Dear Fernando,

We have been communicating and co-operating over the past weeks over your draft legislative action on foreclosures and evictions in the light of the recent ruling by the European Court of Justice.  In parallel, we have been witnessing some initiatives by several Spanish Regions as regards evictions, including the establishing of sanctions on empty houses (i.e. by the regions of Andalucía or Canarias).

I am aware both of the serious situation and challenges posed by these evictions, and their sizeable number, as well as of the constitutional division of powers between the Spanish central government and the regional entities.  Nevertheless, I would want to reiterate our serious concerns about some of these legislative measures taken at regional level. These might effectively hamper the viability of the Spanish banking sector at this critical juncture of efforts to stabilise and reform the Spanish banking sector.

Against this background, I would like to remind you of the Spanish commitments under the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) of the financial-sector programme, i.e. to consult us in advance on any financial-sector policy measure taken by Spanish public authorities that could have a material impact on the achievement of the programme objectives. This obligation holds of course also for any measures at regional level.  This consultation process is of utmost importance in order to allow the Commission to adequately assess all measures approved as regards the Spanish financial sector, as required by the MoU.  If some of these measures would, after closer examination, be deemed to be in in serious conflict with the objectives of the programme, as spelled out by the terms of the MoU, I would rely on you to engage with your regions effectively with a view to accordingly changing these measures. 

 

Hence, in this specific case, I would like to ask you to provide us with all relevant information on any regional measure relating to the issue of foreclosures and evictions in order to allow us to form an opinion about their compatibility with the objectives of the MoU.

Thank you very much in advance.

Servaas DEROOSE
European Commission

Deputy Director General – DG ECFIN

Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs
rue de la Loi, Wetstraat 170, B-1049 Brussels – Belgium
Building CHAR 15/162
Tel: +32 2 299 43 75 e-mail: [email address]

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