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By Jason Moore I was pleased to see that a new association has been established in the Calvia area, Europeos por Europa, (Europeans for Europe). The idea of this lobby group is a good one; getting as many non-Spanish Europeans to register to vote in their local councils and then lobby local political groups to resolve common problems. Strength in numbers is what the association believes in. What is important, though, is that the association just doesn´t consist of people from one single nationality. It must be a truly European association. One of the biggest problems which affects the local non-Spanish community at the moment are the infamous green certificates which have replaced our residence cards. The Germans are as deeply opposed to the certificates as British expatriates and I believe that if all Europeans had got together as a united front against the certificates they may have been scrapped by now. Unfortunately, this was not the case. If we want the local authorities to listen to our concerns we must speak as one.

There are an estimated 80'000 non-Spanish Europeans living in the Balearics and I am sure that if there were unity it could be a very powerful lobby. However, getting all the nationalities together under one banner will be no easy task.