FC Barcelona and Glasgow Celtic go head to head in a match that will have a huge bearing on the final outcome of group G of the Champions League. Barça Manager, Tito Vilanova, will once again have to shuffle his defensive pack due to Busquets being suspended.
The Fundació Joan Miró, located in the Catalan capital, unveils a temporary exhibition called “Explosion! The legacy of Jackson Pollock”, which shows the influence Pollock’s works had on later artists. The temporary exhibition is made up of 70 works from 35 different artists, such as Andy Warhol, Lynda Benglis, Shozo Simamoto, Yoko Ono and Jackson Pollock himself. The exhibition is co-produced by Barcelona’s Miró Foundation and the Moderna Museet from Stockholm. It will run until 24th February 2013.
They say that European legislation foresees the cancellation of the voting rights of an EU Member State if there is “a clear risk of serious […] and persistent breach” of the common values. The four MEPs denounce “the military threats” and “the tone used by the People’s Party and the Spanish Government”. They have sent a formal letter to the European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship, Viviane Reding. They ask the EU to be vigilant and “to evaluate the real risks of a potential military intervention” by Spanish forces against Catalonia. If such a risk existed, the EU should suspend Spain’s voting rights in the European Council.
The FC Barcelona Manager considers that this Tuesday's match against Celtic at the Camp Nou is “very important” for Barça’s hopes of reaching the Champions League knock-out rounds. Vilanova knows that the match this Tuesday won’t be easy, and his main goal is making sure his players recover from the effort they put in against Deportivo on Saturday.
FC Barcelona won 4-5 at Deportivo’s Riazor with a brilliant performance of attacking football crowned by a Leo Messi hat trick and strikes from Jordi Alba and Chrisitan Tello.
Juli Soler has been diagnosed with a neurodegenerative disease, according to family sources and elBulliFoundation. Soler has been the director of El Bulli since 1981 and was the person who hired a young Ferran Adrià in 1984. Since then, Soler has been Adrià’s partner and co-owner of the restaurant that has transformed the world’s cuisine. El Bulli closed in summer 2011 to be transformed into elBulliFoundation by 2014. The Catalan restaurant was considered for many years to be the best restaurant in the world. It was the culinary temple and lab from where Ferran Adrià in the kitchen and Juli Soler in the dining room and offices launched molecular cuisine.
Spain’s Constitutional Court has responded to an appeal from the Catalan Parliament dating from 2004. The appeal was against the Judicial Power’s last reform, approved by the Spanish Parliament, in the time of José María Aznar. Now, the Constitutional Court states that the Catalan Government only has competence over the non-judicial staff working in the justice administration, but not over the judges and other judicial staff. This means that the knowledge of Catalan language will not be a condition to work as a judge in Catalonia. Therefore Catalan citizens may not be able to use their mother tongue in their justice procedures or they will have to use interpretation services.
FC Barcelona’s Manager warned of the difficulties facing the team in Deportivo’s Riazor: “it’s never an easy ground – especially with the players coming off the international break”. Tito Vilanova has no plans to make rotations in his team, with a number of players out injured.
The Spanish public company in charge of building and maintaining railway infrastructures, Adif, has confirmed the awaited date. Adif will have all the work finished by the end of this year, including the overhead line set in the tunnels crossing Barcelona and Girona. This will enable the train service linking Barcelona and Girona to the French city of Perpignan to be operational by April 2013. This work, funded and managed by the Spanish Government, has accumulated many years of inexplicable delays before connecting Spain’s high-speed network to Europe.
Catalonia hosts one of the world’s five active potash mines. The company Iberpotash has started to implement its Phoenix Plan, which foresees investing €600 million until 2020. The first phase of the project is the construction of a 4.7 kilometre tunnel to transport the potash mineral extracted from the mine to the treatment plant. The tunnel represents an important environmental improvement, as lorries carrying potash will no longer pass through the town of Súria. They will pass through the tunnel 900 metres under the ground. This first phase will enable the improvement of the mine’s productivity to between 30 and 40%.
If Barça and Real Madrid get through the previous rounds, they would meet in the semi finals on 23rd and 30th January. Defending champions FC Barcelona, will be taking on the Division 2B Alavés in the round of 32 of the Copa del Rey. The first leg is on 31st October in Vitoria and the return at the Camp Nou will be on 28th November.
A study developed by researchers from Barcelona’s Center of Regenerative Medicine and California’s Gene Expression Laboratory of the Salk Institute identified a mutation in the nucleus of human neural stem cells that is linked to Parkinson’s, which may help to diagnose the disease and open a new field for targeted treatments. The prestigious journal ‘Nature’ published the study, which could also help to explain why the Parkinson’s disease is often associated with clinical depression and anxiety. The Center of Regenerative Medicine in Barcelona is directed by Juan Carlos Izpisúa, who participated in the study; it is located in the Barcelona Biomedical Research Park, next to the Hospital del Mar.
The Catalan company presented its strategic plan for next two years, which fosters its main hub, Barcelona El Prat Airport, by adding 28 new routes from next summer. Vueling plans to transform Barcelona Airport into the main European hub for short and medium distance flights. Currently, it is already the second continental hub in this category. Furthermore Vueling will strengthen its offer to business travellers by unveiling the ‘Excellence’ flying class and direct flights between Barcelona and London-Gatwick or Frankfurt. In addition, the Catalan airline will end 2012 with a profit for the fourth consecutive year.
29.5% of Catalans are at risk of social exclusion. This is the conclusion of the 2011 survey of living conditions and habits of the population of Catalonia. This percentage is related to the AROPE rate used in the European Union which not only analyses the income poverty level but also looks at severe material deprivation and households with very low work intensity. The results of the survey highlight that Catalonia was in a worse situation in 2011 than Spain (with 26.7% of people at risk of social exclusion) or the European Union (21.6%). Furthermore, 21.9% of Catalans live on an income below the poverty threshold.
The chemical industries based in Tarragona, such as BASF, Dow Chemical and Repsol, expect their turnover to increase by 4% in 2012 compared to a year ago. In 2011, they exported 60% of their production, while in 2000 they were only exporting 30% of it. Furthermore, they have requested transport infrastructures to be improved and criticised the increase in energy taxes. About Catalonia’s hypothetical independence, they stated they “will respect what will be decided and will adapt to it”. These companies represent around 7% of Catalonia’s GDP.