Este informe se aprueba...

18:10 Oct 15, 2014 

in exercise of the advisory powers of the Commission {This report is approved, at the request of the Ministry of economy and competitiveness, in exercise of the advisory powers of the Commission in the process of developing standards relating to their sphere of competence}

12:55 Oct 15, 2014 

...on both scores

12:50 Oct 15, 2014 

By the way, "hereby" should not be included unless this document is the actual instrument by which approval is granted. It sounds as though it is, but it might not be; it might be reporting approval.

12:40 Oct 15, 2014 

Well I've just voted PRO, and not just to make you feel better, William, but because although it certainly looks to me as though the Comisión is doing the approving, it's not immediately obvious what "a solicitud del Ministerio" is doing there. I suppose that the Ministry must have submitted the report to the Comisión for its approval.

This Pro/Non-Pro thing is a bit problematic, in my opinion, and it's not helped by the fact that non-Pro questions are labelled "Easy" in our lists of questions asked and answered. I see some merit in Henry Hinds' approach here: if you're a pro and you've got a question, it's a pro question, period.

10:27 Oct 15, 2014 

I obviously wasn't asking what "Este informe se aprueba" means, I needed help with who was doing what to whom, when, where and why, or at least confirmation I was on the right lines.

To be honest, the whole Pro/Non-Pro thing strikes me as kind of patronising, y'know, "run along with your simple question child, the adults are talking"

10:17 Oct 15, 2014 

That is the question. I still consider this a "PRO" query, as not everybody can readily understand this type of text, even in their L1.

10:12 Oct 15, 2014 

Am actually laughing out loud at this situation, which is fairly commonplace in this type of text. It might help if you start parsing from the end of the sentence...

10:00 Oct 15, 2014 

Haha I've been there myself, William! Sometimes sentences in Spanish can be so long-winded, it's hard to disentangle them. Best of luck with everything, sir.

09:58 Oct 15, 2014 

I get the passive-active thing, like I say, I just couldn't see who was approving what at whose request and why. Then the clouds opened...

09:56 Oct 15, 2014 

Hi, William. I think you've cracked it. As I'm sure you're well aware, Spanish sentences can be much longer and more convoluted than sentences we would write in English, but I think that for a formal, quasi-legalese sentence like this you can get away with it no problem

09:50 Oct 15, 2014 

At the request of the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness, this report has been approved in the exercise of the Commission's advisory powers in drawing up the regulations affecting competition...