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The BIZBarcelona fair, geared towards ‘solutions for SMEs and entrepreneurship’ has begun, taking place at the Fira de Barcelona fairground facilities in Montjuïc. Since its opening on Wednesday, the number of accreditations has already increased by 30% compared to last year, according to director of the event Aleix Planas, showing a large number of young people in attendance. BIZBarcelona is ideal for entrepreneurs who want to speak to all the people necessary to start or grow their business, but in a matter of hours instead of weeks. However, according to the director, the crowd is “very heterogeneous”, as attendees range from all ages, including seniors. As regards the economic and unemployment situation of the country, Planas adds that the fair is a true picture of reality

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont together with Catalan Vice President and Minister for Economy, Oriol Junqueras met this Wednesday with radical left pro-independence CUP MPs, Anna Gabriel and Joan Garriga in order to discuss their differences over the draft budget presented by the Catalan Government. Puigdemont and Junqueras refused to go back on the budget proposal for 2016 despite CUP’s veto. “If we want to complete our task, the Parliament has to process the budget”, stated Puigdemont during the plenary session this morning. He insisted that it is necessary to agree on the numbers in order to move forward. On the other hand, the anti-capitalists reaffirmed their position and insisted on their veto. The CUP MPs warned during their meeting with the Catalan Government that “it would be nonsense to put the draft to vote because it won’t go any forward” and emphasised that the present proposal leaves “no room for negotiation”.

There won’t be any agreement on the draft budget for 2016 unless the Catalan Government presents a new proposal including radical left CUP’s “proposals, demands and points of view”. This is what CUP MP, Eulàlia Reguant stated this Tuesday after registering theamendment to the entire budget proposal that the Catalan Vice President and Minister of Economy, Oriol Junqueras, presented last week. One of the anti-capitalists’ demands is to disobey the Spanish Government deficit targets and promote “more ambitious” tax reforms. On the other hand, the Catalan Secretary for Economy, Pere Aragonès warned that it’s “necessary” to pass the budget in order to put Catalonia “at the gates of independence”.

The first of three laws which will enable Catalonia to start the disconnection process from Spain has been registered this Tuesday. Pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, which represent a majority of 72 pro-independence seats in the Catalan Parliament, registered the law for the creation of the Catalan Agency for Social Protection. Although the law represents a new structure, it is set to manage the current competences that the Catalan executive already has on this matter. Therefore, both parties admitted that the law is still “autonomic”. However, according to ‘Junts Pel Sí’ MP Chakir el Homrani “the Agency is necessary to manage the social security scheme, as happens in every country”.

The appeal presented in April by Spain’s executive calling for the suspension of some articles of the Catalan law against energy poverty has been accepted by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). In particular, the magistrates have cautionarily suspended 8 articles mainly oriented toward avoiding evictions. According to the TC, the suspension is automatic and therefore the magistrates “couldn’t do anything” but accept the Spanish government’s appeal. The Catalan Government’s Spokeswoman, Neus Munté, stated that this suspension was “to be expected”. The TC’s decision comes two days after thousands of people rallied in Barcelona to protest over the Spanish court’s measures against numerous laws passed by the Catalan Parliament. 

An international study with Catalan participation from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has revealed that the coasts on Mars were destroyed by tsunamis. The study has been published in “Scientific Reports-Nature” and explains that two tsunamis that were produced millions of years apart reduced the level of the ocean and made the climate significantly colder. The tsunamis appear to have been created by the impacts of 30-km-wide meteors. The discovery gives an answer to the question of why scientists couldn’t recognise its shorelines if there really had been an ocean on Mars about 3.4 billion years ago.

After 18 years of focusing exclusively on the Roman world, the ‘Tarraco Viva’ historical festival has included, for the first time, ancient Egyptian culture in its homage to the past. ‘Tarraco Viva’ is held every year in the Catalan city of Tarragona, and it’s estimated that this 2016 edition has already attracted more visitors than previous years. Happy that this “experiment” ultimately worked, director of the festival Seritjol Magi stated on Sunday that it was the combination of the two worlds that drew in aficionados from both fields. Now that the festival is over, organisers are already planning the coming years’ editions, and plan to include various different cultures in the event. ‘Tarraco Viva’ 2017 is to open its doors to ancient Greek culture and thereby focus largely on the beloved activity of the civilisation’s people: sports; also coinciding with the 2017 Mediterranean Games to be held in the same city. 

PSOE’s leader, Pedro Sánchez, proposed a “political agreement with Catalonia” which would be bilateral and in the context of the reform of the Spanish Constitution foreseen by the Spanish Socialists. According to PSOE’s candidate for Spanish President, this agreement would “recognise” Catalonia’s “singularity” and “improve its self-government” while always “respecting the implications of the principle of equality”. However, Sánchez didn’t specify whether this agreement would imply a new Statute of Autonomy for Catalonia. This bilateral agreement is one of the proposals in the document “Commitments for a ‘yes’ to the government of change” which PSOE presented this Monday. Another one is a possible reform of the funding scheme of the Autonomous Communities which would start in the next two months. 

Barcelona commuters have endured this Monday long queues and delays due to a new strike by employees of the city’s metro. Despite the minimum services agreed by the Catalan Ministry of Work, platforms have been especially crowded during peak time this Monday morning, with some trains so full that no more passengers could be taken on board. Metro workers have called a week of strikes between the 30th of May and the 2nd of June, with an interruption in service expected on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on the metro, and on Friday in the bus service.

The radical left CUP has decided to table an amendment to the entire draft budget that the Catalan Vice President and Minister of Economy, Oriol Junqueras, presented on Tuesday. Junqueras, however, said there is still time for “dialogue and negotiations” and told journalists that he hopes the new budget will be passed in Parliament and that there will be no need to extend the last one. The CUP, which has an agreement of parliamentary stability with Junts pel Sí, justified its veto on the budget saying that the proposal doesn’t reverse “privatisations and cuts” nor show “a clear and frontal disobedience” to the Spanish Government and the financial markets.

The exhibition can be visited from the 26th of May until the 4th of September. It displays artworks created by Picasso between the 24th of October 1968 and the 25th of March 1972, and first shown in Paris only a year after their completion in 1973, when the artist was still alive. “The last Picasso, the engraver”, is shown in this exhibition, one who “experimented freely” and had an “overflowing life force”, according to a statement released by the museum. The artist created these works at his home in France, and in them, he focuses on the same subjects he always used, such as the painter and the model, and focuses especially on the female nude. Picasso also pays homage to several other artists in the series, including Goya, Manet, Raphael, Rembrandt, Velázquez, and especially Degas. The Museum calls the collection a “final tragicomedy, rich and complex”.

Marina Kaljurand said in an interview with CNA that the potential independence of Catalonia does “not really concern” Estonia, a country with no separatist movements. Kaljurand, a former diplomat, argued that any solution to the Catalan case “could be reached only by taking into account the existing laws and regulations and constitutions”, both nationally and internationally. “We have international law, the constitution and laws of each and every nation that have to be respected”, she stated. The minister said she has never received “pressure” or been “lobbied” by Spain or Catalonia and defined the Western position on the issue as “very clear, reasonable and balanced” as it supports “the present legal order”.

The ‘Bruce Davidson’ exhibition, the very first retrospective dedicated to the American photographer to be held in Spain is to open at the non-profit institution Fundación MAPFRE in Barcelona. The exhibition will run from the 28th of May until the 28th of August, after which it will embark on an international tour. Photographer Bruce Davidson has more than fifty years of uninterrupted work behind him (as well as membership of the prestigious photography co-op, Magnum), which are featured in chronological order in the exhibition. Along with Davidson’s most important photographs and series, the artist’s never-before-featured new works will also be on display. In the exhibition “we can see the stylistic evolution of his work but can also see a small condensed history of American photography from the second half of the twentieth century, which is, undoubtedly, a universal reference for photography”, explained the curator of the exhibition, Carlos Gollonet.

The Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, regretted in a speech on Friday in Madrid that so far the Spanish political class has behaved as if it was “not concerned” by the pro-independence movement going on in Catalonia. Puigdemont urged the politicians that will need to form a new government in Spain to have “courage” in order to negotiate a referendum. According to him, “Catalans’ patience is not infinite”. “We won’t sit still with folded arms eternally”, he warned, asking Madrid to engage in “dialogue” with the Catalan administration. In another event, on Thursday in front of members of the business community, Puigdemont said that his government will never disobey the law while following the path towards independence. “I know that some people use the word ‘disobedience’. I won’t use it nor will my government”, said the Catalan President.

The Catalan pavilion at the Venice Architecture ‘Biennale’ brings architecture to life with the project ‘Aftermath_Catalonia in Venice. Architecture beyond architects’. This project, set to represent Catalonia, is curated by film director Isaki Lacuesta and architects Jaume Prat and Jelena Prokopljevic. The three propose to open a dialogue between architecture and cinema; according to Prokopljevic, the aim is to “teach architecture from the point of view of the user, with buildings that are in use, and to flee from the moment when architects show the buildings when they are just finished and about to be opened, when they are all clean and have no life”.