Author: OnlyBob

Gibraltar
Spain will seek talks on joint sovereignty of Gibraltar once Britain has left the European Union, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said yesterday adding he had told his British counterpart he wanted to resolve the 300-year-old dispute.
Speaking after an EU leaders’ summit, Sanchez said Spain’s position over Gibraltar was stronger after the agreement of a Brexit deal because a Spanish policy effectively became EU policy.
Asked if he would seek a discussion over joint sovereignty once Britain leaves the bloc in March he said: “We will discuss all issues.”… Read all the news

Brexit
European Union diplomats are meeting to finalize the draft divorce agreement between Britain and the bloc, amid a warning from Spain that it will oppose the deal if it isn’t guaranteed a say over the future of Gibraltar.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez tweeted that Britain and Spain “remain far away” on the issue and “if there are no changes, we will veto Brexit.”
Spain wants the future of the tiny British territory to be a bilateral issue between Madrid and London.… Read all the news

Brexit Vote
The European Commission yesterday agreed on the draft Political Declaration on the future relationship between the European Union and the United Kingdom that is due to be signed off on Sunday at a European summit.
The text that has been sent to the other 27 member states of the EU excludes any reference to the issue of Gibraltar.
This week both the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, and the foreign minister, Josep Borrell, made clear they would not sign off on the UK’s draft withdrawal agreement on Sunday if the text was not modified to make clear that negotiations on the future of the EU-UK relationship would not include Gibraltar.… Read all the news

Brexit
The EU and UK have agreed a draft agreement on their future relationship, paving the way for a Brexit deal to be finalised this weekend.
The political declaration – outlining how trade, security and other issues will work – has been “agreed in principle”, the European Council says.
London and Brussels have already agreed the draft terms of the UK’s exit from the EU on 29 March.
Theresa May will make a statement to MP’s later today,

Public Phones
The Spanish government is set to give the go ahead to remove the country’s public payphones from universal service obligations starting on 01 January.… Read all the news

Gang Killing
THE latest victim of gangland warfare who was shot and killed outside his home on Tuesday night was French and middle aged.
The man was shot several times as he entered the garage of his home near Malaga.
The killer, believed to be hired by a criminal gang, sped away on a motorbike.
No further details were available as an investigation is on going.

Parliament Trouble
A pro-Catalan independence MP was ejected from the Spanish parliament Yesterday for causing a scene and breaching parliamentary norms during a heated debate with the foreign minister who complained of having been spat at.… Read all the news

Budget
The Governments 2019 budget blueprint that has ben sent to Brussels has failed to convince the EU executive.
The plan runs the risk of missing EU budgetary targets and could force Madrid to make big adjustments in 2020 . .so the European Commission said in a draft document.
The EU executive is warning about the risk of a significant deviation from the medium-term objectives .. a set of rules to coordinate sound fiscal policies across member states. The document also expects Spain to fail to meet its public debt-reduction goals.… Read all the news

Brexit
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said Spain will reject the draft Brexit withdrawal deal without a clarification of the text on future talks on the status of Gibraltar.
He wants to ensure that future EU talks with the UK do not cover Gibraltar.
Throughout the Brexit negotiations, Spain – along with Ireland and Cyprus – has conducted separate talks with the UK about specific border issues.
On Monday Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said that the draft Brexit deal had failed to make clear that talks on Gibraltar were “separate negotiations” and not part of future talks between the UK and EU.… Read all the news

Train Crash
A PASSENGER has been killed after a train derailed this morning.
Some 41 others were injured when a train on the R4 line in Barcelona, derailed at around 6.15am.
Around 14 firefighters, 11 ambulances and police rushed to the scene to attend to the injured and evacuate the other passengers.
Only three of the injured have been transferred to hospital.
Some 150 people were traveling on the train when a landslide caused by recent heavy rain took out the last two carriages.… Read all the news

Weather
Yesterday saw large amounts of rain across the East coast with some parts of the Northern Costa Blanca under a red alert from the Met office
Torrevieja experiencing severe flooding the City Council were forced to halt public transport after more than 100 litres of rain fell in the space of only a few hours.
Motorists accessing the N-332 towards Orihuela Costa were trapped in their vehicles as sections of the motorway were cut off.
One firefighter call-out involved an ambulance in Torrevieja, where the emergency vehicle was unable to transport a patient through a waterlogged area of the city.… Read all the news

Bad Weather
Huge waves destroyed seafront apartment balconies prompting a number of evacuations.
Footage shows waves reaching the third-floor of a block of flats in Mesa del Mar on Tenerife.
65 apartments in two blocks facing the ocean had been evacuated.
The incidents happened after regional government officials decreed a state of alert as a fierce storm battered the north of Tenerife and other parts of the Canary Islands over the weekend
Garichico was one of the worst-affected areas, with waves crashing over the sea wall and flooding streets.… Read all the news