Those are special cases for Germany and Spain (I implemented that stuff for a german webshop that has to make the same exception). I'd guess it's the same for Spain.
German customers who buy in a german webshop have to pay VAT and then claim it back later in their tax return, because the german tax authorities don't allow that exemption beforehand.
1. Recurly is right to add VIES validation for out of country transactions.
2. They shall not implement this feature for in country transactions.
???