A new Ministry of Health report claims that one third of Spanish grandmothers have taken over the childcare duties during the week, worth up to 1% of Spain’s total GDP.

In the UK, grandparents provide 33 billion euros of free childcare every year.

Euro MPs have applauded a pledge by Spain to promote sexual equality in Europe and fight gender-based violence during its six-month EU presidency.

Spain’s socialist prime minister set out his vision in a speech to the European Parliament on Wednesday.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero called gender-based violence “a scourge that still affects many societies in Europe”, and vowed to “remove” it.

Spain has pursued a markedly egalitarian agenda under Mr Zapatero.

Margarite Auken, Danish MEP for the Green party and author of the controversial “Auken Report”, which recommended EU sanctions against Spain if it did not act on illegal building and urban abuse, demanded yesterday in open parliamentary session that the EU ask for an official report from Madrid on how it will protected property rights for people who have purchased illegal homes.

EU President yet to answer

Germany’s economy minister Saturday rejected Spanish proposals to impose sanctions on European Union members that miss economic targets.

Spain currently holds the rotating EU presidency and wants to push for a form of European “government” on economic issues to replace the EU’s long-term growth strategy.

The new initiative would include both incentives to perform and “corrective measures” for failure, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said on Thursday.

The Spanish EU presidency has assured Iceland that the row over the Icesave bank collapse will not hurt Reykjavik’s bid to join the European Union, Iceland’s foreign ministry said on Saturday.

“The foreign minister of Iceland, Ossur Skarphedinsson, spoke today with Miguel Angel Moratinos, the foreign minister of Spain, which holds the presidency of the European Union,” the ministry said in a statement.

Spain currently holds the presidency of the European Union, and Prime Minister Jose Louis Rodriguez Zapatero called for the members of the EU for united economic policies to get rid of the economic and financial crisis which has engulfed the bloc since the last 18 months.

Speaking at a joint conference with the European Union’s first full-time president Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President Jose Manual Barroso, Zapatero laid emphasis on united policies for the bloc, especially regarding economic matters. He said that Spain’s ‘main objective’ during its six month presidency would be ‘moving the economy forward’.

Spain’s prime minister has proposed setting binding economic objectives for the EU’s member states under a 10-year plan to boost growth and competiveness.

Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said “corrective measures” were needed under the 2020 Strategy if the EU wanted to compete and become more prosperous.

He was speaking ahead of the formal inauguration of Spain’s EU presidency.

Spain’s proposal may alarm members of the 27-nation bloc, which are concerned by any potential loss of sovereignty.

Spain has assumed control of the European Union in the six month rotating presidency.

President Zapatero said he was honored and enthusiastic about his six months in charge.

“We must leave recession”

President Zapatero, in his acceptance speech, promised to focus his energies on bringing prosperity and wealth back to Europe.

He announced plans to restructure the economic future of Europe and promised to speed up creation of an economic governing body to coordinate Europe’s economy.

Spain is due to take up the EU Presidency on January 1 and the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero has set four important goals for his country as the day draws nearer.

The Spanish PM had reached Cyprus on December 25th as part of a holiday trip. He met Cyprus President Demetris Christofias in Nicosia and was able to draw an outline for the goals during the talks with Christofias.

The EU’s Lisbon Treaty comes into force on Tuesday following its ratification by all the bloc’s 27 member states.

The treaty is designed to streamline decision-making and give the EU greater influence in world affairs.

It creates two new posts – president of the European Council and a high representative for foreign affairs.

Celebrations are planned in the Portuguese capital later on Tuesday with fireworks, music and speeches from EU leaders.

The EU’s Lisbon Treaty comes into force on 1 December – and with it the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

The UK, Czech Republic and Poland have negotiated opt-outs from the Charter.

But here Damian Chalmers, Professor of EU Law at the London School of Economics (LSE), argues that the Charter repackages EU law that is already applied by the 27-nation bloc.

Irish voters have given a “convincing” Yes vote for the Lisbon Treaty, giving the green light to the creation of a European Union president and “foreign minister”.

The result, to be officially confirmed later on Saturday afternoon, overturns last June’s Irish referendum rejection of the controversial EU treaty, amid claims by No campaigners of “bullying and blackmail”.

Micheal Martin, Ireland’s foreign minister, hailed the victory after a bitter campaign that pitted all the mainstream political parties and big business against a tiny coalition of No campaigners.

If Irish voters accept the Lisbon Treaty on Friday, the starting gun will fire on a tight race for the EU’s first president but a second rejection will plunge the 27-nation bloc into crisis.

“At stake is much more than the credibility of Ireland’s already enfeebled government,” reckons Hugo Brady, an expert at the Centre for European Reform in London.

“A Yes vote would allow the EU to improve the way it makes decisions, particularly in foreign policy.

A European Union ban on the manufacture and import of 100-watt and frosted incandescent light bulbs, in use since the 19th century, has come into force.

They are being phased out to encourage the switch to more energy-efficient fluorescent or halogen lamps, which use up to 80% less electricity.

Critics say the new bulbs are gloomy, and can trigger headaches and rashes in people with light sensitive disorders.

The Prime Minister has been discussing with the Swedish Prime Minister the handover to Spain on 1st January

The Prime Minister was in Sweden this Monday to discuss with his Swedish counterpart, Fredrik Reinfeldt, the transition of presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers. It passes from Sweden to Spain on 1st January next year.

The growth of the Internet and the emergence of a new computer-savvy generation leaves Europe well placed to capitalise on the digital economy, the European Commission said on Tuesday.

In its Digital Competitiveness report, the commission said 56 percent of Europeans had become regular Internet users by 2008, a jump of one third since 2004. Half of all households and more than 80 percent of businesses had a broadband connection.

The government has climbed down over plans to make people show passports for travel between Britain and Ireland.

There are currently no passport controls for Irish and UK citizens travelling in the Common Travel Area (CTA) between the two islands

Immigration Minister Phil Woolas had said controls should be in place to tighten security.

But the House of Lords voted to remove the clause during the passage of a borders bill.

Unemployment in the Irish Republic was 11.9% in June, the highest rate since April 1996, according to the Central Statistics Office.

The number of people claiming jobless benefits has almost doubled in the past year to 418,592.

Ireland has the second-worst jobless rate in the European Union, with only Spain having a higher rate.

Both countries are have seen deep recessions as a result of over-reliance on a housing and construction boom.

Three European banana producers — France, Spain and Portugal — said Friday they would not accept any EU-negotiated agreement that threatened their production.

France produces bananas in its Caribbean territories, Spain in its Canary Islands in the Atlantic and Portugal in the island of Madeira.

Spanish Agriculture Minister Elena Espinosa, her French counterpart Michel Barnier and Portuguese secretary of state for agriculture Luis Meideiro Vieria met in Madrid Friday with representatives of the Association of European Banana Producers.

Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen said Friday that he expects a new referendum to be held in Ireland on a vast European Union reform treaty in early October.

“I am confident now we have a solid basis to go to the Irish people and ask them again to ratify the treaty so that Europe can move on,” he said, after EU leaders gave guarantees the Lisbon Treaty would not limit Dublin’s sovereignty.