European Commission rebukes Spain over border queues

Deadline for finishing work by summer of 2015 'at the latest'

(www.telegraph.co.uk)

GIBRALTAR (from The Gibraltar Chronicle by Dominique Searle) In a stinging letter the European Commission has criticised Spain and given it the deadline of summer 2015 for the completion of its works at the frontier that are supposed to respond to the “unjustified” delays witnessed by a team of EU experts in September 2013. The move comes in a letter recently sent to the Madrid Government which also sets out new steps its expects to be taken to ease flow. It states that checks by the Spanish authorities on travellers should be “significantly reduced” and that Spain should work with the Gibraltar border authorities in relation to frontier reforms. The letter also details that the Commission last July offered to act as a conduit for two way information exchanges between Spain and Gibraltar on the basis of each side approving what information can be passed on.

Spain loses billions on tax evasion and errors

MADRID -- According to Brussels in a study published last week by the European Commission, Spain lost €12,400 million (that's over 12 billion!) in IVA (VAT) income -- a full 18% of what the national coffers should have received. This is caused mainly by tax evasion, but also by company bankruptcies, statistical errors and tax avoidance. Nevertheless, the difference is nearly 4% lower than last year. The EU in total, did not ingress some €177 billion through fraud or simply unrecovered. This is 16% of the income it had forecast.//Since 2012, the countries registering lower VAT loss levels were The Netherlands (at 5%), Finland (5%) and Luxembourg (6%). The biggest gaps between projected income and the reality were registered in Romania (44%), Slovakia (39%) and Lithuania (36%). Among the EU's largest members, the VAT gap: Germany (10%), France (15%) Italy (33%) and the UK (10%). The European Commission is presently working on a 'basic reform' of the VAT system to give it "more solidity and efficiency and to reduce its vulnerability against fraud," according to Algirdas Semeta, the Commissioner for Fiscal matters.

Spain, among EU countries who most lowered teachers' salaries

SPAIN – A recent report from the European Commission reveals that teachers’ salaries came down between 13% and 17% in Spain between 2009 and 2014, which places her in the lower pay group with Ireland, Romania, Slovenia and Iceland. “It is not surprising that the most significant reductions happened in those countries that were most impacted by the financial crisis,” the document points out, adding that the most severe reductions were registered in Greece, where teachers’ wages dropped by 40%. Spain was in a group where teachers reach their maximum level in the medium-to-long-term period of time that ranges from age 27 in Turkey to 39 in this country. Other reports state that Spain ‘lost’ over 24,000 teachers in two years, and that the Ministry of Education is planning to make changes to the law that will allow it to make further reductions. Perhaps it is not surprising, then, that Spain is pretty much at the bottom of the annual PISA report that comes from the OECD (about which more when the next one comes up).