The green certificate

The Spanish government must know by now that non-Spanish European Union residents are not impressed by the new green certificates which replaced residence cards about six years ago. Complaints must have flooded into Madrid over recent years but the only action that the government has taken is to make the certificates smaller! It is not only the British who are complaining. It is the majority of non-Spanish Europeans. The problem with the certificate is as it does not include a photograph it is not valid identification. By law British residents should carry around their certificate and their passport, as proof of identity. Now, it wouldn´t take the Spanish government too much work to re-introduce the old residence cards which do include a photograph. Non-Europeans are still issued with the old style card. This week the President of the Balearic government, Jose Ramon Bauza, has promised to raise the issue at a European Union meeting. I do hope he is successful and it must be remembered that the end of the reign of the green certificate was in the Partido Popular´s manifesto. It also became an issue during the local election campaign in Calvia. If Balearic President Bauza wants to win the support of the European community then scrapping the green certificate would score him plenty of points. Come on Spain, give us back our old cards and end this nightmare scenario for once and for all.