The British Consulate To Visit Mojácar

The British Consulate in Malaga and the UK Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) are holding an open event for British residents in Mojácar on Tuesday 26th May, presenting advice services on some of the issues that matter most to residents, beginning at 10.00am.
The Department for Work and Pensions will provide essential information on UK pensions, benefits and healthcare entitlements in Spain and the services that their team can offer.
Angel Medina, Deputy Mayor of Mojácar will make an introduction.
The British Vice-Consul will open the session and explain the role of the Consulate, and the services it offers.

Mojácar - 26 May - Centro de Usos Mútiples (Artesan Centre) - La Fuente

There will be presentations covering a wide range of issues including Consular services and pension, benefit and healthcare rights of UK citizens living in Spain.
There will also be an opportunity for members of the audience to put general questions to the panel and to sign-up for the one-on-one sessions that will take place immediately afterwards.
The presentation in Mojácar will also feature a presentation by Donna Wilson, from the Royal British Legion.

You can book a place by completing a registration form below. Please note that bookings are limited to two tickets per person. If you are having problems using the online booking form, please call 91 524 9729 to reserve your place.

To book your places: here

www.ukinspain.fco.gov.uk

March Update

Our March meeting at the Hotel Continental dealt with the problems in the town hall, particularly to do with funding, petty corruption and new and ever tighter rules. An example of this last point: the ‘Blue Flags’ which are meant to guarantee beach cleanliness and services, used to need – a few years back – around thirty different bits of paper. This year, it’s over one hundred. This year, seaweed tossed onto the sand by the sea can’t be moved as the ecologists consider it ‘natural’ (i.e. – you have to tiptoe out at 3.00am when all the Greens are safely curled up on their futons to pick it up).
The town is without funding, thanks to the drop in building licences, and the new POTALA (Junta de Andalucía plans) offer almost no new buildable land for Mojácar – ever.
Mojácar is in fact threatened on several sides – the new implementation of ‘costas’ means that any beach building pre 1988 (defined as any town building within 50 metres of the sea, urbanisation building within 100 metres – now increased to 200 metres - and any ‘rural’ building under 500 metres from the sea) can now be freely bought or sold, but not repaired or extended, but there is, in effect, a 60 year lease on all of these buildings as they will be finally expropriated by the government in 2070. There are (apparently) no post 1988 beach buildings and… no… that popular discoteque isn’t illegal – it has the full and enthusiastic support of both ‘costas’ and ‘medio ambiente’.
The second threat is, of course, the POTALA, which is the plan for the future, which includes a high-speed-train track going through the artificial city of Llano Central, together with a rail station just outside Vera.

March Meeting

There will be a meeting for members and guests of Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar at the Hotel Continental on Mojácar playa at 11.00am on Saturday 21st March to discuss the current state of Mojácar’s town hall and the local politics of the municipality.
We shall also be looking at the Junta de Andalucía’s ambitious plans for the Levante Almeriense with its ‘POTALA’ project.
Questions and suggestions will, as always, be welcome.

The European Elections - June 2009

TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO REGISTER FOR YOUR EUROPEAN VOTE

ONLY 10% OF EU RESIDENTS IN SPAIN ARE NOW REGISTERED TO VOTE IN EUROPEAN ELECTIONS

Figures were released this past week by the Electoral Census office detailing the number of European residents in Spain who are registered to vote in the upcoming European elections in June.
In Spain there are 1,905,340 non Spanish European residents of voting age, otherwise qualified to do so, of whom only 200,100 have declared their intention to vote in the elections, a shockingly low percentage of just 10.5%.

The European elections offer European residents in Spain, the majority population still being British, followed by German and other northern Europeans, the opportunity to have a voice in the European Parliament. Residents from all EU countries should directly benefit from the right enshrined in the EU charter to freedom of movement, the freedom to live, work and study in any EU country.

Even more so than in ones’ home country, British and other EU residents in Spain need the guarantees offered by the European Community regarding citizens rights, property rights, access to health and education, environmental protection, freedom to work and study.
This has been demonstrated on several occasions by the intervention of the European Parliament and Commission in the defence of the many thousands of petitions received from British, Spanish, German, Dutch and other EU residents relating to the disastrous ‘land grab’ laws and the numerous scandals relating to property rights and destruction of the environment. This has given impetus to the European Courts of Justice and Human Rights to commence legal actions designed to ensure compliance with EU law and full respect for the fundamental rights of EU citizens living in this country.
The opportunity to vote for representation in the European Parliament therefore is vital and carries the responsibility for all EU residents in Spain to exercise that right.

THERE IS LIMITED TIME ONLY TO REGISTER FOR YOUR VOTE

If you are registered on the padrón of your municipality you need to go to the Town Hall and ask to fill in the intent to vote, ie. ‘declaracion de intento de voto’ form.

Even if you are not registered on the padrón you should go to the Town Hall to do so and also demand the right to fill in the intent to vote form.

You are able to be registered on the padrón even without the ‘certificate de extranjeria’ or ‘residencia’ card. As regards identity, a valid EU passport should, under EU law, be sufficient.

If the Town Hall questions this right demand they phone the census office for instruction where this will be confirmed.

PLEASE EXERCISE YOUR RIGHT TO VOTE AND HAVE YOUR SAY IN WHO BEST REPRESENTS YOUR INTERESTS IN THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Anti Property-abuse Demonstration

Rather than read it from me - here's a Spanish lady's view of the protest march in Almería City on Friday, January 9th 2009. To reserve a seat on the bus - check with www.aulan.es

The following was written by a 74-year-old Spanish member of AULAN:

We have organized this march to protest against the urban abuses in Almería province. The 9th of January is the first anniversary of the demolition of the Prior’s house in Vera. For those of you who don’t know, this retired British couple built their house with all the necessary licenses granted by the Vera Town Hall in 2002. Nevertheless, the Junta de Andalucia considered their house to be illegal and, in the end, it was bulldozed. To date, the Priors are living in their garage and there is no sign of any solution or compensation of any kind from the Spanish authorities. Every day there are more and more cases of abuse of this type. The confusion of the Spanish legal system and its arbitrary application affect all of us.
I am here to emphasise that this situation does not only affect the British. I was a pharmacist and have lived in Garrucha since my retirement. Earlier this year I joined AULAN, an association for the defence of victims of urban abuse, even though I did not have any personal problems at the time. I thought that the Priors’ rights had been violated and it seemed to me that more cases of this kind could happen to anyone.
To my surprise, two months later, I learned that a new “highway” was going to be built right in front of my house. I have lived in a complex of 92 units, all occupied by Spanish, for 30 years. The town hall intends to expropriate our gardens and parking space and each household is expected to contribute 3000 euros so that the road can be built. This agreement was signed six years ago without any of us being notified. So we are yet another case of what the international press calls “land grab”. Your land is taken without compensation and what’s worse, you must pay for your share of the infrastructure costs and you have no say in the matter, as incredible as it may seem.
AULAN is an information and pressure group, one of many citizens’ groups which are mushrooming everywhere in Spain. In September, we organized a peaceful march in Cantoria for the regularisation of some 5000 homes which are currently considered to be illegal – although, once again, all permissions were given. So far it appears that the authorities are taking us seriously. But we must keep the pressure on and for this to happen, we need the collaboration of everybody.
You all know that the global economy is collapsing. The property market here in Spain is dead. Foreign residents are fleeing in mass. The international press writes about the lack of legal transparency in our property market. The European Parliament has already come three times to Spain to investigate our cases of urban abuse. The foreigners will not be coming back until they feel secure about their rights and their property. We have killed the golden goose.
It is time for ordinary citizens to take responsibility for our lives and to begin fighting back against ineffective politicians – from every party – who have brought us to this situation. The non-Spanish who are coming on this march are those who don’t want to leave Spain, who consider Spain to be their home. That is why I urge all Spanish to help us convince them not to leave, to show them that Spain is not a lawless country. But most of all, I ask that we Spanish get involved and learn to protect our rights and our property. Only then will we have true democracy.

Concha Arranz

Ciudadanos News

The meeting duly went forward yesterday. We learnt that the Vera urban councillor and the town lawyer have made a criminal claim against the Junta de Andalucia over the demolition of the Prior's home back in January. Although this area has a very bad reputation for 'illegal homes', Mojácar in fact has not one case of an illegal dwelling.

The damage to La Paratá urbanisation due to the heavy rains was addressed and Angel Medina (pictured above, left) said that the town hall was fixing the roads with the help of a 95,000 euro bond from a builder there. He also agreed to talk with Aquamed, the company which is putting in the water pipes through the 'rambla'. Two urbanisations with problems of water and electricity due to the promoter disappearing were dealt with and the town hall will intercede on behalf of the owners. Gerardo Vásquez - a lawyer representing some of the owners - was present and confirmed the points made by Sr Medina. The Parata ring-road was discussed.

The town hall is very short of money. Sr Medina (in charge of tourism for the council) confirmed that Mojácar will not be going to either the WTF in London or the Madrid FITUR and said that, while the average collection of IBI (rates) is high in Spain, in Mojácar (a tourist town), the rate stands at only 60% - losing the town some 1.5 million euros annually. Sr Medina will be seeking help from the diputación (county council) on this topic.

Some of our local issues are, of course, decided by the Junta de Andalucía and are often entirely outside town hall control, however, referenda are possible (as Almuñecar has recently proved) and CEM is checking the possability of seeking referenda on the POTALA and other local issues.

An issue was raised about the 53,600 Europeans who live in this province versus the number who are registered to vote. It seems that only around 12% are registered - a mere 6,200. You are encouraged to get on the town hall registry - the padrón - and signal your intention to vote.
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar has contacted the Ministry of the Interior regarding the new rules about residency in Spain - instead of a handy residence card Europeans are now expected to carry their passports at all times together with a letter from the immigration police!
Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar is the only party which has regular meetings with the community and is not just in evidence once every four years (BTW - it seems that the leader of the oddest party in the last elections, Mojácar Nueva, is now being sought by the police!).

Ángel Medina, concejal del ayuntamiento mojaquero y presidente del partido, trató sobre los temas candentes de la actualidad. En primer lugar anunció que Ciudadanos Europeos se personará en la causa de la querella que está preparando el Ayuntamiento de Vera contra la Junta de Andalucía por el derribo de la casa de los Prior. Enumeró las medidas que el Ayuntamiento de Mojácar ha tomado para solucionar los problemas creados por las últimas lluvias, sobre todo en el barrio de La Paratá, uno de los más afectados. Mostró un escrito que ha enviado el partido al Ministerio del Interior solicitando que se haga más fácil y accesible la documentación de los residentes para facilitar su identificación. Se ofreció para mediar entre los vecinos de la Urbanización "El Alboroque" y las empresas Galasa y Sevillana con el fin de negociar los enganches necesarios para dotar a esta urbanización de luz y agua, que no existen por culpa del promotor de la mencionada obra. Y al final, en ruegos y preguntas, se fueron repasando todos los asuntos pendientes que sacaron los asistentes, que quedaron muy satisfechos por estas explicaciones y por el seguimiento que el partido Ciudadanos Europeos hace de los temas.

October Meeting

Ciudadanos Europeos de Mojácar are having a meeting this Saturday, 18th October, at the Hotel Continental on Mojácar Playa at 12 o'clock to discuss some interesting new developments in local affairs. These will include some progress on resolving the Prior's case in Vera. We shall also be talking about Medvillas 2000, The current state of the Parata, the 'Mojacar ring-road', plus some news on street cleaning and other issues. We shall also present the latest news regarding the POTALA, our thoughts on the European Elections and give you the chance to ask questions and make suggestions.
I hope that you will be able to attend the meeting, which is open to everybody.
Lenox Napier will provide the translations.

Un saludo, Angel Medina