Over the last few months since I made the post above about plans to allow notaries to conduct marriages, I've been asked several times whether this is now law. As I said at the time of the post, the reforms were supposed to come into force "as soon as they are approved by Parliament", but now at least one notary is expressing frustration and annoyance that not only is the law far from "in force", it is not anyway going to be anything like as far-reaching as the government made out.
The current state of the legal "reform" is that after nearly four months , things have hardly moved at all. The draft proposals still need to become a legal "project", and then return to Congress, and still be sent to the Senate for subsequent approval, and then return to Congress for final approval. What most annoys the notary I was speaking to, however, is that the reform, despite the fanfare, merely includes notaries as a possible officiant of the marriage. It won't be a case of simply going to notary to get married. A couple will still need to carry out the preliminary paperwork in Court or local registry office.
So, whether this takes another several months or years, it now seems largely irrelevant. The process will not be simplified or streamlined after all, and many expatriates seeking to marry in Tenerife are likely to continue to pop over to British Gibraltar for the ceremony. What a wasted opportunity when Spain, and particularly these islands, offers such a wonderful and desirable backdrop for that most "niche" of markets ... wedding tourism.
JA
