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Hi,
I mentioned earlier the MEP for the South East, Marta Andreason, U.K.I.P..... could anyone tell me if they have heard anything about her recently?
In March 2010, I contacted her and explained my position regarding Spanish property, and in May 2010, I was contacted by a Mr. Andrew Kinsman,who stated that he was Andreason's Parlimentary Assistant and that he was up-dating her data base, consquently I completed a questionaire,and forwarded it to them, but to date I have never had any feed back !
It may be worth asking her if she is able to "rock the boat" in Brussels, as she did stand up to the Spanish Boss, Zapatero , when he took over the Presidency. If I remember correctly she was involved in the finances of the E.U. before becoming an M.E.P., but resigned because things weren't all above board.
This message was last edited by belucky358 on 25/02/2011.
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I will try and write to her about the general justice situation rather than case details. Maybe others might like to do so too
Email marta@martaandreasen.com
PO Box 1410
Woking,Surrey
GU22 2LW
European Parliament Brussels
60, rue Wiertz / Wiertzstraat 60
B-1047 Brussels, Belgium
T +32 (0)2 28 45726
F +32 (0)2 28 49726
European Parliament Strasbourg
1, avenue du Président Robert Schuman
CS 91024
F-67070 Strasbourg Cedex
T +33 (0)3 88 1 75726
F +33 (0)3 88 1 79726
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You can write to your MEP all you like but they are pretty toothless as a bunch. And the European Parliament has virtually no power other than scrutiny and debate. It has no legislative function.
Bill Newton Dunn is a clumsy and insensitive public school twit ex-Tory MEP who quit the Tories because they were not sufficiently pro-EU and joined the LibDems. But he is correct in saying that the EU is not there to interfere in purely domestic issues. And as for Abacusdc’s allegedly statutory definition of an MEP’s duty (a) it doesn’t contradict what Bill Twit said and (b) I don’t believe it is contained in a statute (a checkable reference and I’ll gratefully change my mind).
The EU is run pretty much by the European Commission and appointed (not elected) Commissioners. They hold huge amounts of power and are overridden only by the Council of Ministers which is the Heads of State of the 27 members.
BUT Bill Twit is wrong to say that nothing can be done outside of Spain. Many issues have been resolved through the intervention of the EU. The discrimination against foreigners in capital gains tax on the sale of property; and the exclusion of expenses in calculating imputed rental income for the calculation of non-resident income tax were both changed after the EU gave Spain a bollocking. But both these cases involved discrimination between resident and non-resident and between Spaniards and other EU nationals.
However, the EU also issues common standards in a number of areas. Labour laws must meet European standards. They can set minimum standards for animal cruelty – banning live animals in circuses in member states for example.
So the right approach is to cite the absence of a judicial solution to the illegal activity of certain town halls and the absence of adequate compensation for the innocent victims. You should be asking for an EU-wide directive to provide for speedy and adequate compensation for victims of real estate fraud in all member states. That puts it in EU jurisdiction. But you are just as likely to get a result from lobbying your Westminster MP to put pressure on the British Foreign Office to seek either a European-wide solution or a solution in bilateral UK-Spain talks.
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I've written to Marta & her assistant several times but have never received a reply.
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Jek
Thank you for your informative posting. Most important appears to be the following
"So the right approach is to cite the absence of a judicial solution to the illegal activity of certain town halls and the absence of adequate compensation for the innocent victims. You should be asking for an EU-wide directive to provide for speedy and adequate compensation for victims of real estate fraud in all member states. That puts it in EU jurisdiction. "
Any observations on this tack, Keith/Suzie/Faro?
Suzie
our last letter to Marta Andreasen back in July 2010, read as follows:
"
Dear Marta Andreasen,
Please may we thank you for your recent challenge to Mr Zapatero on July 6th in the European Parliament regarding the Spanish Property Scandal. We are very grateful that you continue to highlight the problems afflicting thousands of British citizens. However, we wish to bring the following matter to your attention.
During Mr Zapatero's response to your challenge he made the following statements:
"My country is based on the rules of law and it respects and ensures that laws are respected. Really we have the courts which implement our legislation. The courts which are responsible for the application of law".
"We always stand shoulder to shoulder with, in this case, British citizens who maybe…..er… maybe the wool has been pulled over their eyes in the property sector... but we are working closely with the Parliamentary groups in the European Union- we are doing everything possible, pulling out all the stops to ensure that we better the situation".
Based on our first hand experience of the Spanish Justice system we have several questions that we would be grateful if you could officially ask Mr Zapatero, on behalf of all who are in the process of struggling to gain justice in Spain due to the growing and significant problems of court delays within the Spanish Justice system. These delays are significantly compromising those who have successful first instance judgements from receiving their rightful return of monies as per the judgements handed down :
- I would ask Mr Zapatero, how are you pulling out all the stops? Lay down actual proof of the policies and finances being made available to "better the situation" in Spain. We don't want rhetoric, we want specific proof as we see no sign of improvement, in fact we see growing delays within the court system that significantly compromise those seeking justice.
- What plans have you put in place to ensure that overstretched courts that are currently handling the thousands of cases being brought against developers and Banks, are adequately administered?
- Have you established any time constraints on legal procedures to ensure that successful judgements are followed through within fair and realistic timescales.
- What financial procedures have you put in place to ensure that developers cannot put depositors money into private accounts or asset strip in the interim, and that embargos are effective?
- Have you established any procedures to ensure that developers and Banks are made fully accountable? (e.g. via the imposition of swift fines for those developers and Banks who refuse to honour their legal obligations, so that monies may be redirected into a compensation fund for those owed monies according to their successful judgements?)
- Have you set in place any means of identifying the numbers of cases being brought against developers and Banks, in order to study the magnitude of this problem and allocate financial provision to deal with the growing problem?
- Have you established a regulatory body to ensure that Banks are meeting their legal obligations according to the law, and ensure they are made to adhere to the findings of any complaints procedures.
- Have you analysed the number of outstanding successful judgements that are still awaiting actual recompense? Have you analysed the magnitude of monies owed by developers and Banks according to the judgements made?
- Have you established any monitoring procedure to oversee instances where judges’ rulings have been overturned? Do you have an independent body to identify trends in this regard, to ensure that justice is being rightly administered and is not open to corruption or political persuasion? Do you have procedures in place to fine or remove from office those who have been found to be corrupt?
- What success have you had to date to ensure that developers/banks are being made accountable?
- Have you established a regulatory body to monitor complaints (as per the evidence gathered by Spanish Property Scandal petition) against law firms and abusive practices and ensure that they have adequate powers to make them accountable where necessary (again establishing a compensation fund from imposed fines?)
- The only time that we will believe the rhetoric is when we see procedures set in place AND ADHERED TO, that ensure those caught up in this administrative nightmare receive their rightful return of monies according to their successful judgements and within realistic timescales.
We are extremely concerned as the delays are now impacting the application of law, as developers hide or illegally transfer assets in the interim, and Banks who refuse to honour Bank Guarantees or refuse to recognise their obligations to provide Bank Guarantees from the outset of offplan purchase, abuse the delays in the hope that clients will lose faith in the legal system and abandon their struggle to regain monies.
We look forward to your reply on this matter.
"
and her reply later that month, via her parliamentary assistant, was as follows:
"
Thank you for this e-mail, and apologies for not having got back sooner - we have been working on some non-Spanish issues.
Having got Senor Zapatero's attention, and having given him some time to regain his composure, we are now looking into giving him some of the very specific reasons why what was said was said.
We will keep you posted.
With best regards,
Andrew Kinsman
Parliamentary Assistant to Mrs Marta Andreasen.
"
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Hi ads,
What do think these people mean when they say............ "We will keep you posted " ? ? In other words "Don't ring us"
This message was last edited by belucky358 on 26/02/2011.
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Good question......... but I will follow this up and keep you posted. 
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Just to keep everyone updated, I received a reply from Marta Andreasen's office and have posted a few of the responses on the Justice thread. Anyone wanting the full reply can pm me.
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Hi goodstich,
I bet when you read this you thank your lucky stars that these Honourable,Upstanding Gentlemen are our MEPs and are doing such a wonderful job at looking after our interests. ? ?
Former British Conservative MEP Den Dover has been ordered to pay back €397,000 to parliament and could now face prosecution for fraud.
On Thursday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in Luxembourg dismissed attempts by Dover, a member from 1999 to 2009, to avoid repayment of the money that was wrongly claimed between 1999 and 2008.
A court press service spokesman said, "Dover now has to pay back €397,000.
Regarding the €192,000 in VAT claimed by parliament, the court found that it was not for parliament to claim this from Dover.
An ECJ source said the VAT would have had to be paid by the MEP's company to the UK authorities and it was, therefore, a matter for the national authorities to claim it from Dover's company.
There is a right to appeal to the ECJ on points of law if Dover wishes to do so.
The court said Dover had made several illegitimate payments from the allowance paid to MEPs to meet the costs of paying for staff.
These include €116,000 for three cars, €115,000 for the costs of rent and renovation of an 'office', which was also his private home and €23,000 for telephone costs.
He also claimed €19,500 for 'entertainment expenses' and €230 in donations to the Conservative party
Dover was ordered to pay his own costs.
British prime minister David Cameron expelled Dover from the Conservative party in 2008.
UK Liberal MEP Chris Davies welcomed the outcome of the hearing, saying it illustrates the need for stronger transparency and ethics rules for MEPs.
The case comes in the wake of the "cash for laws" scandal currently engulfing parliament.
Davies, a longstanding campaigner for tighter rules on the use of public money, is calling on the police to investigate Dover and believes he could go to jail.
The deputy, who in 2008 made public the contents of a secret auditors' report into financial malpractices by MEPs, said, "Most MEPs know the difference between right and wrong when spending public money, but Dover treated parliament like a private piggy bank and let greed overtake honour.
"Parliament has been shamefully weak in the past and has too often turned a blind eye to abuses, but it is now demonstrating that such behaviour will no longer be tolerated.
"I am calling on the police here to investigate whether Dover's actions were fraudulent and warrant criminal prosecution. I expect the parliamentary authorities in Brussels to provide them with full cooperation. In my view Dover tried to cheat the public purse and should go to jail."
This message was last edited by belucky358 on 25/03/2011.
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Might this be the wake up call needed?
I just hope they look into all MEP's expenses and not just the British MEP's.
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Wake up call? You must be joking. This is a gravy train and they are on board for life. Just because one got caught it won't frighten the others off. Look at the UK MPs, still scrabbling for allowances that no one else is allowed and saying "it's all within the rules". The MEPs are even worse because they don't get so heavily scrutinised. The bloke Dover (oh, how I wish he'd been christened Ben instead of Den) must have been so blatant to get caught like that. No wonder they don't reply to letters or, if they do, just send a standard form letter posted by their clerk. They are too busy trying to work out how much travel allowance they can claim moving between the two parliaments.
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I agree in the main, although I find that Marta Andreasen and her parliamenatary assistant are doing more than most.
It's the system that stinks so perhaps folk should be more proactive to get them to reform the system........ apathy by jo public doesn't help.
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For those interested, please see the AUAN’s statement to EU petitions committee April 14th
http://www.typicallyspanish.com/news/publish/article_30115.shtml (note the you tube footage at the end of this).
Also see MEP Roger Helmer’s plea to the petitions committee within the EU parliament. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTrBbZOaqGE
From: HELMER Roger OFFICE
Sent: Tuesday, April 19, 2011 6:37 PM
To: HELMER Roger OFFICE
Subject: A Scandal that wont go away
A SCANDAL THAT WONT GO AWAY.
So often I come across problems in Europe which (as I like to say) “No one can explain; no one can justify; and no one can resolve”. Things like the “Travelling Circus” between Brux & Straz, or the Common Fisheries Policy, spring to mind.
But on Thursday in the Petitions Committee I came face-to-face with a problem which has been with us for a great number of years, and which causes far more personal anguish than the Travelling Circus or the CFP. It is the Spanish property issue, and it has brought me over the years many hundreds of letters and e-mails from people who have lost their homes in Spain, and frequently had to find more money to cover site clearance, rubble removal, or even the provision of utilities to the site for subsequent building projects. It sounds too bad to be true, but it is.
To be fair, we occasionally get similar stories from Portugal, or Cyprus, or Romania, or Croatia (this last not an EU member but an accession candidate). But the vast majority come from Spain. And though most of my correspondence comes from Brits, the same problems affect citizens from Germany, France, Scandinavia — and indeed Spanish nationals too.
A word of advice to anyone thinking of buying a property in Spain: don’t. And never, never, never buy off-plan (that is, a property not yet built). Don’t put down a deposit. Don’t even think about it.
There are two strands to the problem. One is the Spanish Coastal Law (the Ley des Costas), most notably affecting the development at Empuriabrava, where literally miles of water frontage and moorings in a marine property development are to be confiscated by the state, and then the owners offered an opportunity to rent back their own moorings at extortionate prices. The other is a more general problem, which seems to arise from collusion between corrupt developers, lawyers and local officials who manage to alter planning permission retrospectively, and require existing properties to be destroyed. Sometimes this is to make way for new, lucrative high-rise developments. Sometimes it seems to be done out of sheer devilment.
The English lady above is Helen Prior. She and her husband sold up in the UK and emigrated to Spain just days after they retired, buying a rather beautiful house in the Spanish style. I didn’t enquire, but I suspect that they invested the bulk of their assets in their retirement home. They started to enjoy their new life in the sun, until one day they received notice that their property rights were being reviewed by the court. Their house was ruled illegal and they were told it would have to come down. This was despite the fact that they had done everything by the book, they had employed local lawyers and due diligence, and believed they had a rock-solid claim to ownership. So far as the authorities were concerned, they were “foreigners living illegally”.
Mrs. Prior had brought a video which was shown in committee as she spoke. We saw their lovely two-storey home in the Spanish sunshine. Then we saw the bulldozers arrive and commence the demolition. We saw stacks of window frames removed by the demolition men. We saw the family leaving the house, and family members clinging to each other in tears as their dreams and their assets fell around them. This was one of the most moving and disturbing things I have seen in twelve years in the parliament. Mr. & Mrs. Prior now live in the garage of the former house: they have nowhere else to go.
When I came to speak, I said “Madame President: This is Groundhog Day. We have sat in this committee again and again, on many occasions, though none as moving as this, and we have heard grave discussions of the problem. We have asked questions and written to the Commission. We have heard the Commission wringing their hands and telling us there is nothing the can do about it. But the rule of law, the rights of property and enforceable contracts are at the heart of a free society and a free economy. Spain is not a country under the rule of law: this is bandit behaviour”. And more in the same vein.
The Commission insists that the “Charter of Fundamental Rights” within the Lisbon Treaty applies only to the operation of EU law, not national law, so there is nothing they can do. The Spanish behaviour is in breach of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the European Convention of Human Rights. In theory the plaintiffs could go to the European Court of Human Rights. They would probably win. But the cost is prohibitive, and pensioners might not live to see the day when a verdict was reached, given the years of delay.
We have discussed the possibility of setting up some kind of colloquium in Spain to try to resolve the problem, and I would back any measure with any hope of success. But I’m not optimistic. And meantime, Mrs. Prior goes back to her garage.
Please also see my YouTube clip, speaking in the Petitions Committee on 14th April about this problem. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTrBbZOaqGE
Kind regards
ROGER HELMER MEP
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ads
this is the recent reply I got from my local MEP, when I told him Michael Cashman MEP was supporting our cause and asked what he was doing to help?
The froth which some of my colleagues are throwing up will - most unfortunately - get nowhere with the Spanish government. but it will help to persuade some potential voters that they are worth voting for. Giving you the hard reality obviously does not please you, but my conscience is very clear because it is the real situation.
All the best with solving this with the Spanish government.
BND
If the majority of our MEP's wouldn't be quite as spineless as this and would at least complain to the EU, on behalf of all of us cheated, then at least we could feel that they are trying????.
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Hi,
Just to keep some sort of balance, my local MEP Fiona Hall has replied as per below, so it would appear that she is trying to help.
We shall have to wait and see what sort of response we get from the Spanish Authorities ? ?
Fiona is raising the issue of LEY 57/1968 with David Lidington, the Minister for Europe at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. She is asking that he raise this issue with the Spanish authorities and ask why they are not enforcing this law and what can be done to assist the many UK citizens who are in a similar position.
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belucky358
great stuff, and good for her. Despite my local MEP not being remoely interested in helping, it seems there are a number who do care about those clearly cheated in Spain. . It would be good to know just how many are prepared to support those cheated and shows once again what they can do if they give a damn?
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Thanks for reminding me ruth, and yes, that's good to know. I must have contacted them all when I had a blitz a while ago.
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Hi,
Received another reply from a second local MEP, a Mr Stephen S. Hughes, who kindly passed on my problems relating to my property purchase in Spain, to a John Dalli, a Member of the European Commission in Brussels, who stated....
I regret to inform you that the issues related to property sales fall outside of the scope of the EU legislation and thus outside the scope of any EU orginisation or network. In the absence of Community competence these cases are regulated and enforced at National level.
I would advice your constituent to refer their case to the consumer enforcement agency in Spain which has executive powers similar to those of the Trading Standards in the UK.
The Spanish enforcement agency should be able to provide your constituents with the necessary information and support.
It then gives me the address of the Spanish Trading Standards Office........ "Instituto Nacional del Consumo in Madrid"
Has anyone wrote to the Spanish Trading Standards Office with their property problems or am I being "led up the garden path". ? ?
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Haven't heard of that Belucky, but in my search came across this organisation.......... anyone ever heard of them? Any use?
http://www.consumersinternational.org/
" We are committed to acting as a global watchdog: campaigning against any behaviour that threatens, ignores or abuses the principles of consumer protection."
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