Government and policy

Spain has launched a digital nomad visa — here’s how to get one

Future of Work, Government and policy, Next Featured / Ryan Harris / March 7, 2023

Sunny weather, a reasonable cost of living, delicious food, stunning landscapes — Spain has it all. And with some of the best internet speeds in Europe, the Mediterranean nation has become a popular destination for expats and remote workers.

The newly-launched digital nomad visa has made the country an even more appealing option. The scheme has been in force since January, as part of the recently approved Startup Law, which aims to make the nation a frontrunner in attracting investment, innovative entrepreneurship, and talent.

While other EU countries such as Greece, Portugal, and Croatia have already introduced similar schemes, Spain’s digital nomad visa introduces another competitive offering.

Who is eligible?

The visa is open to non-EU/EAA nationals who are working remotely, either as self-employed freelancers or employees. They are required to be working primarily for non-Spanish companies, with Spanish firms only accountable for a maximum of 20% of their total income.

Prospective digital nomads must not have lived in the country within the five years before applying, and must not be residing illegally in Spain during the application process.

What are the requirements?

Applicants need to demonstrate that they have been working for their clients or company for at least three months before applying — and the company they work for must have been in operation for at least a year. They’re also required to prove that they can do their job remotely.

In terms of background, prospective visa holders must show they have either a minimum of three years of work experience or be graduates/postgraduates from renowned universities, vocational training courses or prestigious business schools.

Equally important is proof of financial self-sufficiency. To show that they can support themselves in Spain, individuals applying for the visa need to earn 200% of the country’s monthly minimum wage. Currently, this translates to €2,334 per month or €28,000 per year.

Spouses and children can also join the visa holders in Spain, in which case an extra 25% for each family member is added to the threshold income.

Finally, applicants are required to have a clean criminal record in the last five years, while, for the time being, they need to obtain full, private health insurance.

Visa duration and application process

Spain’s digital nomad visa is originally valid for 12 months, or for the duration of the employment period if that’s shorter than a year. It can be renewed for up to five years, at which point it’s possible to apply for permanent residency.

Interested digital nomads can either apply through a consulate or embassy in their home country or enter Spain on a tourist visa and apply within the first three months.

Applicants need to provide the following documents:

Completed copy of the National Visa Application Form.
Valid passport and two passport photos.
Proof of suitable employment (work contract and/or letter from employer confirming the remote professional activity).
Proof that the employer/company has been active for at least one year
Proof of income (payslips, work contract, bank statements).
Proof of qualifications (university degree, professional certificate, or evidence of at least three years of experience).
Proof of health insurance authorised to operate in Spain.
Criminal record check certificates for the last five years.
Proof of familial relationship to other applicants (marriage certificate, birth certificate).

The application fee is around €80, although the exact figure can vary slightly depending on the country you apply from.

It can take between 15 to 45 days for the visa to be processed.

Spain has launched a digital nomad visa — here’s how to get one Read More »

€7.5M EU scheme aims to help Ukrainian SMEs benefit from the single market

Ecosystems, Government and policy, Investors and funding, Next Featured / Ryan Harris / March 4, 2023

Story by

Ioanna Lykiardopoulou

Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives. Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives.

The European Commission has launched a new €7.5 million grant scheme to help Ukrainian SMEs integrate and benefit from the single market.

The so-called ReadyForEU scheme comprises two calls for proposals directed to Ukraine-based businesses and entrepreneurs: the Business Bridge and the Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs — Ukraine. The calls follow the country’s recent entrance into the singlemarket programme, which is also providing the funding.

“ We’re offering tangible financial support for small Ukrainian businesses and entrepreneurs.

The Business Bridge

With a budget of €4.5 million, this action offers financial support to SMEs affected by the war, in the form of vouchers. These will enable the companies to access services and take part in trade fairs in the EU.

A dedicated consortium of business organisations will select up to 1,500 growth- and sustainability-oriented Ukrainian SMEs, which will receive up to €2,500. The grant’s purpose is to cover costs related to business support services, such as legal, financial, or organisational advice.

According to the Commission, the call will not only support companies involved as well as boost the reconstruction of the Ukrainian economy, but also provide alternative markets to EU businesses, following the loss of the Russian and Belarusian markets.

The Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs — Ukraine

With a budget of €3 million, the second call aims to enable new Ukrainian entrepreneurs to gain business experience in other European countries.

It will select organisations in the Ukraine and the EU to recruit up to 430 entrepreneurs and match them with host entrepreneurs based in the bloc. It will also provide them with financial support and contribute to their living and travel expenses.

This action will be implemented as part of the already existing Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs programme.

“Europe is committed to supporting Ukraine’s successful integration in the single market,” Thierry Breton, Commissioner for Internal Market, said in a statement. “With today’s calls for proposals, we are offering tangible financial support for small Ukrainian businesses and entrepreneurs to build new partnerships with other European companies and expand into the EU.”

Ukrainian SMEs and entrepreneurs will be able to apply in the final quarter of this year.

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Ukraine’s year of war exposes changing roles for cyber weapons

Data and security, Government and policy, Insider, Next Featured / Ryan Harris / February 25, 2023

On the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine is commemorating horrific losses — and remarkable defiance.

The country’s fierce resistance on the battlefield has been echoed on the digital front — where Kyiv has unique experience. The conflict with Russia has become the world’s first full-scale cyberwar, but Ukraine was a test bed for digital weapons long before the invasion of 24 February, 2022. Since Putin’s troops began flooding across the border, the cyber tactics have shifted dramatically.

These developments have made Ukraine a bellwether for digital warfare. And to the surprise of analysts, cyber attacks have had a limited impact over the past year.

“We’re going to see cyber activity as a pre-emptive tactic to physical war.

In the lead-up to the invasion, cyber assaults were prominent. On 15 February, Russian hackers launched the most powerful DDoS attack in the history of Ukraine. A day before the full-scale invasion, several government and banking websites were struck once again.

Yet in the months that followed, reports of major cyberattacks declined. Zachary Warren, Chief Security Advisor EMEA at Tanium and a regular advisor to NATO, regards this as a portent for digital warfare.

“Moving forward, we’re going to see cyber activity as a pre-emptive tactic to physical war… it’s a tool to weaken a target before moving in,” he said.

Ukraine’s government, meanwhile, asserts that Russia’s targets have changed. In a January report, security officials said the cyberattacks initially centred on Ukraine’s communication department, which aimed to disrupt military and government operations. But after Russia’s first defeat at the front, the focus shifted to maximising damage to civilians.

Notably, the officials found that all the assaults had harnessed previously known techniques.

“The attacks used by Russia have long been categorised and have straightforward solutions for counteraction,” said the report’s authors.

Infographic detailing a cyber-overview of the conflict in 2022 — Analysts found that cyber attacks hit their highest levels in the build-up to the invasion. Credit: Crowdstrike

Many analysts expected cyberattacks to be more prevalent and devastating. Adam Meyers, Head of Intelligence at security firm CrowdStrike, believes Russia had expected a quick and decisive victory. As a result, the Kremlin may have initially avoided destructive cyberattacks, because it would have needed Ukrainian infrastructure to prop up a friendly government.

“As Russian operations failed to take Kyiv and make advances as rapidly as planned, we saw more tactical cyber operations paired with kinetic effects targeting Ukraine and did not see broad attacks against the West — as we all had prepared for,” said Meyers.

The following chart shows Cloudflare’s perspective on daily traffic (by number of requests). — Cloudflare found human internet traffic dropped by as much as 33% in the weeks following February 24, but has recovered as Ukrainian refugees have returned to the country.

The modest impact of Russia’s cyber weapons has not been for want of trying. In January, Viktor Zhora, a senior figure at Ukraine’s cybersecurity agency, said cyberattacks in the country had tripled over the past year. Zhora wants the digital assaults to be prosecuted as war crimes.

Despite the onslaught, Ukraine’s networks have remained remarkably resilient. Analysts give much of the credit to Ukraine’s repair crews, its widespread connectivity to networks outside the country, and its large number of internet exchange points.

Some pundits argue that digital weapons are simply less effective than physical warfare, while others believe Russia’s capabilities were overrated.

Another factor is Ukraine’s persistent efforts to strengthen its defences. The lengthy conflict with Russia have provided immense experience of mitigating cyberattacks.

“This made us stronger,” Zhora said last year. “We took our lessons from this cyber aggression.”

There will be more more lessons to come, but Ukraine already has much to teach its allies about cyber warfare.

Ukraine’s year of war exposes changing roles for cyber weapons Read More »

Predictive policing project shows even EU lawmakers can be targets

Government and policy, Neural, Next Featured / Blake Jones / February 23, 2023

Predictive policing has exposed a new group of future criminals: MEPs.

A new testing systems has spotlighted five EU politicians as “at risk” of committing future crimes. Luckily for them, it’s not a tool that’s used by law enforcement, but one designed to highlight the dangers of such systems.

The project is the brainchild of Fair Trials, a criminal justice watchdog. The NGO is campaigning for a ban on predicting policing, which uses data analytics to forecast when and where crimes are likely to happen — and who may commit them.

Proponents argue that the approach can be more accurate, objective, and effective than traditional policing. But critics warn that it hardwires historic biases, disproportionately targets marginalised groups, amplifies structural discrimination, and infringes on civil rights.

“It might seem unbelievable that law enforcement and criminal justice authorities are making predictions about criminality based on people’s backgrounds, class, ethnicity and associations, but that is the reality of what is happening in the EU,” said Griff Ferris, Senior Legal and Policy Officer at Fair Trials.

Indeed, the technology is increasingly popular in Europe. In Italy, for instance, a tool known as Dalia has analysed ethnicity data to profile and predict future criminality. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, the so-called Top 600 list has been used to forecast which young people will commit high-impact crime. One in three people on the list – many of whom have reported being harassed by police – were found to be of Moroccan descent.

To illustrate the impacts, Fair Trials developed a mock assessment of future criminal behaviour.

Unlike many of the real systems used by the police, the analysis has been made entirely transparent. The test uses a questionnaire to profile each user. The more “Yes” answers they give, the higher their risk outcome. You can try it out for yourself here.

Politicians from the Socialists & Democrats, Renew, Greens/EFA, and the Left Group were invited to test the tool. After completing the quiz, MEPs Karen Melchior, Cornelia Ernst, Tiemo Wölken, Petar Vitanov, and Patrick Breyer were all identified as at “medium risk” of committing future crime.

“There should be no place in the EU for such systems — they are unreliable, biased, and unfair.

The gang will face no consequences for their potential offences. In real-life, however, such systems could put them on police databases and subject them to close monitoring, random questioning, or stop and search. Their risk scores may also be shared with schools, employers, immigration agencies, and child protection services. Algorithms have even led people to be jailed with scant evidence.

“I grew up in a low-income neighbourhood, in a poor Eastern European country, and the algorithm profiled me as a potential criminal,” Petar Vitanov, an MEP from the Bulgarian Socialist Party, said in a statement.

“There should be no place in the EU for such systems — they are unreliable, biased, and unfair.”

Fair Trials released the test results amid growing calls to outlaw predictive policing.

The topic has proven divisive in proposals for the AI Act, which is set to become the first-ever legal framework on artificial intelligence. Some lawmakers are pushing for a total ban on predictive policing, while others want to give leeway to law enforcement agencies.

Fair Trials has given supporters of the systems a new reason to reconsider their views: the tech can also target them.

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