EU Nationals and Residence Cards

It seems that summer is going on and on, and with the fiestas in our village in full swing the promised rain of October hasn’t got a chance! We have had a lot of feedback from the last couple of newsletters re. residence cards when I wrote that they were no longer necessary, and that Spain was actually in breach of EU regulations by asking for them. It does seem that the news has now filtered down, as a couple of weeks ago when presented with an out of date residence card for a house purchase the notary told our purchaser there was no need to renew the card as they are now obsolete!
Thank goodness we made sure she had her passport! But the notary just said make a note of the first digits of the number on the old card (this is the NIE no.). Anyway to continue the saga here follows a translation of the official paper which we obtained from the police station in Valencia this summer:

ROYAL DECREE 178/2003 (BOE 22/02/2003)
The following people who are holders of an identity card or a national valid current passport will be allowed to reside in Spain without the necessity of a residence card extended by the Spanish authorities;

Nationals from member states of the European Union or other states who have an economic agreement with the EU, who are employed or self-employed workers, students, or beneficiaries with the right to reside permanently.
Family members of the above, as well as family members of Spanish as established in article 2 of the present Real Decreto (cónyuge, descendientes o ascendientes), as long as they are nationals of a member State of the EU
Nationals from member states of the EU and of the states who have an agreement with the EU who work in Spain maintaining residence in the territory of another one of these states who returns daily or at least once a week.

Notwithstanding, to perform any economic activity, paid employment – self-employed or any other service, student, etc... the corresponding documents would have to be obtained under equal conditions as Spanish citizens.

So there you have it! However, if you don’t want to be bothered to carry around a copy of your passport (make sure you have your original for legal matters etc.) you can still get a residence card if you wish to do so. The thing is that other nationalities have their own identity cards but we Brits don’t!