The legislation follows continued pressure from child protection groups and United Nations experts, who asked the country to address the matter in 2010.

 

It brings Spanish law in line with most other members of the European Union and comes after the country raised the minimum age for consent for sexual relations from 13 to 16.

 

Officials from Unicef and Save the Children encouraged the move in the hope it would boost protection for the country's teenagers.

 

Ana Sastre, speaking on behalf of Save the Children from Spain, previously¹ said: 'Fundamentally it's a measure of protection to avert² possible forced marriages, sexual exploitation or offenses³ against children, especially girls.'

 

National statistics show only a handful of 14-year-olds, who needed permission from a judge to complete the ceremony, have got married in Spain in the last decade.

 

In the 1990s, however, there were 2,678 marriages involving at least one under-16 - and 12,867 in the 1980s.

 

One study by the Statistical⁴ Institute of Catalonia showed that, in 2013, men in the region married at an average age of 33.6 years, compared to 32.6 years for women. Ten years earlier, men married at an average age of 30.7 years and women at 28.7 years.

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