As the EP discusses how to harmonise mortgage rules, EuroparlTV goes to Spain, where the collapse of the ten-year housing boom has provoked heated social debate.

Reporter: Common criteria for Europe's home-loan market?

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for Europe's multi-billion euro  home-loan market?

As the EP discusses  how to harmonise mortgage rules,

where the collapse of the ten-year housing  boom has provoked heated social debate.

9am on a cold Thursday morning  in Madrid.

Around 30 activists try to block the latest  eviction in Spain's escalating housing crisis.

Soaring unemployment  and falling house prices

means that around 120 families  are losing their homes every day.

claim to have stopped several evictions  already this winter.

But the court and bank officials due  to deliver this particular eviction order

are due any minute now,  so we'll see what happens.

the homeowner Ronale de la Cruz  acknowledges their support.

But just around the corner  police are standing by

as activists continue to hold their ground.

In the end Ronale and his lawyer are called  to an impromptu street corner negotiation

The result, an eight-day reprieve for Ronale.  The activists can celebrate, at least for now.

But with Ronale still facing  eventual eviction

we were keen to find out  what had led him and his family

Originally from the Dominican Republic  but now a Spanish national,

the former construction worker  bought his tiny three-bed flat in 2004

it was originally money his bank  was more than happy to lend.

You got flyers in the metro,  'Buy your own home' and so on.

So I went to the bank  and they gave me every facility.

But then in 2009, Ronale lost his job  and fell behind on his mortgage payments.

When he went back to the bank he found  that the mortgage agreement fine print

I went up to the bank and told them  to take their flat back

but they wouldn't accept  what is called 'dation in payment'.

and has been taken up by the Spanish  mortgage campaign group PAH.

Their members meet regularly  to campaign for legal reform.

Under current law, Spanish banks  can not only evict

those who fall behind  on their payments

but also revalue their property  for as little as half its original price

and claim the difference  from those they've evicted.

The debt should be cancelled  by handing over the property

and the people should be allowed  to stay in the property

for a rent under 30% of their income  in order to avoid housing emergencies.

But the body that represents  Spain's savings banks

warns that such proposals would encourage  even more mortgage defaults

and make mortgages more expensive  for the majority.

97.5% of mortgage holders are meeting  their obligations absolutely normally.

If we make dation in payment  general for everyone

its negative effects would spread  to all mortgage holders.

The fairness and even legality  of introducing retroactive legislation

is also questioned by independent  economists like Javier Díaz-Giménez.

It's not a good idea, halfway through  a long-term mortgage contract,

Obviously this helps families  but it's very damaging for the banks.

It's a difficult choice for regulators  at the Bank of Spain.

But with a quarter of a million Spanish  homeowners already in negative equity,

leaving Spain's 150-year-old mortgage laws  unchanged may no longer be an option.