A Question for Brussels

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The European Parliament has called three times for the Spanish Government to come to the assistance of foreign property owners, most recently in an own-initiative report from the Petitions Committee adopted in March 2009 ( P6_TA(2009)0192). It recalled that Parliament, as the budgetary authority, may decide to place funding set aside for cohesion policies in the reserve as a means of persuading a Member State to end serious breaches of the rules and principles which it is obliged to respect as a result of the application of EU law, until such time as the problem is resolved.

Parliament recalled also that the Commission is empowered to suspend structural funding to the Member State or region concerned, and to establish corrections in relation to projects in receipt of funding which are subsequently deemed not to have fully complied with the rules governing the application of the relevant acts. Problems of second-home-owners persist, partly because of divergent views on governance.

The Spanish Presidency has shown a readiness to listen to concerns on this matter coming from several political groups. Does the Council agree that every effort should be made to see that this subject is resolved under this Presidency? What concrete initiatives will it pursue, and when?