“We don't want to reinvent the wheel we just want what we had”

Reinstating the card was part of the PP Balearic President Jose Ramon Bauza's local election manifesto when campaigning back in May, elections in which European residents were able to vote, and the issue was subsequently raised in Madrid prior to Sunday's general election.

Kate Mentink, the Honorary President of Epore, Europeos por España (Europeans for Spain) has been lobbying the PP, of which she is a member and once represented on Calvia Council, for years over the card issue and she said yesterday that the general election result should lead to the cards being reinstated and the piece of green paper scrapped. “Over 6'000 people have signed up to the campaign petition and it has neither gone unnoticed here in Palma nor in Madrid,. “I know Mariano Rajoy's team is well up to speed on the problem which is dogging the European community. I have been in regular contact with Rodriguez-Ponga, who has been on Rajoy's team for many years and is responsible for immigration and European issues. “What post he will be given after the election result remains to be seen, but he has been extremely sympathetic to the problems of the European community, in particular the residency card and I know he has broached it with the incoming Prime Minister,” Mentink said yesterday. “It has, and will, be taken on board but obviously the incoming government has more pressing challenges to face and overcome in the short term, but I think that once the government is fully formed in the new year, it will set about tackling the residency card issue around February. “It is going to be relatively simply to resolve. “No laws have to be changed. “It is an administrational issue, a mere modification to the rules and requisites has to be made, so it should be swift and easy to resolve,” Kate Mentink explained. “So, let us hope that the Partido Popular here in the Balearics lives up to its electoral promise and PP MP in Madrid for the Balearics, Miguel Ramis, and his team, keep pushing central government on this issue,” she added.