The 'Dansalona’ festival in the months of August and September is aiming to “popularise dance” in the city with a variety of activities. With numerous performances in theatres across Barcelona, the opportunity to discover behind the scenes and practical workshops, the festival aims to open the city’s creative industry to new audiences, including foreign visitors.
The Catalan pharmaceutical company Grifols, the third world leader in the production of blood plasma based technologies, has seen its turnover increase by 15% in the first half of 2012 to €1.32 billion. Its net profit for the first half of 2012 was €133.5 million, seven times that of the previous year. The company’s success is attributed to its wide geographical consumer base and the recent purchase of US based Talecris Plasma Resources.
Barça’s Argentine star is hugely grateful to the Catalan club for extending his contract until June 30, 2016. Mascherano will be 32 years old when his contract ends and feels that seeing out his career as a Barça player is in his own hands. “It depends on me and how I perform as a footballer” he said. The buyout clause has been raised to 100 million euros.
FCB Escola unveiled its new Campus in the Beijing Olympic Center. The two-week camp, FCB Escola’s first in China, will serve to bring Barça’s values and training methodology to aspiring Chinese footballers.
The Cistercian monastery is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and receives around 130,000 visitors a year. It has had an 800,000 euro renovation of its cloister. Lasting 7 months, the task was funded by the Catalan savings bank ‘La Caixa’. The work was unveiled last Saturday by the Catalan Minister of Culture, Ferran Mascarell.
Catalan political parties, business associations, and many citizens are outraged by the decision to increase toll prices in Catalonia, while in the rest of Spain there are many toll-free highways. The Catalan Transport Minister asked the Spanish Government to implement a “soft toll” throughout Spain, instead of increasing toll prices in Catalonia. He reminded that for some journeys within Catalonia, there are no free of charge alternatives to the tolled highways. Catalan nationalists see this measure as a new proof of Catalonia’s high fiscal deficit, paying much more to the rest of Spain than what it gets in return. The People’s Party (PP), running the Spanish Executive, asked the Catalan Government to reduce the price of its tolls.
8,000 cruise passengers will visit the Costa Brava port, 18% more than last year’s figures. The Crystal Serenity a luxury cruise liner with 14 floors and 550 suites will be visiting the Catalan coastal town.
Unemployment has fallen by 15,400 people in Catalonia during the second quarter according to the latest Labour Force Survey published this Friday by the National Statistics Institute. The overall totals indicate that 821,600 of the working population in Catalonia are unemployed at a rate of 20.95%, 130,700 more than a year ago. The state total shows an increase in unemployment in the second quarter, bringing Spain’s total to 5.7 million people without work, 24.6% of the working population. With nearly a quarter of the working population unemployed, the figures are higher than the historical record reached in 1994 during the last crisis.
The Minister for the Economy, Andreu Mas-Colell, warned the Spanish government that the Generalitat "will never accept political conditions" in exchange for capital from the Regional Liquidity Fund (FLA). He repeated the phrase three times after revealing that the Catalan government has accepted financing from the FLA and has so far employed “all available instruments of liquidity” but “only” those that are linked to exclusively economic conditions. The minister admitted that the Catalan government will welcome the FLA due to “the liquidity pressures” that the Generalitat is facing. The specific amount of funding has not been revealed but Mas-Colell assured that “it will be what is necessary.”
Catalan Parliament approved on Wednesday the proposal for a new fiscal pact for Catalonia by an overall majority. The proposal defends the creation of an independent tax agency with powers to raise and manage all taxes in Catalonia. According to the Catalan President, Artur Mas, it involves starting a “difficult” negotiation with the government of Spain but it was either “now or never”. If achieved, this new fiscal arrangement would be similar to the one enjoyed by the Basque Country, that collects its own taxes and has been able to keep its debt under control. Therefore, it could help Catalonia getting out of the crisis. Currently, out of the all the territories, Catalonia is ranked third for the amount it pays in taxes, but is ranked tenth for the amount it receives in return. The new arrangement would see Catalonia leaving the common system established by the Organic Law on the Financing of the Autonomous Communities (LOFCA) and establishing bilateral fiscal relationships with Spain.
After several controversies regarding the possible transfer of the Zoo to outside Barcelona, management has opted for new breeding programs of species such as the Komodo dragon and also welcomes a new elephant. They have also decided to build a dolphinarium alongside the Zoo with private funding, which would end the project to create a marine zoo at the Forum.
Catalan interior minister Felip Puig said that weather conditions have improved for dealing with the fires in the Alt Empordà region, saying this morning that he was “reasonably optimistic” that the it would be under control this Tuesday. The fires are currently in a reasonably stable state. The blaze was started on Sunday by a discarded cigarette butt, affecting an area of 13.000 hectares. Weather conditions were favourable for tackling the blaze and remained so for much of Tuesday.
The Pro-Language Platform, an organisation that works to promote the Catalan language, reports that only 6% of products sold in supermarkets meet the Consumer Code of Catalonia, which requires that products are labelled in Catalan. In a study, the organisation revealed that the market is not yet standardised, claiming that 94% of products do not meet the law’s requirements and that this is disrespectful to the consumer. The organisation reports that although large multinational companies such as Danone, Nestle, Coca-Cola, Gillette and Philips respect the laws of other linguistic areas, they do not abide by the labeling requirements in Catalonia.
Catalonia has not asked for a rescue from Spain, said the spokesman of the Catalan government, Francesc Homs. At a press conference, Homs denied reports that Catalonia is seeking a full bail-out, but admitted the government is considering participating in the Regional Liquidity Fund. “This is a treasury mechanism”, said Homs, who added that by using the fund Catalonia would not have to meet “any new set of conditions”. When presenting the €18bn fund last week, the Spanish government said the aid will be only offered under “strict conditionality”.
Barcelona is overcoming the effects of the economic crisis. So says, the President of Tourism of Barcelona, Joan Gaspart, who revealed spending by tourists in Barcelona in 2011 came to on average 741 euros, 124 euros more than in 2010. In the first six months of 2012, the number of tourists has increased by 1.69%, overnight stays by 2.26%, and credit card spending has increased by 27.08%, compared to the same period of 2011. Gaspart stressed that these increases, although "modest", show that the industry "is doing a good job" to the point where predictions given for the second half of the year also indicate an improvement.