EU Commisson 'monitoring discrimination against expat homeowners'

The European Justice Commissioner, Viviane Reding, has said that the European Commission is monitoring to see if Spain is discriminating against foreigners in any way, as a result of the number of complaints made by various protest groups. Many of these groups are representing the owners of homes that are under threat of demolition.

The vast majority of those affected by demolitions are British citizens and others from northern Europe, who have chosen to live in the worst affected provinces of Almería and Málaga.

Argentinean born, Marta Andreasen, who is a UKIP MEP and a Spanish accountant by trade, has received an official EU Parliamentary reply in writing, to an question she posed on August 17th, that the European Commission has contacted the Spanish Authorities over the matter of the right to own property, as protected by the European Letter of Fundamental Rights.

The reply noted that the Commission can only intervene ‘if the question affects the application of community law’ and added that ‘this connection has not been identified upto now’.

The letter continued that, given the high number of complaints, the Commission will be monitoring events to see ‘if there is any discrimination on the basis of nationality’.

Marta Andreasen hasbeen vocal in her defence of Expat homeowners in Spain, and upset the Spanish Prime Minister earlier in the year when she addresses him in Spanish, and compared the situation to that suffered by the British in Zimbabwe. The Spanish PM denied the allegation, replying that it was up to the courts to act against the Estate Agents and Developers breaking these laws. He defended the Spanish Coastal Law saying it protected the coast and combated abuse.