José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Spain’s president announced in Brussels yesterday that he hopes to see the first effects of Europe-wide anti-credit crunch plans by the end of this month.

José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero says the fight against the global recession has become the central focus of the European Union.

Although Zapatero says Spain’s financial situation continues to experience ‘serious problems’, he is ‘convinced of the positive effects’ of the EU’s measures to combat it.

He says there has been a ‘slight improvement’ in access to finance for Spanish companies in the last two months.

Spain considers that the fight against unemployment should be the EU’s main concern, and Zapatero has called for a greater effort on the part of politicians.

He says he has pinned his hopes on the Summit meeting of heads of state which is expected to be held on May 7 in Prague.

Although it is thought that the recession could be over by the end of 2009 across Europe, economists believe that it will continue in Spain until at least 2011.

On another note, I vaguely remember Zapatero telling the American’s that Spain had the best economy in the world….interesting