Spanish authorities have launched an emergency administrative legalization process for migrants already in the country without regularized status. The Council of Ministers approved the relevant royal decree on April 14, and the application period began on April 16 and will run until June 30, 2026. The government estimates that the measure could potentially cover approximately 500,000 people.
According to official explanations from the Spanish authorities, foreigners who were in Spain before January 1, 2026, have lived in the country continuously for at least five months, and have no criminal record are eligible to participate. Certain applicants for international protection are also included in the scheme. The measure is framed as an emergency measure and, according to Madrid, is intended to simultaneously reduce the informal labor market and address part of the labor shortage amid an aging population.
The Spanish government explicitly links the decision to the economy. An official Moncloa memo states that regularization should facilitate the integration of migrants already in the country into the legal labor market and the social security system. Experts note that Pedro Sánchez’s cabinet is presenting this initiative as a response to demographic aging and labor shortages in a number of sectors.
The scale of migration in Spain is indeed very large at present. According to data from Spain’s National Institute of Statistics, as of January 1, 2025, the country had a population of 49.13 million, of whom 14.1% held foreign citizenship and 19.3% were born outside Spain. As of January 1, 2026, the number of residents born abroad exceeded 10 million for the first time.
Among the largest foreign groups in Spain by nationality as of January 1, 2025, Moroccans led the way with 968,999 people, followed by Colombians with 676,534 and Romanians with 609,270. The INE also notes that in 2024, the largest increases were among citizens of Colombia, Venezuela, and Morocco, while notable decreases were seen among those from Ukraine and the United Kingdom.
There are also separate official statistics regarding Ukrainians. Spain’s Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration reported that the number of Ukrainian citizens with valid residence permits in the country exceeded 338,000 in December 2025. This is one of the largest national groups among holders of valid residence permits outside the EU system.
In practical terms, this new legalization could further strengthen Spain’s role as one of the few major EU countries that are attempting not only to curb migration but also to bring people already in the country into the legal framework. For the labor market, this means a potential expansion of formal employment, and for the real estate, retail, agriculture, care, and service sectors—an influx of workers and consumers. But at the same time, the burden on immigration offices will increase; employees of these agencies have already threatened to strike due to a lack of resources to handle the new wave of applications.
The issue of the right of Ukrainians to own weapons for their own defense should be resolved after taking into account all the weapons that they now have – to think through everything step by step to avoid complicating the crime situation, said the head of the National Police Igor Klymenko.
In an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, commenting on the results of the survey, which showed the demand of Ukrainians for possession of weapons to protect themselves and their families, Klymenko emphasized the need to “separate military operations and peaceful life.”
“When the full-scale war of the Russian Federation in Ukraine began, the right, in my opinion, decision was made to arm our citizens. This made it possible to stop the enemy and be in relative safety for those who were at some distance from the line of military clashes,” the head said. National Police.
At the same time, he added that Ukrainians are returning to the de-occupied territories, the country is trying to return to peaceful life.
“Since the beginning of hostilities, only criminal investigation officers have seized more than a thousand firearms, more than 100 grenade launchers and 350 thousand ammunition from illegal circulation. Thousands of weapons in their hands can pose a threat to the lives of peaceful and law-abiding citizens,” the head of the National Police stressed.
“So, everything must first be returned to the warehouses, taken into account or blown up, as explosive experts do, and then we return to the issue of weapons possession. That is, first of all, we must take into account all the weapons that our citizens currently have” , – expressed the opinion of Klimenko.
According to him, the police in the first days of the invasion issued about 18 thousand weapons, they were taken into account, and the military also took into account the weapons they issued. “But there are a lot of captured weapons, of unknown origin, ammunition,” the head of the National Police added.
Klymenko also pointed out that the criminal world, which “quieted a little” at the beginning of the war, will be active again, and crime will rise to the level of peacetime.
He summed up: “Therefore, there should be a step by step: first, a register to understand how many weapons are on hand, who has them. And only after that we can talk about what weapons, what caliber and what class should be in the hands of our citizens – be it a machine gun, a carbine or a pistol.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law on virtual assets, which refers this market to the regulation of the National Securities and Stock Market Commission and the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). According to the Telegram channel of the Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine, with the start of this law, the following changes will be introduced in Ukraine:
– foreign and Ukrainian crypto exchanges will work legally;
– banks will open accounts for crypto companies;
– Ukrainians will be able to protect their savings in virtual assets;
– the state will guarantee judicial protection of rights to virtual assets.
In addition, the National Securities and Stock Market Commission will formulate and implement a policy in the field of virtual assets; determine the procedure for the turnover of virtual assets; issue authorizations to VA service providers; exercise supervision and financial monitoring in this area.
According to the Ministry of Digital Development, this is another important step towards the de-shadowing of the crypto sector and the launch of a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine. “Since the beginning of the war, crypto assets have become a powerful tool for attracting additional funding in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. During the three weeks of the war, the Crypto Fund of Ukraine raised more than $54 million in crypto assets. Today, the president has signed the law on virtual assets. We are launching a legal market for virtual assets in Ukraine and bringing the crypto sector out of the shadows,” Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation of Ukraine Mykhailo Fedorov wrote on his Telegram channel.
The bill on legalization of medical cannabis provides for its removal from the list of narcotic substances and transfer it to the register of strictly controlled drugs, head of the parliamentary committee on public health Mykhailo Radutsky (Servant of the People faction).
“We are removing medical cannabis from the list of drugs, and this is not our invention. The UN did it many years ago. Cannabis is not a drug anywhere in the world, but only in countries like Russia, Belarus, Venezuela and, unfortunately, Ukraine. I hope that the parliament will correct this story,” Radutsky said at a briefing after the faction’s meeting on Monday evening in Kyiv.
The head of the committee said that only a doctor will prescribe an electronic prescription for a patient to purchase cannabis.
He reported that the Verkhovna Rada plans to consider at the first reading a bill on the legalization of medical cannabis on Tuesday and expressed hope that MPs will primarily think about patients and not about political dividends during the vote. According to the MP, after the adoption of the bill at the first reading, the MPs will have enough time to prepare the document for the second reading.
“I think that the law should be passed at the first reading, and there will be time until autumn to correct it before the second reading, we are not saints at the committee as well, we could miss something,” Radutsky said.
First Deputy Head of the Servant of the People faction Oleksandr Korniyenko hopes that their faction will be able to collect 200 votes for the bill No. 5596 On Amendments to Some Laws on Regulation of Cannabis Treatment for Medical, Scientific and Scientific Activities.
“It seems that colleagues from other factions support it. Our faction will support, not unanimously, it is obvious: there are those who are against it. But I think we will give 200 votes,” Korniyenko told reporters after a meeting of the conciliation council on Monday.
As reported, the Verkhovna Rada intends to consider the bill on the treatment of cannabis for medical purposes on Tuesday at an extraordinary meeting initiated by President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
Income from gambling market legalization in 2021 will amount to UAH 5 billion, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
“What has existed in the shadows for years, now with the first licenses, should bring UAH 5 billion to the budget already next year,” Zelensky said from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada on Tuesday, October 20.
The draft state budget for 2021 does not contain a forecast of income from the sale of the first licenses in the gambling market. The state budget for 2020 assumed income of UAH 4 billion from gambling legalization.
