EU court rules against Spanish eviction law

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) on Thursday ruled that the Spanish legislation on evictions of mortgage defaulters violated the EU law. The Spanish law does not give citizens sufficient protection against abusive clauses in mortgage contracts, the court said. "The Spanish rules, which impedes a judge from declaring a clause in the loan contract as abusive and suspending the eviction process is against the rights of the Union," it said. "All of those cases in which the eviction is carried out before a judge has declared a clause on which the mortgage contract is based to be abusive will lead to the procedure being declared null and void," it added. The ruling came after 2012 saw 50,000 eviction proceedings carried out in Spain, 16 percent more than in 2011. The Bank of Spain estimated earlier that the number could grow by a further 30 percent in 2013 as the current economic crisis continues to plague Spain and unemployment hovers above 25 percent. In response to the ECJ ruling, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said "all the aspects that the court has declared to be contrary to European legislation will be corrected." The ruling was also welcomed by Ada Colau, spokesperson for Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (Platform for those affected by mortgages), who said the government had "no other option other than to change the law and to paralyze all scheduled evictions." Colau added that the group was considering opening legal actions against the government in the name of the people who have already been affected.