Agreement between employers and unions seems less likely José Manuel Soria – EFE The chances of reaching a grand agreement on the labour market between unions and employers are reported to be receding. Despite the continued participation of the leaders, the talks are reported to be stalled, and now a minimal agreement is being discussed. Businessmen consider that the Government should have... 

A woman from Switzerland faces charges for using her nails to carve a heart with initials in the Comares Palace The Comares Palace at the Alhambra – Wikipedia Following the arrest and later fine last year of a Jordanian air force official for carving his name onto a wall in the Alhambra, another tourist has been arrested for defacing Spain’s most visited monument. A tourist from Switzerland... 

Maura Hillen, president of AUAN has described the decree to regularise houses on non urban land, approved today by the regional government, as ‘very disappointing’. One of the AUAN protest marches According to Hillen “It’s possible that this fireworks display will dazzle some but if you look at the detail of the Decree you will see that it does not help those with ongoing court proceedings,... 

The announcement last week by Spain’s new Minister for the Economy, Luis de Guindos, calling for Banks to revalue their real estate assets to ‘realistic levels’, it has been revealed that this could mean reducations of 50% for unsold new developments, 80% for undeveloped urban land and 100% for rustic land. A number of Government sources has confirmed this, but has also intimated... 

The number of Spanish organ donations and transplants increased to record levels, according to a report published today by the National Organization of Transplants (ONT). The Director of the ONT, Rafael Matesanz, explained how throughout 2011 a total of 1,557 donors had made 4,218 transplant operations possible – 500 procedures more than 2010. Matesanz also spoke of the importance in establishing... 

Spain’s government does not plan to raise value-added tax, Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said on Tuesday in his first interview since his government passed a slew of austerity measures, including tax hikes. “We felt that the best for the economy was not to do it, and so we do not plan to raise value-added tax,” Rajoy said during an interview with state news agency EFE. The government... 

It happened in the early hours of Saturday on the Paseo de las Explanadas The 32 year old doorman of a pub, named with the initials A.C., has been seriously injured in Motril after he was stabbed several times. One of the wounds was at the level of the victim’s heart. Reports say a young man approached the doorman as he was working at about 3am on Saturday morning on the Paseo de las Explanadas in... 

They were in two groups, travelling off Motril and Adra 77 immigrants including six women, two of them pregnant, two children, and two babies, have been intercepted by the Spanish authorities in Almería and Granada provinces over the weekend. Members of the Maritime Guardia Civil and Coastguard rescued the two groups on Saturday night. The first was a group of Sub-Saharan origin who were in an inflatable... 

A formal annoucement about the cancelling of the planned 22 days of strike action will be announced after the agreement is put to the workers in a referendum A pre-agreement between management of AENA, the Spanish Airport Authority, and unions representing the workers has been reached overnight, with AENA tweeting this morning that the agreement would see the calling off of the 22 days threatened... 

The Spanish tourism sector faces serious damage due to problems at airports. After the chaos caused by air traffic controllers’ actions last December, it is now the turn of unions at the airport authority Aena to cause disruption. In protest at the plans by the Ministry of Public Works to partly privatize the company, they have called no fewer than 22 days of strikes between April 20th and the end... 

This week the maximum speed permitted on motorways and dual carriageways has been reduced to 110 kilometres an hour from 120 kph. This is designed to be a temporary means of saving energy and is the first time such a measure has been adopted since the fuel crisis of 1973. In addition, the price of rail tickets on suburban and medium-distance services will also be reduced temporarily, to try to offset... 

Barclays is poised to cut its Spanish retail banking network by a fifth in the first concrete sign of the rationalisation of the group’s operations announced last month by Bob Diamond, its new chief executive. According to people briefed on the exercise, the project is being driven by Jaime Echegoyen, the new head of Barclays Spain, poached last month from local rival Bankinter , where he was chief...