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A total of 23,825 patients have to wait longer than the maximum 6-month-period to undergo one of the 14 surgeries with a guaranteed waiting time, according to the Catalan Minister of Health, Boi Ruiz. In 2013, a total of 151,009 patients underwent one of these surgeries, 3,834 more than the previous year, which represents a 2.6% increase. The number of patients who still require one of these 14 procedures in December 2013 has increased by 6% and 4,261 people, reaching 75,075 with an average waiting time of 5.78 months. On the other hand, the waiting lists for all surgeries, including the 14 specific procedures, have fallen by about 7,000 people in 2013 compared to 2012.

Barça were the first team drawn out of the hat at this Friday lunchtime’s Champions League quarter final draw in Nyon (Switzerland), with Atlético Madrid then drawn to play them. The first leg of the tie will be played on April 1 or 2 at the Camp Nou, with the second leg set for the Vicente Calderón stadium a week later on April 8 or 9. The match at the Camp Nou will be the fourth time the two La Liga teams have met so far this season, with all three previous games ending in draws. Atletico are currently second in the Spanish League, a point ahead of Barça and reached the Champions League quarter finals by beating AC Milan 0-1 in Italy and then 4-1 at home, after also finishing unbeaten and topping Group G.

In Catalonia, direct foreign investment – excluding the stock-exchange –grew by 31.5% year-on-year to reach €3.51 billion in 2013, as indicated by a report from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. According to the Foreign Investments Registry, with such a figure, Catalonia achieved its second best year in history, only surpassed by the €4.82 billion received in 2010. Besides, Catalonia accounted for 22.2% of all foreign investments in Spain in 2013, which amounted to a total of €15.81 billion, meaning 8.8% more than the previous year. The region of Madrid was the leading Autonomous Community in Spain for foreign investment attraction, receiving €8.64 billion, which is it to say 54.6% of the total amount. However Madrid's sum also represents a 7.1% decrease on 2012 figures.

Irene Rigau, the Catalan Minister for Education, announced that Catalonia will participate in the working group created to analyse how to better implement the Spanish Government's Education Reform. Such a group was announced by the Spanish Education Minister, José Ignacio Wert, to make "Catalonia feel comfortable" with a Reform that totally changes the current school model. However, Rigau stated that the results of the working group will have to be assessed before implementing the Reform. On Wednesday, she refused to attend a meeting in Madrid to discuss how Spanish will be made an instruction language in Catalan schools. After the meeting, the Spanish Government stated that this will done "one way or the other" in September 2014. Meanwhile, the judicial battle goes on and the five schools forced to teach 25% of the subjects in Spanish will be allowed to appeal.

Barcelona’s City Council has achieved a cumulative budget surplus of €23.5 million for the last few years, after posting a budget surplus of €139.3 million in 2013. In a press conference on Wednesday, the Deputy Mayor for Economy, Business and Employment, Sònia Recasens also announced that the city had eventually executed 97.55%, (€2.25 billion) of its planned expenditure. Such a figure is higher than the average execution ratio for 2009-2013. The execution ratio for investments amounts to 94% (€356 million) and is also significantly higher than in 2009-2013. In addition, debt levels represent 46.7% of the annual ordinary revenue. Furthermore, the City Council paid its providers in 29.2 days on average. Thanks to these figures, the City Council will make available 1,000 new social housing units in Barcelona.

Japanese multinational Olympus, specialized in optics and reprography, has unveiled its new headquarters for Spain and Portugal, aimed at becoming its main centre for Southern Europe. The new facilities are located in the business district of L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, a city literally attached to Barcelona, between the Catalan capital and El Prat Airport. The new offices occupy 2,500 square meters in a building on the Europa Square, close to the Fira de Barcelona. It will welcome 30 employees of the divisions of Consumer Product, Microscopy, Industry, and Medical Systems. Merging the headquarters for Spain and Portugal constitutes a step forward to gain weight on the Southern Europe market, said Olympus Iberia's CEO.

On Wednesday evening the main Catalan small- and medium-sized enterprises association, Pimec, organised a protest conference in which they accused the Spanish and Catalan Governments of politically and financially "discriminating" against them. With the slogan #diguemprou (#wesayenough) 1,400 owners of SMEs and self-employed workers protested against both Governments for not taking SMEs into account and only working for the interests of large corporations. The protest was explicitly backed by 220 guilds and associations, as well as by 9 professional associations and that of self-employed workers. The event issued a manifesto compiling a list of grievances, split into 7 different areas: entrepreneurship; loans and funding; taxation; labour market; energy; training and employment; and internationalisation.

The former Secretary General and 'number 2' of CDC, which is the Liberal Party and larger force within the two-party Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), has been indicted for another alleged offence: bribery. Oriol Pujol had already been indicted a year ago for influence peddling regarding the network of Technical Vehicle Inspection garages (ITV). Back then, Pujol temporarily stepped down from his party responsibilities and as Chairman of the CiU group within the Catalan Parliament, but he continued as MP. The case is still under investigation by a judge from Catalonia's Supreme Court (TSJC), who has now added bribery to the list of alleged felonies. The judge stated that he believes Pujol might have earned €30,000 through his wife's company for a specific vote in Parliament. The CDC and the Spokesperson of the Catalan Government – run by the CiU – emphasised that they believe in Pujol's innocence and hope the judicial process will clarify the situation as soon as possible.

Catalonia is the only Autonomous Community in Spain to have registered a decrease in wages, as it was also the only one to have public employees' Christmas payment – equivalent to a month’s salary – entirely eliminated in 2013, according to the latest Quarterly Labour Cost Survey issued by the Spanish Government. Hence, while Spanish wages have increased by 2.1% in 2013, the wages of Catalan employees have continued on a downward trend continued o, falling by 0.7% at the end of December 2013 compared to the last quarter of 2012. The average salary in Catalonia stood at €2,133 per month, returning to 2009 levels, when it had amounted to €2,119. Labour costs, which group the employee salary and social costs assumed by companies, have also fallen by 0.4% in annual terms in Catalonia whereas they were up by 2.1% in Spain.

On Wednesday, the parties supporting the petitions to transfer to the Catalan Government the powers to organise referendums, using Article 150.2 of the Constitution, welcomed the Spanish Parliament's decision to fix the debate as early as possible, particularly before the summer break. The Catalan Parliament had approved a motion urging the Spanish Government for such a transfer in order to organise a self-determination vote. However, the Spanish Parliament might have scheduled the corresponding parliamentary debate in September or October. For this reason, the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) and the Catalan Green Socialist Party (ICV) filed their own petitions using their MPs in Madrid in order to speed up the debate. Finally, the Spanish Parliament's Board, controlled by the People's Party (PP), decided to group all the petitions and to hold a single debate on the issue in April.

The Barcelona-based fashion enterprise announced that the French investment group Eurazeo will join the Catalan company after a €285 million injection. For this operation, Desigual will issue a share offer that will increase its capital by 10%, which will be entirely covered by Eurazeo. In 2013 Desigual posted a net profit of €129 million, which represents a 71% growth on the 2012 figures. The Catalan retail company's turnover reached €828 million, 18% more than the previous year, according to the Director General of Desigual, Manel Jadraque. On Tuesday, when presenting the company's results for 2013, Jadraque disclosed an EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) of €242 million, representing 29% of the sales figures.

International sales of Catalonia's sparkling wine Cava have amounted to 241.3 million bottles in 2013, 0.77% less than the previous year. The President of the Cava Regulatory Council, Pere Bonet presented such figures in a press conference on Tuesday. Bonet linked this decrease with the current economic context and recalled that other regions producing sparkling wine had registered sharper declines, for instance Champagne with a 2% drop. The Spanish market, accounting for one third of Cava sales, has performed better than in previous years and only fell by 0.47%. On the other hand, sales in the foreign market, which had increased every year since 1980, registered a 0.92% decrease in 2013.

FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu and Catalan defender Marc Bartra signed the deal in the club offices this Tuesday that will keep the centre-back at Barça till June 2017. The new deal includes a 25 million Euro get out clause.The 23-year-old Bartra joined FC Barcelona as an eleven-year-old and worked his way up through the academy and Barça B teams before signing a first team contract in the 2012/13 season.After putting pen to paper, the Catalan centre-back admitted: “I’m very happy. It’s a great feeling and I hope everything continues to go as well as they have done in my time at the club so far. For me, Piqué and Puyol are my reference points - it’s a challenge to me to achieve what they have . Establishing myself in the team is a big test, but I am getting there”

Marcel·lí Antúnez Roca, one of the founders of the Catalan theatrical group ‘La Fura dels Baus’ has presented an exhibition in Arts Santa Mònica, a cultural centre run by the Catalan Government in Barcelona's famous Les Rambles. The display showcases the artist’s unusual dramatic method, which he names ‘Sistematúrgia’. This concept conceives theatre as a combination of robotics, corporal interfaces and audiovisuals systems. Apart from the exhibition, which will be open to the public until April 4th, this initiative also includes live performances by Antúnez once a week. ‘La Fura dels Baus’ produced the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games.

According to a poll issued by the Centre of Opinion Studies (CEO), run by the Catalan Government, 59.7% of Catalans would agree with Catalonia becoming "a new European State". Specifically, 40.2% of the interviewees "totally agree" with the idea, 19.5% of the interviewees tend to agree, 10.8% tend to disagree and 18.9% are "totally against" it. Furthermore, 87.3% of the interviewees affirm they would accept the result of a self-determination referendum while 9.3% state they would not accept it. Furthermore, 74% of Catalans believe that the best way to decide on Catalonia's political future and its relationship with Spain is through a referendum, while 21.7% think the opposite.