900,000 resident immigrants in Spain able to vote

Some 900,000 resident immigrants in Spain will vote in the country’s 2011 municipal elections, the Foreign Ministry said Sunday The Government is in the process of signing reciprocity agreements with 15 countries who recognize the rights of Spanish citizens living in their territories. In a statement Sunday, the Foreign Ministry said some 900,000 citizens from the 15 countries could vote in 2011.

The voting rights will apply to adults who have lived legally in Spain for five years without interruption. Spain has already signed reciprocity agreements with Colombia and Peru. The agreements with Argentina and Ecuador will be signed Monday and on Feb. 25 respectively.

Agreements will also soon be signed with Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago, Uruguay, Venezuela, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, South Korea, Iceland and New Zealand. Spain is the first country in the European Union to recognize this right, according to the Foreign Ministry.

News Source © 2009 Xinhua

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Spanish government must cut airport taxes or else

Spain needs to cut its airport taxes to help its embattled tourist industry to survive the downturn, the country’s largest hotel chain Sol Melia (SOL.MC) said in an interview published on Saturday.

“We don’t understand why they (the government) don’t step in more incisively to support an industry which is so important,” Gabriel Escarrer, one of Sol Melia’s two deputy chairmen was quoted as saying by financial newspaper El Economista.

“For example, they could reduce airport taxes, which are the highest in Europe and among the highest in the world.” Spain, the world’s second biggest tourist destination after France, relies on tourism for around 10 percent of its GDP or some 100 billion euros ($128.5 billion) a year. The sector is being squeezed by the global crisis, which is sapping consumer spending on luxuries like holidays, and by the pound’s fall against the euro which is putting Britons off some of their usually favourite Spanish resorts. Earlier this month, tourist trade body Exceltur said one million fewer Britons, a nation representing 28 percent of all foreign visitors in 2007, had visited Spain in the last year.

Sol Melia had about 898 millions euros of debt and at the end of July assets worth 4.7 billion euros, Escarrer said. “We feel very comfortable with these levels,” he said.
Last year, the company told Reuters it would cut back its 1.1 billion euro 2008-10 investment plan amid the crisis and make maintaining financial health its priority. The company’s goal was to recover its investment-grade triple B rating, Escarrer told El Economista.

Future investments would be in the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and some holiday destinations in Asia, he said. “The urban sector in Spain is also very important and we are thinking about going into the United States,” he said. However, the firm would use its cash flow, rather than debt, to make investments and would partner with travel companies.
“We’re not going to focus on purchases, but on management, renting places and, of course, on franchises,” Escarrer said.

Source: reuters

Messi will not leave Barcelona

BARCELONA, Spain – After being linked to a move to Real Madrid, Lionel Messi said he wants to spend his career at Barcelona.

“I’ll never leave (Barcelona). I’ll only go if they don’t want me,” Messi said after scoring two goals to lead Spanish league leader Barcelona over Numancia 4-1 Saturday. “Barcelona is my home.”

Madrid is interested in Messi, according to Spanish media reports, which are linking ex-president Florentino Perez with a high-money bid for the 21-year-old Argentina winger – if he stands in the off-season elections.

Perez brought Luis Figo to Madrid from Barcelona in 2000 in a contentious transfer between the classic rivals.

“It seems there’s a campaign to destabilize Barcelona,” Barcelona president Joan Laporta said.

Source: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

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