 20 per cent with municipal resources.
Local Police said that, “To bring down the pilot it was necessary to use the fire wagon with the ex‐ tending ladder as he was caught up about 10 me‐ tres from the ground and dangling over a road lead‐ ing down from an area known as El Morro or the Hotel Best Alcázar, La Herradura.”
Mayor Speaks out THE mayor of Motril has spoken ahead of the athletics competition, the Andalucia Championships of Clubs for Under 20. Mayor Garcia spoke about athletics in Motril and praised the clubs which had helped to make the sport a feature of the town. She said they “have extended this love for athletics to the rest of the popula‐ tion, young and old.” Councillor of Sports, Daniel Ortega, said it “will be an event with 12 teams in all disci‐ plines of track and field athletics.”
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Port breaks record
The port has grown. MOTRIL Port has bro‐ ken its all‐time freight traffic record moving more than 731,000 tonnes in the first quarter of 2021. The port has record‐ ed a growth of 18 per cent compared to 2020, and an increase of 2.26 per cent com‐ pared to 2019, which was the fourth best year for freight traffic “We are, therefore, facing the best quarter since the Port Authori‐ ty was created,” said the Port of Motril in a statement. The data was re‐ leased at a press con‐ ference led by the port’s president, José García Fuentes, who confirmed an increase in “solid bulks, liquid bulks and project loads,” mainly wind blades and the incor‐ poration of new gener‐ al merchandise such as turbines and towers for wind turbines. “This is in a quarter marked by the difficul‐ ties derived from the health situation and which keeps the regu‐ lar maritime lines with North Africa inactive,” he said. García Fuentes be‐ lieves that if this growth rate is main‐ tained “we could reach over three million tonnes by the end of the year, a figure nev‐ er reached in the Port of Motril.”
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€1m museum go-ahead
A €1 MILLION bid to transform an old town building into a museum has been given the green light. Malaga Provincial Council has approved an ambitious Museo de la Pasa de Almáchar project. The council will fund the €925,829 scheme that involves refurbishing a ‘unique building in the old town’ to turn it into a museum charting the history and process of cultivation, production and marketing of grapes. President of the Diputacion de Malaga, Francisco Salado, stressed that it will be a “cultural facility of great importance for the whole region
AMBITIOUS PROJECT: Will chart the history, cultivation and production of grapes. that will serve to value the vineyard as a crop that has defined the geographical and landscape personality of the Axarquia.”
“It reaffirms the commitment of the Diputacion de Malaga to lead and promote the action plan of SIPAM (Important Systems of World Agricultural Heritage) of grapes,” he said. The Governing Board has agreed both to approve the project and to initiate the contracting of the works. The ‘ethnographic muse-
um’ will also show what the houses, clothing and daily life of the families who were engaged in this activity were like historically. It will have indoor and outdoor exhibition rooms, a projection room, offices, toilets, storage rooms and a store. In addition, part of the covered floor will be used as a terrace for small events and tastings.
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Runners to be Banned THE mayor of Malaga has proposed banning runners from its popular promenade and suggests they use the beach instead. In a move that has been met with quite a bit of disbelief, the mayor of Malaga, Francisco de la Torre, has proposed prohibiting people from running on the Pablo Ruiz Picasso promenade, a very popular stretch of road for joggers, as reported by Malagahoy. The mayor is exploring options to make the promenade a functional space once the new bike lanes are installed in the coming months, and the current feeling is that there just isn’t enough space to cater to everyone. In order to maintain an appropriate width of pavement for pedestrians, the councillor has suggested moving runners to the adjacent stretch of beach instead. Mr de la Torre tabled his motion on Friday, April 16 as a temporary measure until the Junta de Andalucia commences the construction of a new lane along the coast. He confirmed that the works to adapt the stretch of road between the Antonio Martin restaurant and the Banos del Carmen to accommodate bicycles had already gone out to tender. Worth an estimated €200,000, the local president conceded that the work probably wouldn’t be carried out before the summer, and so suggested altering some land along the coast to make it more compact and comfortable for runners.
Indoor garden IMPROVEMENTS: Indoor parks are being created.
OLD BUILDING: Will be transformed into a museum.
MALAGA Airport is taking advantage of the airport being so quiet due to the small number of travellers by making improvements to its facilities. The project aims to improve the environmental quality and well-being of travellers with the installation of one of the biggest ‘indoor parks’ of this type in Andalucia. Covering 400 square metres in total, four vertical gardens around different parts of the building allow the installation of thousands of plants. One of these vertical gardens
is 200 square metres in size and located in the main hall explained the head of ACER Espacious Naturales, Ignacio Benthem, a company that specialises in gardening and won the contract early last year when it was put out to tender by the airport operator AENA. There are also lots of environmental benefits. Vegetation produces oxygen and promotes the removal of CO2 in the atmosphere, cleaning the air by capturing particles and dust and regulating the humidity levels.
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ARCH TO THE RESCUE
THE Andalucian Rescue Centre for Horses and Donkeys was recently involved in a high-profile rescue case, which has been highlighted in newspapers and on local television. Members of the charity were alerted to the case of an apparently severely neglected pony in Arenas by Óscar del Bosque, president of the local dog rescue charity Apisman, and were sent photographs and videos of his condition. Having checked the facts, they got in touch with their dedicated animal rights lawyer, who contacted SEPRONA (the animal welfare arm of the Guardia Civil) in Velez-Malaga. Concerned that the owner might hide the pony, ARCH went up to Arenas with a trailer and SEPRONA confiscated him immediately. The little black stallion had hooves that were grossly deformed, curling up like ram’s horns. His coat was matted and filthy and there was no
DUKE: His name suits him perfectly. sign of food or water in his tiny enclosure. He had no name, and his owner had no licence to keep equines. Back at the rescue centre in Alhaurin el Grande, he was assessed by the ARCH vet, who then arranged for a specialist vet from the equine hospital in Cordoba to come and X-ray the hooves prior to cutting them back to a more normal shape.
It was a long and painstaking morning’s work for the vets and for the ARCH farrier, but the little chap was sedated and showed no signs of distress.Afterwards the pony’s feet looked more normal although the prolonged neglect has damaged his tendons and it is doubtful that he will ever be 100 per cent sound, though with regular trimming he may rebalance
himself. He is pottering around very happily, still very interested in the ladies, and ARCH are hoping to find him a suitable loving home in the future. And his name? Well, ARCH ran a Facebook post asking for suggestions which attracted a great deal of interest and many and various names. In the end the winner was ‘Duke’ (or Duque in Spanish) which suits him perfectly. If readers are interested in meeting Duke, the ARCH Rescue Centre is open to the public every Sunday morning from 9am until 2pm. Covid restrictions are in place and groups are limited to five people. Volunteers are on hand to show visitors around, introduce them to the horses and donkeys and, if they wish, help them groom the quieter animals. For more information visit the ARCH website www.horserescues pain.org or the Facebook page Centro Andalusi de Rescate de Caballos.
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TESLA CLOSER
TESLA, Elon Musk’s revolutionary top‐of‐the‐range electric car company, is gearing up to open a dealer‐ ship on the Costa del Sol, according to reports in the Sur, with a showroom to be located in an eye‐catching building in Calle Horacio Quiroga, on the Valdició in‐ dustrial estate in Malaga, which will also include a ser‐ vice workshop. This is scheduled to happen in a few months’ time apparently, and will become Tesla’s first dealership in Andalucia, which shows the growing interest and eco‐ nomic importance being generated in the southern Spain region by international companies of late. The Malaga Motoring Association (AMA) reports that 2019 was the best year for Tesla in Andalucia, when a total of 62 cars were sold in Malaga alone, and the region already has a wide network of recharging points, which provide energy at a rapid rate, including ‘super chargers’ in El Higuerón, Fuengirola.
ELECTRIC CARS: A dealership is to open soon.
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Smoking Ban Divide IN what many are considering yet another blow to Spain’s hospitality industry and future tourism prospects, in a surprise move on Thursday April 15, the Ministry of Health confirmed that they had draft-
ed a proposal prohibiting smoking on all outdoor terraces, regardless of whether or not a two-metre safety distance can be maintained. The proposal has divided opinion, which is hardly
Masks after the vaccine THE vaccination campaign is progressing around Europe and the UK, but when will we really be able to return to ‘reality’? It is a complex question and it seems there is no short‐term an‐ swer, however, we do know that we will not be able to return to normal without continuing some of the protective measures we have adopted over the past year ‐ such as the use of masks, wash‐ ing hands regularly and safe social distancing. According to health authorities, it is important that we contin‐ ue these protective measures since most people who have been vaccinated will be protected from the virus but can still transmit it, even without presenting any symptoms. It is important to note that until we have reached group immu‐ nity, we will need to continue these safety measures. It appears we could all be wearing the mask for some time to come.
surprising since the regional governments of the autonomous communities can’t seem to agree on whether it’s a good idea either. T here are currently six communities in Spain which have imposed a total ban on smoking and the use of electronic cigarettes on outdoor terraces of bars, restaurants and cafes: V alencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Asturias and Aragon. As soon as the proposed measure was announced, the Gremi de Restauracio union in B arcelona completely rejected the ban, insisting that it “is not endorsed by any type of scientific support.” M inistry of H ealth sources confirmed that while a draft study has been compiled, it has not yet been submitted and wasn’t on the table for discussion at the meeting of the Public Health Commission on Thursday, April 15.
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Compulsory Sterilisation Of Pets IN a highly controversial move, the Junta de Andalucía has drawn up a preliminary draft of its new animal welfare law which would require pet owners to sterilise all companion animals. The legislation has been welcomed by animal welfare societies and shelters, who want to see the “establishment of guarantees for the sterilisation of animals and their purchase, breeding and responsible sale to avoid overpopulation, abandonment and, ultimately, their sacrifice.” This same animal protection law actually came into force in La Rioja in 2018. In 2020, the Constitutional Court made some amendments but left in the section covering the mandatory sterilisation of private pets, something which the government maintains is still “constitutionally legitimate,” and therefore will mostly be adopted by other autonomous communities before too long. The new draft proposal states that “companion animals that are the object of sale, transfer or donation must be previously sterilised before
reaching one year of age and, preferably, before their first heat.” The legislation proposes stricter registering methods for breeders and explicitly prohibits the “reproduction, breeding and sale of companion ani-
mals by private persons outside the breeding and sale centres that meet the legal requirements, as well as their transfer or donation without being previously identified and registered in the name of the transmitting person.”
New legal status ON Tuesday April 20, the plenary of the Congress of Deputies were to consider a proposal of the law of the PSOE to modify the Civil Code, the Mortgage Law and the Civil Procedure Law to provide animals with a legal status to be considered as Sensitive living beings. ‘living beings endowed with sensitivity’ and not goods or things. The initiative was approved unanimously in 2017 by the Plenary of Congress, however, it was declined due to it not completing its full parliamentary process when the Cortes Generales was dissolved in March 2019. Currently, the Civil Code endows animals with the legal status of things, specifically under the condition of ‘moveable property.’ The new proposed law introduces an article in the Civil Code that will consider animals ‘are living beings with endowed sensitivity’ and that owners must have a duty of care over them, as well as ‘ensuring their well-being, according to the characteristics of each species.’
Spain Extends Quarantine WITH the ending of the State of Alarm next month and renewed hopes that Spain might be ready to welcome back tourists in the near future, the government is taking no chances with countries it believes to be high-risk, particularly from the more contagious Covid variant. To this end, Spain has decided to extend its quarantine requirements for travellers returning from 12 countries for the third time. The order, which was published in the Official State Gazette (BOE) by the Ministry of Health, will be in force until May 3, and imposes a mandatory 10-day quarantine on people coming to Spain from Brazil, Peru and Columbia, as well as from nine countries in Africa. Far from being a bad sign, the Ministry insists the measures are necessary to reduce the spread of infections and overcome this latest wave of coronavirus so that international travel can open up again as soon as possible. Travellers from the affect-
ed countries will be required to self-isolate for 10 days following their arrival, or for the duration of their time in Spain if the trip is shorter than the quarantine period, and can only leave home for essential reasons, such as to
buy food or seek medical attention. According to the BOE, quarantine in these cases “can only be suspended on the seventh day if the person undergoes a diagnostic test for active infection with a negative result.”
Spanglish Life? SPANISH is the mother tongue of nearly 500 million peo‐ ple, and is the world’s second‐most spoken native lan‐ guage, only behind Chinese. As of January 2021, around 360,000 British citizens were registered as permanent resi‐ dents in Spain, according to Inews, but how many of us ex‐ pats actually speak the lingo? Well, according to a study conducted by the Foreign Of‐ fice, some 58 per cent of the Britons living in Spain inter‐ viewed claimed to regularly use Spanish in their day to day lives, while a further 36 per cent said they were mak‐ ing efforts to learn. On expat forums, the various Costas are often referred to jokingly as ‘Little Britains’, because of the high volume of non‐Spanish residents, as well as bars, restaurants, cafes and shops that, if not staffed with native English speakers, certainly employ people who can speak our lan‐ guage fluently. So, for a person living in these areas, is it really necessary to speak the language? According to the vast majority of expats, the answer is a resounding yes.
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Covid-19 Predictions ITV car sticker colours IN a bid to beat the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic in April 2020 the ‘More unstoppable than ever’ campaign was launched by Spain’s José Carreras Foundation.
In a study that has been carried out by the Josep Carreras Leukaemia Research Institute in collaboration with the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute re-
Airport Border Checks SUMMER holiday fears for British travellers have another prob‐ lem on the horizon as while giving evidence on Wednesday April 14 to the Commons Transport Select Committee, Chris Garton, the Chief solutions officer at Heathrow, told MPs passengers are being forced to queue for up to six hours due to coronavirus checks at the border. Explaining the situation to the committee of MPs, Mr Gar‐ ton told how the shortage of staff for processing passengers at the border had always been a problem, but that now, the pandemic “has just made that so much worse than it was be‐ fore.” He continued, “We want to see that bottleneck removed as quickly as possible. It’s a problem today, it will become a much bigger problem after May 17, when foreign leisure travel from England could resume,” saying that he believes the solution could be that every passenger’s entry to the UK is “assured” be‐ fore they begin their journey. Passenger locator forms should be checked for errors and cor‐ rected in advance, and the documents should be checked by eGates automatically, he told the MPs, which would allow arriv‐ ing travellers to “flow as you would normally through the eGates, rather than having to line up and present your paperwork to a rather overstretched border official.”
searchers have discovered that a person’s genes could be used to predict the severity of Covid 19 in an individual. There is a dramatic variation in how Covid 19 affects people, from them being asymptomatic and showing no clinical symptoms, all the way up to those who require I C U support. The ongoing Coronavirus pandemic has claimed over one million lives across Europe already. Researchers now believe they have discovered a potential indicator of why these symptoms vary so dramatically between people. The researchers carried out a study on around 400 people who were not considered to be in any of the normal “at risk groups” for the virus, and who had tested positive. The expert explained that, “We found that there were epigenetic variations, in the chemical switches that regulate D N A activity, in those positive for the virus who developed severe Covid-19.”
ON Saturday April 17, the N332 posted information on ITV car stickers and colours, saying on their Facebook page: “Remem‐ ber that once you get the new ITV sticker, you must remove the old one before placing the new one in its place. “The ITV sticker is classified as sign ‘V‐19’ in the Spanish Traffic Law. It is compulsory to show it on the right‐hand side of your windscreen. Please, dis‐ play only the last one.” The website goes on to ex‐ plain the stickers are colour
Must be displayed correctly. coded “on a three‐colour cycle of green, yellow and red.” As long as you are displaying only one sticker on your vehicle in the required place, which is
Race for Jabs AFTER a painfully slow start, Spain has upped the ante in recent weeks in its vaccination rollout plan, to the ex‐ tent that it is now above the European Union average. According to the latest information released by Our World In Data (OWID) which has gathered figures from most of the countries around the globe, Spain has pushed ahead of France, Germany, Italy and Portugal in terms of the number of people vaccinated. The most recent data available from OWID relates to April 14 and 15 and shows that Spain is now in the ‘top 10,’ while the UK continues to streak ahead and is now among the countries in the world that have vaccinated the most people with the first dose.
in the upper right corner of your windscreen as you are looking out, it is then clear to traffic and police officers who are carrying out roadside checks that you have the cor‐ rect sticker displayed. Known as the V‐19, your sticker indicates to officers that your vehicle has passed its peri‐ odic technical inspection and displays when the next inspec‐ tion is due. This sticker is self‐adhesive and should be stuck to your windscreen, however, in vehi‐ cles that do not have a wind‐ screen it must be in a clearly visible place. As well as the sticker, it is al‐ so mandatory to have the ITV report in your vehicle.
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Rights Campaign FOLLOWING an outpouring of during the pandemic it is a prioriconcern from expats that the ty for Britons here for tests to be high prices being charged in the affordable enough to see their UK for PCR tests to travel could families again. prevent loved ones seeing each “The many Britons here with other again, the EWN has begun tourism-related businesses are ala campaign to help make a difso eager to ensure that UK travMichel & Steven Euesden. ference. ellers are not deterred from visitAccording to reports, the price of PCR tests for ing Spain this summer due to the high price of travel can range from £60 (€69) to £214 (€246). tests. And while the UK requires tests on both entering “I would be very grateful, therefore, if you could and leaving, this could add hundreds to the price of please tell me if the government has any plans to travel for many hoping to see their friends and introduce a cap on the price companies can charge family again this summer. UK travellers? Or whether it plans to introduce a After the Euro Weekly News ran a poll asking standard test price to help UK nationals reunite readers whether they believed the UK government with their loved ones?” should introduce a price limit on the cost of tests, a The EWN is now waiting for the government’s whopping 85.2 per cent agreed prices should be response and is encouraging Britons in Spain concapped. cerned about the impact of high costs on seeing Now CEO of the EWN, Michel Euesden, has family and on business to get involved with its camwritten to the UK’s Secretary of State for Transpaign via our petition here. port, Grant Shapps MP, calling on him to introduce Trish in Vera, who signed the petition, said: “I a price cap on PCR tests making them more affordlive alone in Spain after my husband died. I am a able for Britons in Spain looking forward to seeing pensioner on a fixed income and all my family live their loved ones again when international travel is in the UK. I would like the chance to go and see permitted. them and vice versa without it causing any of us fiIn her letter, Michel wrote: “With around nancial hardship.” 360,000 Britons in Spain, many of whom still have To make your voice heard and to support all family, homes and businesses in the UK, readers Brits hoping to see their families again, as well as have been getting in touch concerned about the our tourism industry, join our petition now at price of UK PCR tests for international travel. www.euroweeklynews.com and work together to “After such a long separation from loved ones help bring families together again this summer.
22 - 28 April 2021
EWN
9
Gap Between Vaccines IN a huge about‐turn, the Ministry of Health in Spain has suggested delaying the period between the first Covid vaccination and second from 21 days to 42, after pre‐ viously insisting they would follow the guidelines of the jab manufacturers to the let‐ ter.
Now, ministers have back‐ tracked and feel that expand‐ ing the time between doses would allow for more people to receive the first vaccine in a shorter period of time. According to the press, the proposal was to be put to the appropriate representatives of the autonomous communi‐
ties on Tuesday, April 20. The Ministry of Health has denied that the decision is already a done‐deal, but the Ministry of Health is recommending that the space between inocula‐ tions with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines be dou‐ bled, from three weeks to a month and a half.
Mask withdrawal warning ON Wednesday April 14, the Professional Union of the Ertzaintza (SiPE) has requested the immediate withdrawal of the FFP2 masks because of the pulmonary risks due to graphene being found present. An investigation has begun by the AEMPS into the risk present when inhaling these nanoparticles because of pulmonary toxicity and has found that the type IIR surgical masks with graphene are being marketed in Spain. After Canada raised the alarm over the masks, autonomous communities of the Basque Country and Castilla y Leon ordered the precautionary removal of masks made with this material. Following this, Madrid City Council then requested the withdrawal of the masks after they had been administered to
FFP2 MASKS: Certain models are risky. municipal staff. The specific mask models are the FFP2 Healfiber mask manufactured by Shandong Shengquan and distributed by Iturri SA. Also the IIR surgical mask from the same manufac‐ turer and distributed by Amevisa SAU.
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FEATURE
GO LOCAL
THE EUROWEEKLY NEWS is urging its readers to support local busi‐ nesses in the community by going local through the lockdown and for your all your shopping this year, instead of feeding online gi‐ ants and superstores. During this lockdown, we chal‐ lenge you to rediscover your local high streets, markets, butchers, greengrocers and all of the won‐ derfully quirky independent busi‐
nesses in your area. Due to the Covid‐19 pandemic, you may have to support many lo‐ cal businesses by ordering online and making use of any click and col‐ lect services they can operate if you are unable to get out due to health reasons or lockdown restrictions. The joy of shopping local means that independent busi‐ nesses can help support the local community.
Although it may be a euro or two cheaper elsewhere or online, consider where your money is ac‐ tually going. By shopping at an independent store you’re putting food on a local family’s table, and there is no bet‐ ter time than now to give back to your community by making a small gesture and shopping in this way. Many local stores support local charities, support and sponsor local sports teams and in many cases the small independent stores are actu‐ ally much more than just a small high street shop, they’re a family’s legacy, often passed down through numerous generations and sup‐ port not just the current owner but the generation before. For those stores which are new, that extra couple of euros spent there are supporting someone’s dream and ambition, and also the
courage it took them to step out alone, which is no easy task. It takes quite a large chunk of money to set up an independent store and com‐ pete with the multinational and chains. So be sure to pre‐order your meat from a local butcher and get your spuds from a local greengro‐ cer, let us revive that community
spirit and get to know our neigh‐ bours again. You could also consider purchas‐ ing gift vouchers from local busi‐ nesses to help them over the com‐ ing weeks, thinking outside the box can often lead to some fantastic ideas. Why not buy a meal for two, an hour’s tattoo time at a local stu‐ dio, a hair cut at a local salon or an
online study course for someone looking to change their career path. As people are struggling with fi‐ nances thinking about what friends and family may actually need is im‐ portant too. Whilst it’s nice to give a glamourous gift perhaps pre‐pay‐ ing a family member’s phone bill for the month would actually be a better gift. Helping people alleviate stress and worry , give the gift of peace of mind through these diffi‐ cult times. Choosing to spend your money locally will really make a dif‐ ference in the recovery of the local economy. When we buy local, our money stays local, and it strengthens the local economy in two ways. First, buying local keeps money circulating within the local economy. Studies have shown that local businesses recirculate a greater share of every euro as they create locally owned supply chains and invest in their employees. Data shows that local retailers return 52 per cent of their revenue back into the local economy, com‐ pared to just 14 per cent for nation‐ al chain retailers. Money circulating through the local economy benefits everyone who is a part of each transaction. For example, let’s look at a local farmer growing produce. First, they sell to a local restaurant, which in turn prepares the fresh produce and sells it to local customers. The farmer pays its local employees and the restaurant uses revenue from sales to buy supplies from a neighbourhood hardware store. This example illustrates how the recirculation of money in the local economy leads to a stronger finan‐ cial foundation for our neighbours and communities. Buying local also fuels new employment and job op‐ portunities for people within our community. Studies show, locally owned businesses employ more people per unit of sales and retain more employees over time. A fantastic example of how to support your lo‐ cal community is with a Charity Gift certificate, why not donate to your loved one’s favourite cause. Just remember to follow the lat‐ est government advice and any guidance businesses have to keep everyone safe.
NEWS
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Economic transformation
ACCORDING to Spain’s President Pedro Sánchez, €140 billion in EU funds could lead to the greatest economic transformation that Spain has seen since the 1980s. Full details of the recovery plan have not been released but on Tuesday April 13 Sanchez hinted of how the money could be spent in the forthcoming years. In what will be the biggest public investment in recent history Sanchez aims to modernise Spain’s economy with an intensity that has not been witnessed since the late 80s, when Spain joined the European Union. It is expected that around €72 billion could be handed out in the form of grants, and the remaining amount in loans. Back in the 1980s European cohesion funds to the tune of €8 billion were received by Spain. The current plan is still to be finalised and member states have been given until April 30 by Brussels before plans need to be submitted. It is expected though that 29 per cent of the fund will be used for digital transformation, while 39 per cent will be used for ecological transition.
Still No Tax Hikes THE Minister of Equality in Spain, Nadia Calvino has ruled out any further tax increases in the near future, despite claims from the government that they intended to raise wealth and corporate taxes as a means of stimulating national income without negatively affecting those who had been hardest hit by the pandemic. Instead, the Minister said on Thursday, April 15, her main focus is to boost economic growth and create jobs, insisting “it is not the time to raise taxes.” Ms Calvino added that tax‐ es have not been raised this year as the government is look‐ ing at ways to improve the current system.
22 - 28 April 2021
Vaccination Passports IN an enormous boost to summer tourism in Spain, the general secretary of Digital Health, Information and Innovation Alfredo González, confirmed on Thursday, April 15 that travellers from Europe to Spain that hold valid vacci‐ nation cards ‐ or Digital Green Certificates as they are to be officially known in the EU ‐ will not have to go the expense of getting a Covid test done or enter in‐ to a period of quarantine on arrival. Speaking at a National Health System meeting, the secretary said that the certificate, which will take the form of a QR code, will be rolled out in Spain in June and will open up the country to “more people in a safer manner.” “This certificate is not a passport, it’s not a travel document, and it’s not a re‐ quirement for travel,” the general secretary clarified. “It’s a mechanism that will facilitate mobility in the Eu‐ ropean Union. It will re‐
spect data protection, safe‐ ty and privacy. It is planned so that it will not be dis‐
criminatory, and that is one of the major advantages,” he added.
Lower Fares RENFE: Has introduced new rates and discounts. SPANISH Rail Operator Renfe has announced it will lower the rates for the AVE and long‐distance trains throughout the summer. Renfe is to scrap its previous 148 rates and come down to just three, the new simpler rates and discounts ap‐ ply for seniors, families and young people. The president of Renfe, Isaís Táboas, explained that this new system ‐ matching that of aviation ‐ will also solve the problem that many people now face who cannot apply the discounts to which they are entitled to in the lowest rates. The new system offers three options: Basic (the cheapest), Choose (the most flexible) and Premium, (all‐inclusive), which can be customised with additional services. Renfe already of‐ fers the possibility of buying one‐year tickets, which will be added to the new system ‐ managers hope to encourage ad‐ vance purchases of these tickets as much as possible.
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New Speed Limits IN a bid to cut down on the number of road traffic acci‐ dents in Spain, new laws will come into force throughout the country on May 11, dras‐ tically reducing the speed limit on city streets. On November 10, 2020, the Council of Ministers ap‐ proved a package of legal re‐ forms with the aim of reduc‐ ing the number of road deaths and serious injuries by 50 per cent. The modification of the Traffic Regulations means that from May 11, the speed limit on one‐way streets in urban areas will be reduced to 30km/hour, while larger vehicles carry‐ ing dangerous goods will circulate at a maximum of 40 km/hour on city roads of two or more lanes. On all other crossings, the maximum speed limit will be 50km/hour, while munic‐ ipal councils may be able to increase the speed on one‐ way streets in exceptional circumstances.
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Roaming confusion
FOLLOWING the UK leaving the European Union, there have been many questions and queries, one being how data roaming will work with UK phone companies. Many are still confused about using their UK phone contracts in Spain and the charges it may incur. One confused Facebook user asked: “Has anyone recently found their U K contract phone provider has updated their fair usage policy
ROAMING: Many are confused about using UK phone contracts in Spain.
EUROPEAN NIBS DENMARK
FRANCE
Vaccine ditched
Notre Dame
DESPITE the fact that the World Health Organisation has declared that the risk of death from use of the AstraZeneca vaccine due to blood clots was minute, the Danish Government has decided to stop using that vaccine completely but will continue with the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines.
WHEN Notre Dame Cathedral was devastated by fire two years ago, French President Macron promised that it would be open for worship again by 2024, but despite a spend so far of €165 million to reinforce the structure, no actual restoration has even been started.
NORWAY
NETHERLANDS following Brexit? I’ve been hit with a £40 data charge on top of monthly paid contract because I have been in Spain for longer than 63 days. It seems this was changed at
Trips For Elderly REYES MAROTO, the Minister of Industry, Commerce, and Tourism for Spain, has reaffirmed that her department is already working to accelerate the reactivation of the Imserso programme, which allows the elderly to go on trips planned by the government, and is confident that it can be resumed in October. She said, “The elderly population has not only been the population most at risk, but at the moment it is the one that perhaps needs more affection and more encouragement when it comes to travelling. They are the first to be vaccinated and therefore the conditions are in place, so that our elders begin to travel.” The government has reportedly allocated a budget of €118 million for the Imserso programme in 2021, and they are now busy working on a calendar of dates, although the contract has to be reapproved, as the last one was terminated due to the pandemic.
the start of January. “Is it worth using this to escape from the contract early, as going through any policy updates this was never mentioned?” Although having a Spanish SIM can be much easier when joining a new bank in Spain or applying for internet in your property, some users prefer to keep their old SIM contract and telephone number. Vodafone claimed in January that they had no plans to change roaming fees, and 02 said: “We’re committed to providing our customers with great connectivity and value when they travel outside the U K. We currently have no plans to change our roaming services across Europe,” according to the BBC website.
NEWS
First murder
Rain Forests ACCORDING to a new report released by the World Wide Fund for Nature the use of soy in feed for the Dutch livestock industry means that the Netherlands is the largest European contributor to destruction of tropical forest cleared for soy production.
WHILST many countries report murders on an almost daily basis, Norwegian Police have just confirmed that Norway’s first murder of the year took place on April 13 and already a 30-year-old man has been arrested for shooting another man in a quiet Oslo suburb.
BELGIUM
FINLAND
Brazen beaver
Gender law
AS she wandered into her garden, a woman in a suburb of Leuven was amazed to see a beaver happily using her swimming pool. It took three volunteers from the local animal protection service to catch the beaver and return it to the wild.
A NEW report in Helsingin Sanomat reveals that the Ministry of Social Affairs is considering giving the right to employees to be able to access information regarding salaries paid to their co-workers if they suspect that they are being discriminated against due to gender.
GERMANY
SWEDEN
Lufthansa plan
Hot line
ANXIOUS to ensure that all of its 63,000 staff in Germany are inoculated against Covid-19, Lufthansa has announced that it plans to set up vaccination centres in Frankfurt, Hamburg and Munich to arrange staff vaccinations but now awaits allocation of vaccine.
THE Swedish Navy is setting up a hot line for residents who live near its 48,000-kilometre coastline to call in if they spot any unusual activity at sea. In 1981, coastguards were contacted by a boat owner and found a Russian submarine which had run aground.
Exit hits food exports SPANISH imports from Britain have been hit in the first two months since their exit from the European Union as new EU rules disrupt trade across the channel. In the first two months of this year, Spain’s imports from the UK have dropped by 49 per cent
when compared with the same period last year. In contrast to this, trade data shows imports between EU countries and Spain only dropped by 7 per cent, according to the Spanish industry minister. A breakdown of the type of
goods by country was not provided by the ministry, however, they pointed out that sectors with the largest weight in exports were capital goods, food, beverages and tobacco, with each accounting for around 20 per cent of the total.
Human And Monkey hybrid SOUNDING like something from a sciencefiction story, Spanish scientist, Juan Carlos Izpisúa Belmonte, the director of the Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute of California, in La Jolla, and his team of scientists from various countries, has just successfully carried out in laboratories in China, the cultivation of 132 ‘chimera embryos’ with a mixture of monkey and human cells. Within six days of development, each of the monkey embryos in the blastocyst phase was injected with 25 human cells, specifically, reprogrammed pluripotent stem cells - capable of copying all types of cells in the body with a fluorescent protein. One day later human cells were detected in 132 embryos, as the cells had survived and integrated into the embryo, and 10 days later, 103 of them were still developing, al-
though, survival soon began to decline, and 19 days later only three chimeras were still alive. Izpisúa stressed, “Our goal is not to generate any new organism, any monster. And we are not doing anything like that. We are trying to understand how cells from different organisms communicate with one another.” Adding, “This knowledge will allow us to go back now and try to re-engineer these pathways that are successful for allowing appropriate development of human cells in these other animals. We are very, very excited.” Professor Julian Savulescu, a director of the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics and co-director of the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities, University of Oxford, told Irish News that the research “opens Pandora’s box to human-nonhuman chimeras.”
FINANCE BUSINESS EXTRA Matchbox cars NOW owned by Mattel, Matchbox cars are still being produced but are moving into environmentally friendly territory with the launch of a new all electric vehicle collection which starts with a Tesla model alongside an electric charging station and they will contain some recycled material.
Taking off AFTER founding Clickair which became part of Vueling, Bilbaoborn Alex Cruz was recruited by IAG eight years ago and most recently was the non-executive president of British Airways. The 55-year-old has now parted company with IAG and it is rumoured is looking to become SAS CEO.
Kerb to kitchen FOOD delivery company Ocado has announced it will support driverless vehicle software startup Oxbotica by investing £10 million (€11 million) to help create self-driving vehicles as well as what are referred to as ‘kerbto-kitchen’ robots which if successful will help to greatly reduce the cost of delivery.
Greater liquidity SANITAS, the Spanish subsidiary of BUPA has decided that with an end of year surplus of €259 million, it will transfer €218 million to reserves in order to ensure that it has additional liquidity to cope with any significant call upon insurance funds due to Covid19.
One Stop Shop THE Gibraltar Ministry for Business has announced that the Business Liaison Team’s One Stop shop has reopened for faceto-face meetings from April 19. It exists to provide support and guidance to individuals on the business start-up process for those wishing to set up on the Rock. With internal Covid-19 restrictions relaxed, these meetings will allow new start-ups to collect all paperwork from one source rather than have to visit different government departments. Those interested in booking an appointment may call + 350 200 59801.
14
STAT OF WEEK
www.euroweeklynews.com • 22 - 28 April 2021
€315 million
was the 2020 turnover of Spanish/Portuguese law firm Cuatracasas which was just 0.3 per cent down on 2019 figures.
Línea Directa goes public THE National Securities Market Commission (CN‐ MV) has approved the list‐ ing of shares in Línea Direc‐ ta Aseguradora on the Spanish Stock Markets on April 29. Currently owned by Bankinter, which will retain a minority shareholding in the company, Línea Directa is the fifth largest insurer in Spain and currently has more than 3.2 million clients and an annual
turnover of close to €900 million in premiums. Originally set up as a mo‐ tor insurer, it now has the largest market share in the country, but after adding home and health insurance to its offerings, it also en‐ joys a growing share of those markets. Arguably, Línea Directa is the company that leads the digital transformation of the insurance sector with its commitment to ad‐
LEGALLY SPEAKING
vanced technology and says that more than 60 per cent of its new policyholders ar‐ rived via digital channels and that around 80 per cent of clients use the inter‐ net to review policies. Initially to be launched at €1.3175 per share, the company is valued at €1.434 billion, but it is an‐ ticipated prices may fluctu‐ ate quickly as Bankinter is giving shares to current bank shareholders by way
of bonus dividend and it may well be that they will wish to sell some or all of their holding. “Listing Línea Directa is a natural step given the ma‐ turity and profitability achieved by the company. This milestone is a source of pride for us and we are very excited to soon become the third largest Spanish insurer listed on the Stock Ex‐ change,” commented CEO Miguel Angel Merino.
The cost of dying in Spain
Is it IBI or Community? I pay Community fees for two plots in my Community. Both have the same square metres but one has my house on it. The other is vacant. I pay €204.75 each plot for the first semester plus €204.75 for the second semester each year. Total is €409.50. Last year I had €258.37 deducted from my bank for each plot, totalling €517.74. That’s an in‐ crease of €107.26. I have questioned the difference, but the Presi‐ dent replied that it’s an administration query and she passed my e‐mail to the administrator who never replies. A J (Costa Blanca) Has your communi‐ ty voted at the YOU AND THE LAW AGM to raise the IN SPAIN fees? I suspect that the sums taken from your bank are not community fees at all, but municipal property tax charges. This is the IBI, the Impuesto sobre Bienes Inmuebles. This is equivalent to the ‘rates’ in English. This tax is charged on the sur‐ face area of the land, no matter what is standing on the land. It seems that yours have been raised. Check with your bank. If your president and administrator would not inform you of this, they are not serving you well.
DAVID SEARL
Send your questions for David Searl through lawyers Ubeda-Retana and Associates in Fuengirola at Ask@lawtaxspain.com, or call 952 667 090.
MARKS & SPENCER has launched an intellectual property claim in the UK against supermarket giant Aldi, citing alleged similari‐ ties between its Colin the Caterpillar cake with Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar. M&S, which lodged the claim with the High Court, is arguing that the similarity of
Arrangements have to be different. WHEN a loved one dies in Spain, there are costs and procedures which need to be covered, which is why having a pre‐paid funeral plan elimi‐ nates the stress and worry at such a difficult time. Prices will depend a lot on the location, but incineration costs a lot less than burial. If you want your remains returned to your country of origin, this will mean an extra cost, whereas if you are buried in Spain, the norm is to ‘rent’ a niche for 10 years at a price of between €150 and €600 per year. At the
end of this time, there is also a fee to remove the remains. Other costs generally tak‐ en into account in Spain in‐ clude: the coffin, which varies a lot in price depend‐ ing on the style; the funeral parlour, which depends on the number of hours the re‐ mains stay there; transfer to the cemetery; headstone, which depends on the de‐ sign; flowers, guest book and memorial favours; obituar‐ ies, and finally the adminis‐ trative procedures such as registering the death, getting a death certificate, etc
www.goldenleavesinternational.com enquiries@goldenleaves.com Facebook: goldenleavesspain
Caterpillar Wars! Aldi’s product leads con‐ sumers to believe they are of the same standard and “ride on the coat‐tails” of M&S’s reputation with the product. An M&S spokesperson
said: “Because we know the M&S brand is special to our customers and they expect only the very best from us, love and care goes into every M&S product on our shelves,
so we want to protect Colin, Connie and our reputation for freshness, quality, inno‐ vation and value.” It is understood that M&S has three different trade‐
Trade agreement close TWO important European Parliament committees have overwhelmingly approved the UK’s post‐Brexit trade deal with the EU according to the BBC. Although there are still some concerns about the sit‐ uation in Northern Ireland, it is recognised that the De‐ cember provisional Co‐oper‐ ation Agreement is far bet‐ ter for both sides than the implementation of World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. The final ratification of the deal (which will still make it more onerous for Europe and the UK to trade than be‐ fore Brexit) is due to be placed before the European Parliament before the end of April.
Going naked worked NAKED WINES (formerly associ‐ ated with Majestic Wines) has confirmed that the pandemic has given the company a real fi‐ nancial boost with profits up by more than two thirds. According to CEO Nick Devlin, its decision to return to its roots and supply only online turned out to be the right one as it now has 885,000 regular customers, an increase of nearly 50 per cent over the previous year. Whilst results for 2021 are difficult to forecast, he believes that growth, particularly in the USA will continue.
marks against Colin the Caterpillar. It believes Colin has a distinctive character and reputation that will en‐ sure the courts will rule in their favour. With numerous Aldi stores in Spain and very few M&S outlets, caterpillar cake con‐ noisseurs may wish to check locally.
16 EWN
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COMPANY PRICE(P) CHANGE(P) 3I Group 1.265,50 1.266,00 Admiral Group 3.212,0 3.237,0 Anglo American 3.204,0 3.218,4 Antofagasta 1.887,60 1.902,50 Ashtead Group 4.665,0 4.680,0 Associated British Foods 2.414,9 2.430,3 AstraZeneca 7.393,0 7.419,5 Auto Trader Group Plc 578,40 580,26 Avast 470,30 470,60 Aveva 3.844,0 3.852,0 Aviva 408,69 410,70 B&M European Value Retail SA565,80 566,00 BAE Systems 519,20 524,90 Bank VTB DRC 1,182 1,206 Barclays 188,61 189,32 Barratt Developments 790,77 793,00 Berkeley 4.621,4 4.634,8 BHP Group 2.225,50 2.240,00 BP 302,00 302,53 British American Tobacco 2.894,4 2.900,5 British Land Company 514,56 519,26 BT Group 154,92 154,90 Bunzl 2.507,5 2.512,0 Burberry Group 2.078,0 2.083,0 Carnival 1.660,9 1.665,3 Centrica 56,84 56,92 Coca Cola HBC AG 2.521,0 2.522,0 Compass 1.589,50 1.601,74 CRH 3.504,0 3.516,0 Croda Intl 6.785,2 6.808,0 DCC 6.452,0 6.484,0 Diageo 3.232,4 3.245,5 DS Smith 423,50 425,60 EasyJet 990,17 1.001,50 Experian 2.752,0 2.755,0 Ferguson 9.378,0 9.420,0 Flutter Entertainment 15.560,0 15.650,0 Fresnillo 930,76 933,12 GlaxoSmithKline 1.348,40 1.353,00 Glencore 302,80 304,55 Halma 2.568,0 2.580,0 Hargreaves Lansdown 1.678,50 1.678,50 Hikma Pharma 2.388,00 2.390,00 HSBC 427,42 427,95 IAG 207,09 209,65 Imperial Brands 1.591,90 1.592,48 Informa 595,80 598,00 InterContinental 5.214,0 5.228,0 Intermediate Capital 2.005,00 2.023,00 Intertek 6.144,0 6.149,9 ITV 122,25 123,50
% CHG. 1.256,00 3.202,0 3.200,5 1.880,86 4.648,0 2.411,0 7.330,6 576,00 464,50 3.811,0 407,75 559,40 519,20 1,182 187,41 783,60 4.613,6 2.222,00 299,70 2.884,1 514,20 153,20 2.503,8 2.047,0 1.651,8 56,43 2.492,0 1.589,50 3.496,0 6.749,7 6.428,0 3.225,4 420,00 982,57 2.712,0 9.322,0 15.520,0 923,04 1.338,00 302,15 2.562,0 1.661,49 2.367,52 426,33 205,71 1.576,50 593,20 5.184,0 2.001,00 6.100,0 122,00
NET VOL 63,83K 29,11K 6,74K 6,30K 23,62K 8,11K 23,38K 15,51K 202,44K 6,84K 78,39K 44,40K 70,00K 32,83K 1,75M 92,43K 0,49K 168,21K 451,92K 27,57K 9,44K 1,24M 2,28K 19,93K 10,53K 133,77K 10,66K 3,40K 29,24K 1,52K 4,16K 13,42K 157,25K 104,15K 93,99K 16,76K 8,14K 28,88K 536,38K 1,47M 16,80K 44,84K 3,70K 51,31K 742,18K 24,46K 61,11K 9,58K 12,70K 1,15K 306,31K
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PRICE(P)
J Sainsbury Johnson Matthey Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Banking London Stock Exchange Meggitt Melrose Industries Mondi National Grid NatWest Group Next Norilskiy Nikel ADR Ocado Persimmon Phoenix Prudential Reckitt Benckiser Relx Rentokil Rightmove Rio Tinto PLC Rolls-Royce Holdings Rosneft DRC Royal Dutch Shell A Royal Dutch Shell A Royal Dutch Shell B RSA Insurance Sage Samsung Electronics DRC Sberbank Schroders Scottish Mortgage Segro Severn Trent Smith & Nephew Smiths Group Spirax-Sarco Engineering SSE St. James’s Place Standard Chartered Standard Life Aberdeen Taylor Wimpey Tesco Tui Unilever United Utilities Vodafone Group PLC Whitbread WPP
251,60 3.204,0 720,00 277,94 43,62 7.739,7 476,30 178,30 1.981,00 904,80 199,10 8.252,0 33,36 2.206,41 3.206,3 757,20 1.549,00 6.685,0 1.935,00 526,00 611,25 6.071,0 105,18 7,17 1.402,51 1.403,0 1.342,1 683,00 648,00 1.865,00 15,03 3.630,0 1.244,98 987,80 2.443,4 1.438,50 1.643,50 12.210,0 1.509,29 1.342,50 493,10 288,40 192,50 233,08 394,05 4.157,0 964,60 135,10 3.524,0 976,40
CHANGE(P)
% CHG.
NET VOL
252,50 3.231,0 724,94 280,09 43,70 7.816,0 485,00 183,64 1.993,00 909,50 199,80 8.294,0 33,69 2.207,94 3.223,0 763,20 1.552,25 6.710,0 1.941,00 526,20 613,86 6.099,0 106,96 7,22 1.407,31 1.408,4 1.346,8 683,80 649,20 1.875,00 15,09 3.636,0 1.252,00 993,40 2.450,2 1.453,00 1.650,50 12.245,0 1.513,50 1.343,00 493,60 291,05 192,70 233,33 396,94 4.176,5 967,39 135,88 3.549,0 982,80
247,10 3.191,0 719,40 277,70 43,27 7.698,0 475,30 177,73 1.969,50 901,80 198,45 8.052,0 33,27 2.181,81 3.196,8 756,40 1.545,50 6.648,0 1.934,13 521,00 610,03 6.059,0 104,83 7,15 1.395,01 1.394,6 1.333,9 682,80 642,60 1.865,00 15,02 3.610,0 1.240,19 984,40 2.442,0 1.438,50 1.636,50 12.090,0 1.495,00 1.338,73 491,00 288,40 190,70 231,00 392,67 4.135,0 959,20 134,63 3.505,0 973,20
882,29K 14,05K 5,41K 254,89K 8,89M 49,25K 28,10K 100,44K 37,38K 210,38K 314,02K 36,94K 49,21K 8,35K 4,60K 43,67K 28,30K 33,67K 15,81K 69,91K 14,74K 109,34K 5,38M 186,92K 24,30K 407,66K 65,40K 58,76K 84,13K 1,42K 4,81K 4,02K 317,09K 56,48K 1,73K 149,10K 15,21K 4,41K 11,37K 3,26K 94,95K 53,81K 427,03K 533,68K 260,43K 129,34K 12,55K 331,36K 3,37K 190,27K
1.15695
0.86485
Units per €
US dollar (USD) ......................................1.19069 Japan yen (JPY)......................................129.956 Switzerland franc (CHF) ...........................1.1021 Denmark kroner (DKK) .............................7.4363 Norway kroner (NOK) ...............................10.007
currenciesdirect.com/marbella • Tel: +34 952 906 581 THE ABOVE TABLE USES THE CURRENT INTERBANK EXCHANGE RATES, WHICH AREN’T REPRESENTATIVE OF THE RATE WE OFFER
DOW JONES C LOSING P RICES A PRIL 19
COMPANY 3M Alphabet C Amazon.com Amgen Apple Boeing Caterpillar Chevron Cisco Coca-Cola Facebook Goldman Sachs Home Depot Honeywell IBM Intel J&J JPMorgan McDonald’s Merck&Co Microsoft Nike Procter&Gamble Salesforce.com Tesla UnitedHealth Verizon Visa A Walmart Walt Disney
PRICE 198,58 2.297,76 3.399,44 255,71 134,16 248,18 233,36 102,96 52,80 53,68 306,18 342,31 328,08 232,11 133,59 64,75 162,24 153,30 233,08 77,47 260,74 134,31 137,25 231,91 739,78 391,01 58,28 226,41 140,61 187,26
CHANGE 199,67 2.306,44 3.406,80 258,82 134,67 253,05 235,94 104,36 53,18 53,80 308,95 343,74 328,67 232,35 134,10 65,52 162,51 154,51 234,26 77,75 261,00 134,77 137,90 234,00 749,41 393,92 58,48 227,80 140,96 189,47
CHANGE% VOLUME(M) 197,98 2,77M 2.284,45 1,13M 3.355,59 3,19M 254,67 2,77M 133,28 84,92M 246,23 14,61M 232,27 2,13M 102,43 7,46M 52,26 28,33M 53,38 17,97M 304,61 13,06M 338,62 4,23M 323,94 6,21M 230,05 4,10M 132,95 5,29M 64,57 24,63M 160,56 9,05M 152,69 13,77M 232,31 2,69M 76,82 11,94M 257,60 24,88M 133,73 6,85M 136,88 7,71M 229,89 5,09M 724,60 27,98M 385,46 4,53M 57,80 19,87M 225,76 6,83M 139,71 8,83M 186,20 9,45M M - MILLION DOLLARS
NASDAQ C LOSING P RICES A PRIL 19
COMPANY
CHANGE NET / %
VOLUME
+1.80% +12.50% +0.60% +5.96% +73.89% +1.95% +3.34% +6.84% +7.69% +1.63% +1.32%
783,479 4.51M 3.19M 22.65M 5.69M 3,047 83,837 19.04M 4.62M 995,161 1.04M
-6.29% -2.20% -9.52% -3.12% -0.76% -30.40% -1.49% -36.85% -1.39% -0.92% -14.56%
762,793 499,563 6.86M 2.67M 4,636 9.10M 383,441 247,336 8.38M 148,549 1.48M
Most Advanced Booking Holdings Inc. Novavax Inc. Amazon.com Inc. Coinbase Global Inc. Recursion Pharmaceuticals Inc. Atrion Corp. Credit Acceptance Corp. Moderna Inc. BioNTech SE ADR O'Reilly Automotive Inc. Charter Communications Inc. Cl A
Most Declined MicroStrategy Inc. Trade Desk Inc. Cl A Splunk Inc. Roku Inc. Cl A Broadcom Inc. 8% Pfd. Series A Esports Technologies Inc. Equinix Inc. Sequential Brands Group Inc. NVIDIA Corp. CoStar Group Inc. Veracyte Inc.
FINANCE, BUSINESS & LEGAL
www.euroweeklynews.com
Credit: Ibercaja Press Centre
Ibercaja Bank reveals future plans
GOING ALONE: José Luis Aguirre and Víctor Iglesias announced the plans. WITH the merging of Spanish banks being recommended by the Bank of Spain, Zaragoza based Ibercaja Banco has just confirmed that it intends to continue alone. It started as a savings bank 145 years ago and expanded in 2011 by taking over other savings banks which allowed it to grow significantly. The President José Luis Aguirre and CEO Víctor Igle‐ sias have now revealed their strategy to take the bank for‐ ward by publishing their 2021‐2023 ‘Challenge Plan’. In this, they are looking to continue to offer a wide range of customer services which includes, banking, mortgages, insurance, pen‐ sions and much more with the aim of adding an addition‐ al 50 per cent of customers in personal, business and pri‐ vate banking.
Another target sees a de‐ termination to exceed a 7 per cent return on investment with a new focus on the de‐ velopment of technological knowledge to help increase customer satisfaction and to reduce costs. There is also a plan to strengthen the bank’s finan‐ cial position to ensure that it is able to cope with any new and unexpected problems which may arise as Spain emerges from the pandemic and it has over the past three years reduced the burden of non‐performing assets by al‐ most €5 billion. A statement from the Presi‐ dent makes it clear that he and his board have every con‐ fidence in the future of the Spanish economy for the fu‐ ture. According to the Expansion website, there are also plans
Product recall SAINSBURY’S supermarket group in the UK has issued a product recall warning with regards to the possibility of Taste the Difference Medjool Dates being contaminated with Hepatitis A. The packs which are being recalled are 200g and 500g, with supplier/site code K0014EW on the date label. Readers with UK relations, especially Muslims who eat dates during Ramadan are advised to warn them of the problem. Whilst there have been no reports of any customer falling ill, Hepatitis A is an unpleasant infection and the company could be open to a claim for damages should anyone be infected.
for Ibercaja to be floated on the Madrid Stock Exchange, either in 2021 or 2022 de‐ pending upon the state of the share market.
BUSINESS EXTRA Beer goggles THE Revolut beer-ometer™ showed that English pub spending was up by 200 per cent when pubs reopened compared to a normal Monday. It said that £2,086 (€2,295) was being spent every minute with the biggest boozers being men aged 25 to 34, quaffing an average 4.8 pints.
O2 merger NOW that the UK Competition and Markets Authority has given a provisional green light for the merger of the O2 and Virgin mobile phone groups, Spanish owner of O2, Telefónica can look forward to reducing its debt burden by nearly €5 billion.
Renewable power WITH renewable power the next big money spinner in Spain, the Canadian group Northland Power has entered into a €1 billion deal to take over a number of projects in Spain from Helia, a fund controlled by Plenium Partners Asset Management and Bankinter.
22 - 28 April 2021
EWN 17
18 EWN
www.euroweeklynews.com
22 - 28 April 2021
FEATURE
True problem lies in the home
LEAPY LEE SAYS IT OTHERS THINK IT I’M utterly sick and fed up with the media and woke brigade endeavouring to make us feel sorry for thugs and criminals. George Floyd was a habitual criminal, out and about breaking the law. Had he been a law abiding citizen, legally going about his business, the police would have had no reason to arrest him and he would be alive today. The case of a 13‐year‐old, shot dead by police at the weekend was undoubtedly a tragic event, but he was out at night, with his friend, both carrying loaded guns! What do you think they were up to, charity work? In that particular circumstance I actually feel sorry for the police officer, who I understand was in tears after the event. Apparently a second before he was shot, the police video showed the boy was actually holding a gun. He then raised his arm to discard it. The officer had a split second to decide whether or not the boy was about to shoot him, what was he supposed to do, let the boy take the first shot!? He was simply protecting himself.
NO CONTROL: Why are they carrying guns to begin with? Naturally the popular media are not showing the young man actually with the gun in his hand, merely the split second after he had discarded it. After all, the more hatred and trouble they can whip up the more newsworthy content they can glean for their sensationalist hungry viewers. And why is there always such a
kerfuffle when many black drivers are ordered to put their hands on the wheel or the dash where they can be seen? The majority of these drivers’ immediate reaction seems to be frantic jerking around, shouting protests, waving their arms and generally escalating the whole event
which then often culminates in screaming police dragging them from the car. If they would simply comply immediately there would be no need for all the violence and possible tragedy that often ensues. I know if I was shouted at by an armed officer to put my hands on the wheel, they would be glued to the
steering wheel in a heartbeat. Returning briefly to that shot teenager, no doubt his tearful Mother will soon be telling all who are prepared to listen what a ‘wonderful son’ and ‘good boy’ he had always been! If anyone is to blame here it is (as usual) the parents or, more often than not, the ‘absent father family,’ who have so little control or care for their offsprings that they are actually allowed to run amok at night carrying guns and knives. That is where the true problem lies; in the home. Far too many ‘ladies’ from these so called ‘deprived’ areas appear to be so free and easy with their favours, they often end up with a whole brood of children from multiple fathers ‐ all absent and totally untraceable. No wonder their children are out of control. It’s time these people got their own houses in order before blaming society and the police for the wrongdoings of their errant offsprings. Keep the faith Love Leapy Leapylee2002@gmail.com expatradioscotland Mon. Wed. Fri.
Leapy Lee’s opinions are his own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.
FEATURE
www.euroweeklynews.com
How can you confuse a gun? MIKE SENKER IN MY OPINION
Views of a Grumpy Old Man A POLICE officer who shot and killed a driver during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, on Sunday afternoon, meant to deploy her Taser instead of her gun, police said. In a press conference on Monday, Brooklyn Center Police Chief Tim Gannon said he believes the female officer intended to deploy her Taser when she ‘accidentally’ shot 20year-old Daunte Wright. How do you accidently confuse your gun with a Taser? To me an accident is knocking over your drink or maybe driving into the back of someone’s car, but shooting someone when you are a trained police officer isn’t an accident especially when your gun and Taser are on different sides of your belt. My point here is that the USA is an absolute mess where guns and killing people are concerned apart from gawd knows how many mass shooting there are. Their police forces are particularly gun happy. We live in a country where all police are armed, but I can’t think of one instance here where a police officer has pulled someone over for a traffic violation and finished up
shooting them dead. Never heard of any mass shootings either. The reason might be that the average punter here can’t buy a gun, never mind ones that fires 10 to 20 rounds a second like the AR15. Let’s see if Biden will finally do something about it or will be bought off by the NRA. Shame about Prince Philip dying, totally politically incorrect bloke, but all in all he did a good job and was a great partner for the Queen. He was after all 99 years old and had a pretty good innings. But I do think the coverage of his death went overboard especially the BBC. The total blanket coverage of BBC1 and BBC2 was well over the top and other stations too with looped broadcasting hour after hour. Then all the Royal correspondents were wheeled out giving their views. They even invited members of the public to email in if they had met him. So basically anybody could have said they had met him without any confirmation just to get a shout out on the telly! I think it backfired as people turned off in their millions after a couple of hours and, in fact, Gogglebox, a TV programme about people watching TV programmes got higher ratings. But their biggest mistake, as far as Mrs S was concerned, was postponing the final of MasterChef! Email: mikesenker@gmail.com
Mike’s opinions are his own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.
22 - 28 April 2021
EWN 19
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Lights Up: The Winter's Tale Coast Between the Lines Between the Lines Scuffles, Swagger & Shakespeare: The Hidden Story of English Sold! Inside the World's Biggest Auction House Sold! Inside the World's Biggest Auction House
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Party Election Broadcast ITV Evening News Emmerdale Ainsley's Mediterranean Cookbook Who Wants to be a Millionaire? Viewpoint ITV News at Ten and Weather ITV News London On Assignment
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All Creatures Great and Small The Yorkshire Vet 5 News Weekend Secret Scotland with Susan Calman Our Yorkshire Farm Caesars Palace: World's Most Expensive Hotels Edward VII Britain's Favourite 90s TV Comedy
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My Evil Daughter: Love Me or Else Rich House, Poor House 5 News at 5 Neighbours Home and Away 5 News Tonight Gallagher Premiership Rugby Highlights Traffic Cops A&E After Dark
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Neighbours Killer Arrangement: A Flower Shop Mystery Rich House, Poor House 5 News at 5 Neighbours Home and Away 5 News Tonight Building Britain's Canals Police Interceptors Here Come the Gypsies! Raids
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DAVID WORBOYS MASKS are worn by Zorro, the Lone Ranger and participants in the Car‐ nival of Venice. And bank robbers and certain circus performers. The rest of the world, meanwhile, are wearing nosebags. There is so much we don’t know about everything connected with Covid‐19, but there can be little doubt that wearing nosebags is bad for the health and has killed many thousands of people, especially those with respiratory or pulmonary issues. Apart from the deprivation of quality fresh air and sunshine, cer‐ tain designs can be uncomfortable and sweaty, they can pinch the ears, get tangled in spectacle cords and keep slipping down the nose. And conversation can be stultified as voices are muffled by them. However, we have to accept that the wearing of masks has saved mil‐ lions of lives from this dreadful virus. Where nosebags have been ridiculed in countries such as the
NOSEBAGS UNCOMFORTABLE: The wearing of nosebags is compulsory in Spain but some designs are quite amusing. USA and Brazil, the horrifying statis‐ tics speak for themselves. Until the UK leadership accepted the idea of wearing them, its number of cases and fatalities was among the highest in the world. In the various regions of Spain, casualties are much lower where the wearing of nosebags is observed. It is still very easy to leave home or alight from a car without the dreaded piece of cloth. This is proba‐
bly why many people seem unable to separate themselves from them. They wear them round their necks and chins while driving unaccompa‐ nied. I have seen people in bars low‐ ering their nosebags below their mouths to take a slurp of coffee or beer and then immediately raising them again. There was a recent case in Nerja, where the owner of a bar was fined €2,000 because two of the cus‐
FEATURE
tomers were not wearing nosebags while talking to each other rather than actually drinking. The cus‐ tomers got away with €1,000. And there have been much more draco‐ nian measures than this. In Spain, the central government has reversed its bizarre decision to compel the wearing of nosebags on the beach, while sunbathing, osten‐ sibly on cosmetic grounds. The re‐ sulting sun tans would have been hi‐ larious to behold. Some nosebag designs are quite amusing, showing a pig’s nose or a rictus grin but, inevitably, others are worn simply to score points, show‐ ing designer names or exclusive memberships. More seriously, we should spare a thought for the hundreds of millions of people who are obliged to wear a nosebag throughout their working hours, quite apart from most of their leisure time. Shopkeepers, bus drivers, bank tellers, waitresses, hairdressers and, of course, care workers (but not footballers!) are just a few examples. However, with all the additional dangers and stress, the health workers have the tough‐ est commitment of all. They deserve our heartfelt appreciation.
David Worboys’s opinions are his own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.
FEATURE
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22 - 28 April 2021
EWN 23
TAX COP-OUTS WORTHY OF AN OSCAR? NORA JOHNSON BREAKING VIEWS Nora is the author of popular psychological suspense and crime thrillers and a freelance journalist. To comment on any of the issues raised in her column, go to www.euroweeklynews.com/3.0.15/nora-johnson
HAVE you been targeted by one of those ‘phishing’ scams doing the rounds recent‐ ly? You know, those scam emails pretend‐ ing to offer customers a tax rebate? Or worse still, you missed the January 31 deadline for online UK tax returns? If so, you’d better come up with a better excuse than those given by HM Revenue and Cus‐ toms as the worst examples people have come up with for filing / paying their tax return late. These range from the usual “my pet dog ate my tax return … AND all the reminders”; “I was up a mountain in Wales, and couldn’t find a post box or get an internet signal” and “I was in Australia” to the “poor me” variety (“I fell in with the wrong crowd”; “I live in a camper van in a supermarket car park”; “a work colleague borrowed my tax return, to photocopy it, and didn’t give it back”; “my girlfriend’s pregnant”) to the truly bizarre
WORST EXCUSES: “My pet dog ate my tax return... AND all the reminders.” (“I’ve been busy looking after a flock of es‐ caped parrots and some fox cubs”; “I’ve been travelling the world, trying to escape from a foreign intelligence agency”).
Unsurprisingly, none of these led to a successful appeal ‐ or worthy of an award at Monday’s Oscars. To return, briefly, to ‘phishing’, maybe the best advice nowadays
is, sadly: ‘Trust nobody’. The world in which we now live. Fake tradesmen in hi‐vis jackets knocking at your door to check some phoney gas‐leak/pipe‐ work ‘problem’ and walking out with your wallet. The elderly being palmed off with third‐rate stuff at outrageous prices. Or a worthless plot of land as an ‘investment’. This happens, we all know it happens. The answer may partly lie with the media: more publicity given about the punishment dished out to offenders to scare off those hell‐bent on committing such crimes. And more, much more success in catching the offenders... What’s really disturbing is that the police often know who the offenders are, but can’t get enough people to testify against them. Perhaps we’re all to blame here. What’s your view? Nora Johnson’s psychological crime thrillers ‘The Sentinel’, ‘No Safe Place’, ‘Betrayal’, ‘The Girl in the Woods’, ‘The Girl in the Red Dress’, ‘No Way Back’, ‘Landscape of Lies’, ‘Retribu‐ tion’, ‘Soul Stealer’, ‘The De Clerambault Code’ (www.nora‐johnson.net) available on‐ line as eBook (€0.99; £0.99), Apple Books, pa‐ perback and audiobook. All profits to Costa del Sol Cudeca cancer charity.
Nora Johnson’s opinions are her own and are not necessarily representative of those of the publishers, advertisers or sponsors.
EW YOUR PAPER - YOUR VOICE - YOUR OPINION Letters should be emailed to yoursay@euroweeklynews.com or make your comments on our website: www.euroweeklynews.com Views expressed and opinions given are not necessarily those of the EWN publishers. No responsibility is accepted for accuracy of information, errors, omissions or statements.
CAN YOU HELP ME OUT? From our Facebook Dear Leapy, As a regular reader of the Euro Weekly News I have to congratulate you on most of your comments since you have been writing your column, particularly this recent edition - 8 -14 April. However, as a successful pop artist of yesteryear, I am sure you would have appeared on some of the same gigs as Craig. We first met at a party in Holland Park shortly after his agent had persuaded him to change his name from Perkins, around 1961, I think. His love for sport, outside of showbiz, especially golf, made us life long mates. For quite a long period in the early 70s we both lived in Dolphin Square in Pimlico, quite by chance!! However, my wife Liz and I have lived since 2005 as residents in the quiet village of Sant Elm (was San Telmo) here in Mallorca. Since then I have only returned to the UK, on three occasions, the last being 2012, when I was invited to appear in the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games. On the first two visits to London, Craig and I met up for a beer, etc but in 2012, I could not find him at this penthouse flat at 709 Hawkins House, DS or on his landline telephone. Short of time, I failed to find him, but from his Wikepedia details, I found that he had been paralysed from the waist down, having been bitten on the foot by a rare flea type creature, which had left him wheelchair bound for the rest of his life. All very sad, but being Craig, he still managed to appear on occasional gigs performing to his high standards from his wheelchair. SkyNews sponsored a benefit for him on 11 December 2011 at the Amersham Rock and Roll Club, and that is the only news I have of him in the past 10 years. I have tried to contact him from here over the past 10 years but with no success, whatsoever. I can only imagine that he is living in a home for the disabled, somewhere in the London area. Can you help me in my quest to find him? It is so frustating not having any contact information, not even a telephone number, as a start. I do hope you can bring me some news. Having been born on the Isle of Wight in 1941, he is a year younger than myself and must be having quite a hard time in these Covid-19 days. Keep the Faith too. Mr David H Jones
Not in Spain right now! Hello! I am writing this email from the UK. I was shocked to read in your press a week ago, that several British passengers who arrived at Alicante Airport, were stopped by Spanish Security Police and outrageously flanked by Armed personnel, to continue travel to their Spanish destinations. Reading your report, it appears that according to these passengers, they had all their documentation, both legal and medical in order. But when they arrived in the airport there was a sign saying: NO TIE... NO ENTRY!
PCR TEST PRICING GENUINELY believing that we have earned the right to be known as ‘The People’s Paper’ amongst English-speaking residents and visitors to Spain, we try to champion causes that will be of interest and assist our readers both here and in the UK. As will be seen in this edition of the paper as well as Facebook and www.euroweeklynews.com we recognise that many readers in both Spain and the UK are anxious to see family members again and as travel restrictions ease so there will be more chance to travel.
CORRECTIONS
Although I do find the behaviour of the Spanish police reprimandable, having considered the stand-point view of these passengers, I do wonder whether these passengers did in fact have exactly everything covered. Questions: 1. What exactly did the Spanish police find to be wrong with their documentation? 2. Were these passengers British Nationals going for a holiday? 3- Were these passengers British Nationals BUT already residents of Spain? NB. This question is massively important, because it does involve the new Brexit procedure, related to two types of Spanish Residencies namely: * A4 Green Residencia Certificate (Certificado de Registro de Ciudadano de la Union) * TIE Card (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranejro) Consequences: Any British National resident of Spain before 30 December 2020, and having with them the original A4 Green Residencia Certificate, and the correct medical test (PCR) and declaration form, they are legally allowed to enter Spain. The A4 Green Certificate it is still completely legal and accepted by Spanish authorities. Nevertheless it is advisable to apply for the new TIE Card if one continues to be a resident in Spain in the future. The TIE Card must be used as from 1 January 2021. Finally given the many disappointments some passengers are experiencing once landing in Spain. I wonder whether your paper, should also print an alert for all readers, by explaining the importance and facts related to Spanish Residency in 2021. Dr AR Basile M.Ed (Res), MIH
Faithful Tax Payer I cordially invite the Torrevieja mayor’s parents to stay in my home long enough for them to have a wee word in the ear of their son! I have been trying to have the state of Calle Mozart improved for nigh on three years now but, despite soothing words from Sr Dolón, nothing has happened. At the north end of Calle Mozart, Calle Purcell’s tarmac stops dead at the point where it runs into Calle Mozart. At the south end Calle Rodrigo’s tarmac stops dead at the point where it runs into Calle Mozart! I have to ask, “What is the mayor’s problem with Calle Mozart?” Our pot holes are filled in with clinker which shoots off in all directions as traffic drives over it. Pedestrians risk a stone bruising their ankles and cars are at risk of damage as the larger stones fire out in all directions. Jean Paton
OUR VIEW
However, until such time as vaccine passports are introduced which is unlikely before June at the earliest and with the roll out of the vaccine here in Spain still being relatively slow when compared to the UK, there will still be a need to take PCR tests. We are campaigning for a reduction in the price in the UK but in Spain, there can be a very significant difference in the price of taking the test and also in the time it takes to receive the results. There are reports of test costs
being well over €100 although on the Costa del Sol, one reputable clinic is charging just €40 with quick turnaround and the average is no more than €70, so it does pay to shop around. What we all want to see is a return to the safe movement of people throughout Europe and the rest of the world, but with so many of our readers having family in the UK, it is imperative for them that they can once again have the chance to catch up with their loved ones without having to pay an arm and a leg.
Steve Price So many strong answers here, I live in the UK. Now when I get ANY government mail, even car tax, voting, hospital, the list goes on it’s in about 10 different languages. You can get it in Braille. We do tend to go over and above to keep immigrants and illegals, boat people, must have forgotten someone but do include yourself. Yes you should try, perhaps it might work here.
Anne Brogan Most certainly may never be fluent, however it’s just good manners.
Kathryn Eden We enrolled at the Casa de Cultura for beginners lessons in Spanish as soon as we arrived. It was a class of mixed nationalities, the teacher spoke only Spanish throughout the course. All of us finished the course and felt competent to use our Spanish for everyday life. Using it gradually builds up confidence and increases the vocabulary. Everyone should learn the language of the country they choose to live in.
Junemunro Burraage Couldn’t imagine living in any country without having a grasp of the Lingo. Unfortunately many Brits in many foreign lands rely on the natives speaking English.
John Grieve That little word seems to send some expats into a foaming frenzy.
Rishenda Tofts I think you should at least try to learn to speak Spanish. Not saying it’s easy but at least give it your best shot. Spanish people on the whole are very forgiving and will help you as much as they can.
At the EWN, we pride ourselves that reports are accurate and fair. If we do slip up, we promise to set the record straight in a clear, no-nonsense manner. To ask for an inaccuracy to be corrected. Email: editorial@euroweeklynews.com
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New puppies? They need company while you are away IF you have recently brought home one or more puppies then you need to plan more carefully than usual when you go away. Moreover, are you tentatively planning to get away later this year? Even if you are planning just a short trip you’ll know that you simply can’t travel with some pets. Puppies especially usually need to stay be‐ hind so they can follow their routines at home. So, plan ahead. Take a moment to plan ahead for pet and house‐sitters, if you have trips planned later this year. Now is the time to get ready. We will help you as much as we can. Our philoso‐ phy is that we are all in this together. These are the steps to take: 1. Register as a homeowner on House SitMatch.com 2. Choose a Premium account (£89 per year) to ensure you can help online when needed 3. Create a profile with photos of your pet and the house 4. Post a house‐sit advert stating your plans for next year’s holiday Covid permitting Do you need a pet‐sitter in 2021? Then get started right now. How does it work? HouseSitMatch can help you find suitable
New puppies always need company, and a guiding hand when you are not there. sitters. Join our network for a small annual fee. You get ID checked for safety and then build your advert saying when you are going on holiday. House‐sitters see your advert, they respond and you choose the sitter who’ll care for your pets. Trustpilot Testimonials ‐ 4.8 / 5 Excellent rating (New Trustpilot rating scale) Here’s what members have said about us‐ HouseSitMatch found us a perfect house‐ sitter… HouseSitMatch found us a perfect house‐ sitter while we were away in Canada and we
were delighted with the care and attention that HouseSitMatch took in helping us find the right person. Ros Morris ‐ Dog owner How do you join? Please register online via our website www.Housesitmatch.com ‐ Choose a membership plan ‐ Please note prices go up soon so sign up now on subscription to secure these prices: • Standard (DIY option) = £69 pa • Premium (with support at each step) = £89 pa
Do you need a house-sitter? Get in touch. House-sitting can be a win-win for both parties, free house and pet-sitting, and the experienced and checked sitters get free accommodation! Register as either house-sitter or homeowner with a 20 per cent discount using coupon code P2020 - an exclusive offer for readers. To find a house or pet-sitter go to www.HousesitMatch.com. PLAYING is essential for kit‐ tens, to develop their hunt‐ ing and fighting skills. It is also a well‐known fact that cats love to play, and usu‐ ally with the simplest of toys, including boxes, pa‐ per bags, plastic balls, twists of paper and cotton reels. However, it is worth hav‐ ing a look at some updated and more stylish alterna‐ tives that are available for the cat and of course, the owner to enjoy! The latest toys are colourful and look good but are also very practical, and the first is a ‘Toys R Us colourful Tri‐Tunnel toy,’ which pops up, folds down and has a dangle toy inside for when your cat ‘wants to be alone.’ Next, there is the ‘Kong Crisscross Rolling Cat Toy,’ which rolls along the floor, with a bell that rings and a rolling ball inside or you could go for a ‘Petlinks Wild Thing Motion Cat Toy,’ that does all the work with its electronic motion ball, that moves and spins around dangling a feather. Other toys include the
Top cat toys ‘SmartyKat Crackle Chute Collapsible tunnel’ and the ‘Cat1st Ninja Cat Cube’ that can easily be stacked and connected to more cubes with Velcro. As cats get older, like hu‐ mans, they need more of
an incentive to get up and jump around for the sake of it, whereas kittens are young and have boundless amounts of energy. It is worth investing in new toys, so your cat does‐ n’t get bored.
29
PETS
My dog keeps falling over, what does it mean and what should I do? IF your dog suddenly loses their sense of balance they could be suffering from a seri‐ ous health problem that requires immedi‐ ate veterinary atten‐ tion. The condition re‐ lating to a sensory dysfunction that re‐ sults in a loss of coordi‐ nation in the dog’s head, limbs, or rear is called Ataxia. There are three types of ataxia commonly seen in dogs: cerebellar, propioceptive and vestibular. Cerebellar ataxia in dogs occurs when the cerebellum is affected and the main symptoms are loss of coordination, tremors, falling, and weakness. Proprioceptive ataxia is di‐ agnosed when the spinal cord is slowly compressed due to an intervertebral disk herniation, a tumour, trauma or a vascular infarct. This cause from an inability to properly place a foot on the ground when walking to a paralysis. Vestibular ataxia is the result of a problem in the inner ear or brainstem and the main symptoms are loss of bal‐ ance, head tilt, nystagmus (rapid eye movements) and leaning or circling to one side. A neurological exam, blood tests are required and in most cases a CT scan or MRI will be necessary.
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ROAD TEST by Mark Slack AS estates go VW’s Arteon Shooting Brake has a pres‐ ence, the wide frontal look, muscular rear and sleek lines makes for a stylish driveway addition. Based on the Passat the Arteon shooting brake is aimed at being a mix of the practical with added style. It certainly turns heads and usually for all the right rea‐ sons. The term shooting brake is a delightfully old fashioned one harking back to a time when cars had little space and upper class shooting par‐
22 - 28 April 2021
EWN 31
VW Arteon - a shooting brake for a modern generation ties needed transport for all their kit. This German inter‐ pretation of the shooting brake, although not without compromises, is a particular‐ ly appealing one. Prices start at €40,759 (£35,395) and peak at €50,070 (£43,480) for the top‐line version with all‐ wheel‐drive. As with all Ger‐ man automotive machines the prices can reach even
headier financial heights if you make a start on the op‐ tions list. My R‐Line with 2.0‐ litre TSI petrol power, was listed at €44,243 (£38,420) but had a whopping €9,212 (£8,000) worth of extra cost options. Although the test car was not my favourite in terms of colour, dark grey with black interior, a much brighter and classier colour palette is
available and makes the car look much more than its circa €46k (£40k) price tag. If you’re looking for a capa‐ cious load carrier then the Ar‐ teon Shooting Brake is not for you. Its striking lines means the load practicality, while better than an equiva‐ lent saloon, is not the best but then that really isn’t the point of the Arteon. Your walking gear, picnic para‐ phernalia, children’s travel accoutrements or other out‐
door activity kit can easily be accommodated. Manufacturers have be‐ come expert at smaller ca‐ pacity, more efficient engines that still possess decent per‐ formance. My Arteon’s 2.0‐ litre, four‐cylinder petrol en‐ gine passes the benchmark 100 kph in 7.8 seconds and a 233 kph maximum speed while returning, during my week of mostly local driving, 8.3 litres/100 km. There’s even the option of a plug‐in hybrid.
The Arteon Shooting Brake isn’t a small car, in fact it looks even larger thanks to its design, and inside it feels spacious. Standard kit is good with such fare as keyless en‐ try and start and tailgate, a superb panoramic sunroof and much, much more. There’s the usual VW solid, quality feel, it’s a car that combines the very best of practical SUVs and traditional estates without their bulk and boxiness. It’s a car that’s a very class act.
Facts at a Glance Model: VW Arteon Shooting Brake R-Line Engine: 2.0-litre TSI 4-cylinder, turbocharged petrol Gears: 7-speed DSG Automatic Performance: 0-100 kph (62 mph) 7.8 seconds/Maximum Speed 233 kmh (145 mph) Economy: 8.3 L/per 100 km (35.6 mpg) Emissions: 179 g/km WLTP Model tested was UK-specification and equipment levels and prices may vary in other markets. A very class act.
Lexus LS Luxury Flagship THE updated Lexus LS luxury saloon flagship comes bristling with new technology, new styling and ‘even smoother driving performance,’ accord‐ ing to the manufacturer ‐ BMW’s 7 Series rival is avail‐ able to order in a choice of three trim levels. An LS standard is priced from approx €91,000 with an op‐ tional Premium upgrade package ‐ priced at €8,889 ‐ adding heated rear seats, an upgraded stereo and four‐zone climate control. Mid‐range F Sport trim costs €99,981 and brings a perfor‐ mance‐inspired body‐kit along‐ side extra equipment including the brand’s new BladeScan adaptive headlights, while the top‐rung Takumi trim is priced from €122,000, and includes a digital rear‐view mirror, be‐ spoke 20in alloy wheels and 22‐ way electrically adjustable front seats. Top of the revisions to the LS range is a revamped hybrid drive system that aims to im‐ prove the driving experience in Normal mode, which, Lexus says, is where the average LS
The Seat Leon 1.0
This Leon “oozes class.”
NEW STYLING: And even smoother driving performance. spends 90 per cent of its time, and in which the driver uses on‐ ly moderate accelerator inputs. New technological additions include the BladeScan adaptive high‐beam headlight system, as first seen on the updated RX SUV, which uses a fast‐rotating mirror to project light from LEDs to provide enhanced illumina‐
tion compared with convention‐ al systems and the digital rear‐ view mirror that improves rear‐ ward visibility. Elsewhere, the 360 degree camera gains a new pedestrian detection function and there are new motors that tighten the seatbelts when the pre‐collision warning system is activated.
UNLESS you’re the kind of person who is al‐ ways in a hurry the extra 28bhp of the new Desire Red 1.5‐litre turbo petrol Leon is very welcome, but if that’s not enough, you could be tempted by the additional 20bhp on offer for another approx €890. The Seat Leon has an impressive variety of powertrains available also. There is a mild‐ hybrid version of the 1.0 TSI; a 113bhp 2.0‐ litre diesel; and a 1.4 TSI petrol‐electric plug‐ in hybrid with 201bhp and a 40‐mile electric‐only range ‐ you can order a dual‐ clutch automatic gearbox too. The 1.0 TSI Leon is very satisfying to drive. Its modest engine, keen chassis and taut steering combine to make this an enjoyable car with which to explore Spain’s inviting
and mainly flat country roads. The long list of features include a revers‐ ing camera and keyless entry and start in ad‐ dition to the full LED lights, scrolling indica‐ tors, four selectable driving modes, ‘microsuede’ upholstery, tri‐zone climate control, seat heating, heated leather steer‐ ing wheel, rain‐sensing wipers, wireless phone charger, ambient interior lighting, electric adjustment for the driver’s seat, manual height adjustment for the front pas‐ senger seat and adjustable lumbar support for both that are added by the FR and FR Sport trims below. Seat claims that the Leon “oozes class,” a statement that I find hard to argue with. Check online for big price reductions.
SPORT
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22 - 28 April 2021
to read more visit www.euroweeklynews.com
Walking Football Update SAD news to start this week as our Referee Brian Sim‐ mons’ funeral took place in London last Monday, April 19. Brian’s son Andrew ar‐ ranged for a ‘link’ to be set up whereby the many people who knew Brian could watch the Funeral Service ‘live’ from London. On Wednesday April 21 we saw the return clash between Calahonda and Benalamdena Seniors. Benalamdena were looking for revenge after los‐ ing 3‐0 at home in the first match. The Calahonda team consisted of players all over 70, which is quite remarkable in itself. Full Report in next week’s Euro Weekly News. For more details of these matches, up and coming events, sessions and news go to www.wfai.club, or www.walk ingfooty.com, or Facebook pages Walking Foot‐ ball Spain or Walking Football
WEDNESDAY MATCH: Calahonda Over 70’s (Green) who play Benalmadena Seniors.
Malaga. Like most clubs last Thurs‐
day April 15, Nerja were un‐ able to train due to rain so
The Walking Football Association of Iberia presents the Euro Weekly News with an Honorary Member’s Certificate. they decided they would have a Breakfast Monthly Meeting
instead, which as can be seen from the photo was well at‐
tended and enjoyed. Walking Football Associa‐ tion Iberia have agreed in principle to co‐organise an In‐ ternational Tournament in June 2022. Confirmed entries are Scot‐ land, England, and Ireland and provisional agreement from Spain. Invitations will also be sent to Portugal, Gibraltar and the Basque Country. The venue will be decided at a lat‐ er date with a consensus of all teams taking part. The latest club to join WFAI are Hondon Valley Flyers who are 40 kms from Alicante. They are very welcome and we are sure they will bring fresh ideas to help take WFAI forward. Full details of the Open Day/Over 65’s Recruitment will be in next week’s issue of the Euro Weekly News. Make sure you don’t miss it!!!