NEW LAWS: What changes about life in Spain in March 2022?
As March begins in Spain, we look at the new traffic fines, updated travel rules, changes to mask wearing, tax deadlines and other important changes that affect life in the country. Two years of Covid in Spain
On March 14th 2020, Spain’s 47 million inhabitants went into full lockdown as the country and the world realised they were entering a global pandemic. It was a surreal time for all of us as we spent two months in strict home confinement, glued to the news and only allowed out for essential reasons as health workers battled to save lives with a virus they did not fully understand.
A lot has changed since: six coronavirus waves, almost 100,000 deaths, more than 10 million infections, countless rules changes, 82 percent of the population fully vaccinated and 51 percent with a booster shot.
Two years on and Covid is still with us but Spain is slowly heading towards a ‘new normal’ where restrictions don’t dominate our lives and Covid-19 infections are less rampant. Here’s to hoping the situation continues on the same track.
End of indoor face mask requirement?
Even though experts and epidemiologists recently suggested that face masks will continue to be mandatory in indoor public settings until at least the summer of 2022, on February 28th Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that the long-lasting Covid rule will be lifted “very soon”.
Sánchez did stress that the decision will be based on “consensus” between the regions and the advice of health professionals and the regions.
Neighbouring France will lift the indoor face mask rule on March 1st, as have other European nations already, and Spain has put the worst of the Omicron variant and the sixth wave behind it, with the infection rate dropping by more than 2,000 points in February.
So unless Covid-19 cases start picking up again, it could well be that in March the indoor mask requirement is lifted in at least some indoor settings.
Asset declarations deadline and new fines
If you live in Spain and own assets abroad, you have to submit the ‘Modelo 720’ if you have bank accounts, assets/private pensions or a property abroad which are worth more than €50,000.
If income or assets abroad are not declared to the Spanish taxman between January 1st and March 31st, they will be treated as an unjustified capital gain.
Spain has just eased the fines for wrongdoers from 150 percent of the value of the undeclared amount down to a maximum of 50 percent following staunch criticism from the Court of Justice of the European Union, whose judges referred to Spain’s penalties as “extortionate” and in breach of EU rules.
You are not required to complete the Modelo 720 every year but you will need to complete it again if your assets have changed during the course of the last calendar year.
READ MORE: How Spain’s foreign asset declaration laws are finally changing for the better
Spain and EU to keep looking to Ukraine
Thousands of people have been taking to the streets of cities across Spain day after day to denounce Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a scenario that's likely to continue in March unless Russian troops leave the eastern country.
Spanish politics will no doubt continue to focus on Ukraine if the conflict escalates and in March Spain will welcome potentially thousands of Ukrainian refugees that have been forced to leave their homes.
PM Sánchez on Monday said he would set up a system which allowed the 100,000 Ukrainians already living in Spain to continue to easily and "legally live and work" in Spain without having to meet the usual criteria for residency and work permits for non-EU applicants. It remains unclear if this offering would also be made to newly arrived Ukrainian refugees.
READ ALSO: Flight bans to visas – what does the EU’s Ukraine response mean for Spain?
Prices to keep rising
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have a considerable impact on Spain's economy, with the price and supply of energy and certain food products already affected.
Thanks to the fact that Spain gets most of its natural gas from Algeria, the country is less reliant than other EU countries on Russian gas, but it does import a large amount of maize and other grain from Ukraine.
In February 2022, an already high inflation rate reached 7.4 percent in Spain, the highest level in 33 years. This, combined with the crisis unfolding in Ukraine, will impact the price of food, non-alcoholic drinks and fuel in particular, economists say.
READ MORE: How Spain's economy could be impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine
New travel rule for non-EU tourists
Spanish authorities have eased the travel rule which previously only permitted fully vaccinated non-EU/EEA tourists to visit the country, now also allowing those who’ve had Covid-19 and can prove it with a recovery certificate to enter.
That means that in March tourists from third countries who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months will be able to visit Spain even if they haven’t been fully vaccinated against Covid or if their Covid vaccination certificate has expired because they haven’t had a booster shot.
READ MORE: Spain allows entry of non-EU travellers if they have recovery certificate
New road rules and fines
On March 21st Spain’s DGT traffic authority will implement a new set of rules and fines which aim to improve road safety and toughen some rules imposing stiffer fines.
The most important changes are as follows:
Holding the phone while driving will be punished with a €200 fine and the loss of 4 points off one’s driving licence, even if you are not actually using your mobile.
Not using your seat belt or doing it incorrectly will be punished with a €200 fine and the loss of 4 points; one more than previously.
It will be mandatory to change lanes when overtaking cyclists, as long as the road has more than one lane in each direction.
Throwing objects on the road such as cigarette butts will carry a penalty of 6 points and €200 instead of the current 4 points.
It will no longer be possible to surpass the speed limit of carreteras convencionales (secondary roads) by up to 20km/h when overtaking other vehicles.
Spain’s furlough scheme ends
The Spanish government recently agreed with unions and business groups to extend its furlough scheme for workers affected by the Covid pandemic once again, this time until the end of March 2022.
There is no saying whether the costly ERTE scheme, which was first introduced in April 2020 and has since been extended several times, will be kept after that date, given that the epidemiological situation is improving but Spain’s economy is being hit by high inflation and the impact of the Ukraine crisis.
Back to full capacity
From March 4th onwards, Spanish football clubs will be allowed to open their stadiums up to 100 percent capacity after national restrictions brought in to combat the Covid-19 pandemic were lifted by Spain's Health Ministry.
However, regional authorities will still have a say on whether local sports grounds should be allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity.
New Valencia-Madrid train
Great news for those in the Valencia region who fancy a city break in the capital in March, and for Madrid residents in search of some sun, sea and fun on the Costa Blanca.
Avlo, the low-cost subsidiary of Spain’s public rail provider, has just launched a new high-speed train route between Madrid and Valencia, with tickets going for as little as €7.
There’s a new low-cost high-speed AVE train that will link Valencia and Madrid which launched on February 21st.
There will be three daily services in each direction, representing 2,200 seats in total over the six daily journeys.
The Avlo trains leave from Valencia to Madrid at 9.28am, 4.15pm and 9.10 pm. The Madrid-Valencia routes will depart at 6.30am, 12.40pm and 6.40pm from the Spanish capital.
Rewind the clocks
Daylight saving time (DST) will begin at 02:00 am on Sunday March 27th, when mainland Spanish clocks will go forward an hour. Sunrise and sunset will be about one hour later and there will be more light in the evening.
DST will end on Sunday October 31st at 03:00 am.
Hoping for spring rain
The Iberian Peninsula has had an exceptionally dry winter, with very little rainfall in January in particular causing extreme drought in both Spain and Portugal.
READ MORE: ‘Spain needs to change its ways’: Scientists warn over worsening drought
Many in Spain will be hoping for rain by the time spring arrives on March 20th, and the forecast for early March is promising at least, as the north and east of the country are likely to experience their most ample rainfall so far in 2022.
A considerable drop in temperatures is also expected for Thursday March 3rd onwards, which will result in snow in higher altitude areas.
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Two years of Covid in Spain
On March 14th 2020, Spain’s 47 million inhabitants went into full lockdown as the country and the world realised they were entering a global pandemic. It was a surreal time for all of us as we spent two months in strict home confinement, glued to the news and only allowed out for essential reasons as health workers battled to save lives with a virus they did not fully understand.
A lot has changed since: six coronavirus waves, almost 100,000 deaths, more than 10 million infections, countless rules changes, 82 percent of the population fully vaccinated and 51 percent with a booster shot.
Two years on and Covid is still with us but Spain is slowly heading towards a ‘new normal’ where restrictions don’t dominate our lives and Covid-19 infections are less rampant. Here’s to hoping the situation continues on the same track.
End of indoor face mask requirement?
Even though experts and epidemiologists recently suggested that face masks will continue to be mandatory in indoor public settings until at least the summer of 2022, on February 28th Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced that the long-lasting Covid rule will be lifted “very soon”.
Sánchez did stress that the decision will be based on “consensus” between the regions and the advice of health professionals and the regions.
Neighbouring France will lift the indoor face mask rule on March 1st, as have other European nations already, and Spain has put the worst of the Omicron variant and the sixth wave behind it, with the infection rate dropping by more than 2,000 points in February.
So unless Covid-19 cases start picking up again, it could well be that in March the indoor mask requirement is lifted in at least some indoor settings.
Asset declarations deadline and new fines
If you live in Spain and own assets abroad, you have to submit the ‘Modelo 720’ if you have bank accounts, assets/private pensions or a property abroad which are worth more than €50,000.
If income or assets abroad are not declared to the Spanish taxman between January 1st and March 31st, they will be treated as an unjustified capital gain.
Spain has just eased the fines for wrongdoers from 150 percent of the value of the undeclared amount down to a maximum of 50 percent following staunch criticism from the Court of Justice of the European Union, whose judges referred to Spain’s penalties as “extortionate” and in breach of EU rules.
You are not required to complete the Modelo 720 every year but you will need to complete it again if your assets have changed during the course of the last calendar year.
READ MORE: How Spain’s foreign asset declaration laws are finally changing for the better
Spain and EU to keep looking to Ukraine
Thousands of people have been taking to the streets of cities across Spain day after day to denounce Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, a scenario that's likely to continue in March unless Russian troops leave the eastern country.
Spanish politics will no doubt continue to focus on Ukraine if the conflict escalates and in March Spain will welcome potentially thousands of Ukrainian refugees that have been forced to leave their homes.
PM Sánchez on Monday said he would set up a system which allowed the 100,000 Ukrainians already living in Spain to continue to easily and "legally live and work" in Spain without having to meet the usual criteria for residency and work permits for non-EU applicants. It remains unclear if this offering would also be made to newly arrived Ukrainian refugees.
READ ALSO: Flight bans to visas – what does the EU’s Ukraine response mean for Spain?
Prices to keep rising
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could have a considerable impact on Spain's economy, with the price and supply of energy and certain food products already affected.
Thanks to the fact that Spain gets most of its natural gas from Algeria, the country is less reliant than other EU countries on Russian gas, but it does import a large amount of maize and other grain from Ukraine.
In February 2022, an already high inflation rate reached 7.4 percent in Spain, the highest level in 33 years. This, combined with the crisis unfolding in Ukraine, will impact the price of food, non-alcoholic drinks and fuel in particular, economists say.
READ MORE: How Spain's economy could be impacted by Russia's invasion of Ukraine
New travel rule for non-EU tourists
Spanish authorities have eased the travel rule which previously only permitted fully vaccinated non-EU/EEA tourists to visit the country, now also allowing those who’ve had Covid-19 and can prove it with a recovery certificate to enter.
That means that in March tourists from third countries who have recovered from Covid-19 in the past six months will be able to visit Spain even if they haven’t been fully vaccinated against Covid or if their Covid vaccination certificate has expired because they haven’t had a booster shot.
READ MORE: Spain allows entry of non-EU travellers if they have recovery certificate
New road rules and fines
On March 21st Spain’s DGT traffic authority will implement a new set of rules and fines which aim to improve road safety and toughen some rules imposing stiffer fines.
The most important changes are as follows:
Holding the phone while driving will be punished with a €200 fine and the loss of 4 points off one’s driving licence, even if you are not actually using your mobile.
Not using your seat belt or doing it incorrectly will be punished with a €200 fine and the loss of 4 points; one more than previously.
It will be mandatory to change lanes when overtaking cyclists, as long as the road has more than one lane in each direction.
Throwing objects on the road such as cigarette butts will carry a penalty of 6 points and €200 instead of the current 4 points.
It will no longer be possible to surpass the speed limit of carreteras convencionales (secondary roads) by up to 20km/h when overtaking other vehicles.
Spain’s furlough scheme ends
The Spanish government recently agreed with unions and business groups to extend its furlough scheme for workers affected by the Covid pandemic once again, this time until the end of March 2022.
There is no saying whether the costly ERTE scheme, which was first introduced in April 2020 and has since been extended several times, will be kept after that date, given that the epidemiological situation is improving but Spain’s economy is being hit by high inflation and the impact of the Ukraine crisis.
Back to full capacity
From March 4th onwards, Spanish football clubs will be allowed to open their stadiums up to 100 percent capacity after national restrictions brought in to combat the Covid-19 pandemic were lifted by Spain's Health Ministry.
However, regional authorities will still have a say on whether local sports grounds should be allowed to operate at 100 percent capacity.
New Valencia-Madrid train
Great news for those in the Valencia region who fancy a city break in the capital in March, and for Madrid residents in search of some sun, sea and fun on the Costa Blanca.
Avlo, the low-cost subsidiary of Spain’s public rail provider, has just launched a new high-speed train route between Madrid and Valencia, with tickets going for as little as €7.
There’s a new low-cost high-speed AVE train that will link Valencia and Madrid which launched on February 21st.
There will be three daily services in each direction, representing 2,200 seats in total over the six daily journeys.
The Avlo trains leave from Valencia to Madrid at 9.28am, 4.15pm and 9.10 pm. The Madrid-Valencia routes will depart at 6.30am, 12.40pm and 6.40pm from the Spanish capital.
Rewind the clocks
Daylight saving time (DST) will begin at 02:00 am on Sunday March 27th, when mainland Spanish clocks will go forward an hour. Sunrise and sunset will be about one hour later and there will be more light in the evening.
DST will end on Sunday October 31st at 03:00 am.
Hoping for spring rain
The Iberian Peninsula has had an exceptionally dry winter, with very little rainfall in January in particular causing extreme drought in both Spain and Portugal.
READ MORE: ‘Spain needs to change its ways’: Scientists warn over worsening drought
Many in Spain will be hoping for rain by the time spring arrives on March 20th, and the forecast for early March is promising at least, as the north and east of the country are likely to experience their most ample rainfall so far in 2022.
A considerable drop in temperatures is also expected for Thursday March 3rd onwards, which will result in snow in higher altitude areas.
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