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20 FRIDAY 13TH SEPTEMBER 2019<br />
www.weekender.news<br />
Business & Money<br />
Sponsored By<br />
Tel: 671 935 072<br />
Spain reviews<br />
Brexit plans<br />
The Douglas<br />
DC3 at<br />
Sabadell<br />
airport<br />
THE SPANISH cabinet, under<br />
Prime Minister Pedro<br />
Sanchez, held a special<br />
meeting last Thursday to<br />
discuss preparations for<br />
a no-deal Brexit, which<br />
currently still sees the<br />
UK leave the EU without a<br />
deal on October 31st.<br />
Amidst the dramatic political<br />
moves in Britain over<br />
the last fortnight, Sanchez<br />
presided over a gathering<br />
of his ministers to pour over<br />
all of the Brexit contingency<br />
plans that were passed in<br />
the Spanish parliament back<br />
in March.<br />
The session focused on the<br />
rights of the 300 thousand<br />
British nationals living in<br />
Spain, and the 180 thousand<br />
Spaniards residing in the UK.<br />
It emerged that regional<br />
governments like the one<br />
covering Valencia will now<br />
get more involved in Brexit<br />
contingency plans.<br />
Powers over matters such<br />
as healthcare and education<br />
are devolved to the regions,<br />
by Alex Trelinski<br />
and regional officials have<br />
been called to a future meeting<br />
of the Conference for EU-<br />
Related Matters.<br />
The Valencian regional<br />
president, Ximo Puig, has<br />
continually stated that access<br />
to the healthcare system<br />
will be maintained for<br />
all British nationals irrespective<br />
of whether a Brexit<br />
deal is struck or not.<br />
The respected El Pais<br />
newspaper reported that Pedro<br />
Sanchez had got a deal<br />
Madrid<br />
meeting<br />
with ex-UK PM Theresa May<br />
on rights for both Spaniards<br />
and British nationals earlier<br />
in the year, which would last<br />
until the end of 2020. El Pais<br />
also quoted Foreign Minister,<br />
Josep Borrell, as saying that<br />
changes to the contingency<br />
plans could happen soon.<br />
A more vexed issue for last<br />
week’s cabinet session was<br />
the matter of Gibraltar and<br />
what happens at the border<br />
if the UK crashes out of the<br />
EU, especially with 28 thousand<br />
people crossing it daily<br />
to go to work.<br />
Planes rotting away at Spanish airports<br />
THERE are more than<br />
a hundred aircraft that<br />
have been on the ground<br />
at airports across Spain<br />
for more than a decade,<br />
according to a trade<br />
union report issued this<br />
week.<br />
Most of these have been effectively<br />
abandoned, many by<br />
airline that firms have gone<br />
out of business, and are incurring<br />
about 3 million euros<br />
a year in costs.<br />
The union has become involved<br />
as they are concerned<br />
about talks of breaking these<br />
by Simon Russell<br />
up on site, with environmental<br />
damage and increased<br />
health and safety risks for<br />
their members.<br />
Sabadell airport in Barcelona<br />
has easily the most<br />
with 35 abandoned hulks,<br />
followed by Madrid and Valencia<br />
which have 9 and 8.<br />
Some have become tangled<br />
in legal disputes while<br />
others have been seized to<br />
pay debts, such as the Jumbo<br />
747 at Valencia airport<br />
which was impounded after<br />
the Spanish carrier Pronair<br />
went bust a decade ago.<br />
Attempts to auction the<br />
massive purple plane failed<br />
and the 747 is sitting on the<br />
grass at the airport, depreciating<br />
in value and condition<br />
on a daily basis.<br />
Probably the oldest plane is<br />
the Douglas DC3 in Sabadell<br />
airport.<br />
These planes revolutionised<br />
commercial air travel<br />
making it affordable for<br />
many for the first time - but<br />
production of the DC3 ceased<br />
in the mid 1940s.
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