Catalan entrepreneurs and businesspeople are coming back home from India after making hundreds of contacts and discussing potential business opportunities that might help the Catalan economy to recover even faster. Motor, biofarma and IT enterprises have completed a very successful Asian tour and expect to open business on the continent within the next few months.
The Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (DIPLOCAT) organized on Friday in Barcelona a conference on the Responsibility to Protect. This UN-backed principle claims that all countries have the responsibility to protect their citizens from human rights violations. The Executive Director of the World Federalist Movement-Institute for Global Policy, William Pace, argued that “the EU has in its DNA the responsibility to protect” and added that the attitude of the Catalan society is “also fundamental” in order to fight against “impunity for serious crimes”. The Secretary General of the DIPLOCAT, Albert Royo, said that “it is especially important” for Catalonia to “be able to explain which role it wants to play” in the international arena, now that is considering becoming an independent country.
The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, also replied to the message sent on Wednesday by the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, against an EU membership for Scotland and Catalonia if they were to become independent states. Mas “welcomed” Rajoy’s statements, as the Spanish PM indirectly “admits that Catalonia can become an [independent] state”. In addition, Mas stated that Catalans are becoming “less sensitive” to “the threats” of the Spanish Government. Furthermore, Alex Salmond, First Minister of the Scottish Executive, highlighted that Scotland “is a European nation”, which “will be welcomed” within the EU if it becomes an independent state. In addition, Salmond urged the British Government to formally ask the European Commission to start a legal analysis on Scotland’s EU membership. However, despite the road map towards independence has already been clarified, Londond rejects asking Brussels about it.
Majorcans Antònia Font, who have probably been the most successful Catalan-singing band in the last decade, have announced they are splitting up “without controversies or internal traumas” after 17 years together. They will offer a last concert in Palma de Mallorca on the 27th of December. The band has issued a press release on Thursday explaining that the “time has come to put an end to this path”. From January onwards “they will focus on personal projects, which do not necessarily have to be related to music”. They added they are “satisfied with the work done” and “aware of their legacy”. Antònia Font became a great success in the early 2000s in the Catalan musical landscape with a unique style combining plain lyrics about everyday life and Majorca with surreal and science-fiction elements. Its sound is rich, with touches of experimental music, and with influences from pop, folk and electronic.
The Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sent a message to Scotland and Catalonia, stating that if they were to become independent they would be excluded from the European Union and would have to re-apply for membership. The statement sounded like a threat, particularly when he added that “this is not simple”, since “it requires becoming an [independent] state, re-applying for membership and unanimity” from the 28 current Member States, suggesting a possible veto from Madrid. Rajoy made this statement next to the French President François Hollande, who was on a state visit to Spain. However, Hollande did not explicitly support Rajoy: he said that this was an “internal matter” for Spain and refused to make further comments. The Scottish Government replied that Rajoy “has not read” its White Paper on Scotland’s independence, which totally rejects being kicked out of the EU.
Catalonia’s tourism revenues in October amounted to € 1.25 billion, which is to say 20.5 % more than the same month last year. These latest figures, registered by the Tourist Expenditure Survey (EGATUR), were released by the Spanish Ministry of Industry on Wednesday. The survey confirms Catalonia’s leading position for tourist expenditure in Spain. Indeed, it accounts for 22.8 % of the total Spanish tourism revenues. This October, visitors spent an average of €936 during their stay in Catalonia, meaning a 8.3 % increase compared to October 2012; €132 per day, which represents a 3.7% increase. From January to October 2013, total revenues derived from tourism in Catalonia have amounted to 12.67 billion. The survey stressed that the French market had been the main contributor to the increase in tourist expenditure.
The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has confirmed that “in theory” the Spanish Government will implement a tax on bank deposits in 2014 – taxing the global amount of deposits and not individual ones. The revenue from this tax will be transferred to the Autonomous Communities. Furthermore, Rajoy stated that he “is studying” the question of compensating the Catalan Government financially for not having allowed them to implement such a tax in 2013. Catalonia approved a tax on bank deposits for 2013 in December 2012, aiming to collect €500 million per year. However the Spanish Executive approved its own tax a few days later, but at a 0% rate, de facto cancelling Catalonia’s. Despite the fact that Madrid has been compensating Andalusia, Extremadura and the Canaries for the same tax, it refused to compensate the Catalan Government.
Barça lose 2-1 to Ajax after an unbeaten run of twenty-eight matches. It was Ajax who inflicted the first defeat on Gerardo Martino since he has been on the Barça bench. The Dutchmen went 2-0 up in the first half, but a red card for Veltman and a converted penalty for Xavi could have changed the match at the start of the second. But despite pressing hard for an equaliser, luck was not on FC Barcelona’s side on Tuesday evening at the Amsterdam Arena and it all ended 2-1. The Catalans will need at least a point against Celtic to ensure they top the group.
Samvardhana Motherson Peguform, which produces components and materials to build cars, has announced a €30 million investment in Catalonia, during the business trip of a delegation led by President of the Catalan Government Artur Mas. The Samvardhana Motherson Group, based in Noida, already owns 4 factories in Catalonia, from the former German company Peguform – which was purchased in 2011 by the Indian multinational. €25 million will be invested in rebuilding and enlarging its Polinyà plant, in Greater Barcelona, which produces car paint and was accidentally burned last September. The remaining €5 million will be allocated to upgrading its Ripollet plant, also based near the Catalan capital. In fact, Barcelona is one of the main hubs in Europe in the car industry, with several manufacturing companies building vehicles and components.
Doctor Joan Massagué has been appointed Scientific Director of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York , the world’s leading cancer research centre, which is part of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre. The Catalan scientist has been chosen by an international expert committee and will take office on the 1st of January 2014. The President and CEO of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering, Craig B. Thomson, said that Massagué had been given the job for his “exemplarity as a scientist” and because he is an “international leader” in the study of metastasis and factors regulating cell growth. This announcement follows last year’s appointment of another Catalan Doctor, Josep Baselga, as the Physician-in-Chief of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre. Both Baselga and Massagué will continue to combine their responsibilities in New York with their research in Barcelona.
A draw in FC Barcelona’s first ever official visit to the Amsterdam Arena (20.45 CET) would be enough to secure the first place in the Champions League Group H. With qualification already secured, the Catalans need at least a draw to guarantee being seeded and playing the second leg at home in the first round of the knockout stages. Barça are missing several players, even though Xavi returns, with youngsters Adama, Dongou, Sergi Gómez and Patric all travelling to Holland. Ajax faces an essential game, as it needs to win in order to keep its options for making it into the last sixteen open.
The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, replied that “nobody believes” in the “apocalyptic” message sent by the Governor of the Bank of Spain, who was appointed by the current Spanish Government in 2012. Mas asked Luís María Linde for “caution” and “to serve the whole of Spain and do not take sides”. Linde stated in Madrid that “independence is unviable”. He argued that the European Central Bank only funds Member States and thus Catalonia would be “obliged to issue its own currency” and have “its own banking supervisor”. On the same day, the Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, said that if Catalonia were independent it would have “to abandon the Euro” and this could even lead to putting the entire Eurozone at risk. However, in September the European Commission confirmed that an independent Catalonia could continue to use the Euro in different scenarios.
The language skills of Catalonia’s population to understand, read, speak and write in Catalan have reached record highs, according to a report from the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (Idescat) with data from 2011. That year, 95.2 % of the residents could understand Catalan, 79.1 % could read it, 73.2 % knew how to speak it, and 55.8 % knew how to write in this language. According to the Idescat figures, the foreign nationality population has registered the highest increases: 82.1 % of them stated they could understand Catalan in the 2011 survey, whereas, according to the previous census from 2001, only 61.1% of the foreign-born population had good language comprehension skills.
The telecommunications company Cronos Group, based in Hong Kong, is opening its European offices in Barcelona to offer services throughout the continent and worlwide. According to the Catalan Ministry of Business and Employment, the company is expected to create 25 new jobs in the first year operating from the Catalan capital. Currently 10 people are already working in Cronos’ Barcelona offices. The project received the assistance of the Catalan Government’s programme ‘Invest in Catalonia’, which focuses on attracting foreign investment and international business. Cronos’s Managers explained they have decided to settle in Barcelona because it had become the world capital of the mobile phone and of telecommunications, since each year it organises the main international event in this sector. Furthermore, Cronos Group praised the talent and skills of Catalan workers.
Thousands of people – 12,000 according to Barcelona’s local police and 200,000 according to the organisers – demonstrated on Sunday in the streets of Barcelona to protest against the Spanish and Catalan Governments’ austerity measures and “antisocial” budgets. Led by the platform ‘Prou Retallades’ (“Stop Budget Cuts”) , the UGT and CCOO trade-unions, as well as political parties and associations, citizens voiced their disapproval of the new pension reform, working fragility and the latest austerity measures. They also specifically protested against the Catalan and Spanish Governments’ budgets for 2014, which they consider “antisocial”. The demonstration organisers criticised the “blind obedience” of the Catalan and Spanish Executives to the European Commission and the Troika.