Spain has been reeling from the collapse of a housing bubble that for the last 15 years has enabled the notoriously uncompetitive economy to post some of the highest growth rates in the European Union. The Spanish Banking Association says that Spanish growth will probably be negative in 2008. By comparison, the Spanish economy grew by 3.8 percent in 2007.

So far Zapatero’s post-modern approach to Spain’s economic crisis seems based on three reality-evading pillars: denial, passing the blame, and more denial. His Plan A has involved a pop psychology campaign advising Spaniards that “pessimism does not create jobs.” Plan B blamed “radical liberalism” which in euro-speak means the free market. Zapatero now wants to implement Plan C, a global advertising campaign in the world financial press designed to highlight his economic non-crisis management skills.

Despite the Spanish government’s use of blind optimism in regards to economic matters, an obstinate reality surfaces in the international media. Download PDF Descargar PDF

After six years of negotiations, the Fisheries Committee of the European Parliament voted, on Monday 15 of May, in favour of a largely criticised Fisheries Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Morocco. One week later, on Monday 22 May, the Agreement was endorsed by the Fisheries Ministers of the EU. Download PDF

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