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This summer, 87 beaches in Catalonia will display a blue flag recognising their overall quality, safety, environmental-friendliness, and cleanliness. It is one more flag than last year. The Costa Daurada and Ebro Delta got 37 flags and the Costa Brava got 28. Beaches near Barcelona received 22 flags. Catalonia is, after Galicia and the Valencian Community, the Autonomous Community with the highest number of such recognitions. Blue flags are awarded every year by the independent and non-profit Foundation for Environmental Education, in collaboration with the United Nations Agencies for the Environment and Tourism. Spain is the country in the world with the highest number of blue flags.

A study by the University of Navarra has revealed that Barça is the football club that received most media coverage worldwide for the fourth year on the run, this time ahead of Real Madrid and Chelsea in second and third spots. The study also found that Leo Messi was the player who received most media coverage, also for the fourth successive year, ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo and Didier Drogba.

La Patum is a historical and immensely popular representation, born and derived from the ancient and medieval theatre performances held during the week of Corpus Christi. It is held in Berga, in Central Catalonia and it has been declared by UNESCO as a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. 100,000 people expected at Berga for this Corpus Christi Festival.

After some months of uncertainty about the future of this training centre in the Pyrenees, the Spanish Government confirmed that NCOs will be able to continue their studies in the academy, although its activity will be reduced. In the last few months, the Platform for the Pyrenees University presented some alternative uses for these facilities, with the objective of converting them into a civilian academic centre. Another platform, Acadèmia Sí, was created at the same time to fight for the maintenance of the military academy, as it is one of the key actors in the local economy.

Sixty Catalan companies work out of the country and more than 2,400 export to the Argentinean Republic. “The lack of legal certainty in Argentina is not new, […] so the firms that do business […] have learnt to coexist with constant changes in the legislation”, stated AIS Sales Director.

The Catalan company counterbalanced its fall in the Spanish market with benefits from international sales. Foreign market activity contributed 42% of the profit from the first quarter to Gas Natural Fenosa, in contrast to 36.6% in 2011.

PEN International has presented at the Catalan Government’s Palace in Barcelona the Girona Manifesto on Linguistic Rights. Catalonia’s President regretted that the Catalan language still “suffers from the intolerance or belligerence of some bodies of the [Spanish] State”. The manifesto, which had its origins in the World Conference on Linguistic Rights held in Girona in 1996, aims to defend linguistic diversity throughout the world. The Manifesto has already been approved by the PEN General Assembly. The 10 point document has already been translated into 18 languages.

Following the advice of the Catalan Council for Constitutional Guarantees (CGE), the Catalan Executive will appeal the Spanish Government’s decree to save €7 billion in healthcare this year. However, it will continue implementing the decree until a judicial decision is made. According to the CGE, the decree violates 3 Spanish Constitution articles and 3 others from the Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The decree does not guarantee equality among all citizens, since it limits access to public healthcare. In addition, it invades the Catalan Government’s powers. Left-wing Catalan parties were the first to ask for CGE’s opinion, since they consider the new decree violates basic social rights.

There were 630,932 people registered as unemployed with the Catalan Public Employment Service. It is the third consecutive month with an unemployment drop. In Spain, unemployment decreased by 30,113 in May, leaving the total number of people without a job and looking for a new position at 4,714,122. In absolute terms, Catalonia is among the Autonomous Communities where unemployment decreased the most in May.

A selection of wines and cellars from Catalonia have travelled to New York to find new distributors. The event is being held on Tuesday June 5th at The Carriage House, from the Gabarrón Foundation. After New York, the Catalan red, white and cava wines will be displayed in Seattle (October 2012), Dallas (February 2013), and Los Angeles (June 2013).

In MotoGP the victory of Spanish rider Jorge Lorenzo and Catalan rider Dani Pedrosa’s second spot on the podium riveted the thousands of fans that came to the Catalunya Circuit at Montmeló, as did the victory of Catalan promise Maverick Viñales in the Moto3 category. However, in Moto2 local favourites Marc Márquez and Pol Espargaró clashed leaving Espargaró out of the race and Márquez in 3rd position. Victory in the Moto2 category was for Italian Andrea Ianone.

Band such as The Cure, Franz Ferdinand, Wilco, Beirut, Saint Étienne or The XX play in a consolidated music festival with the Mediterranean as a backdrop. The most international music festival in Catalonia came to an end this weekend after three days and nights at the Parc del Fòrum, in front of the Mediterranean sea, as well as in other spots in Barcelona. The Primavera Sound Festival has in fact been active since May 8th with the culmination taking place this weekend when a solid roster of successful bands came to perform in Barcelona.

The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, presented the budget data from January to March 2012. The Autonomous Community Governments together had a 0% deficit in this period. Among them, Catalonia’s had a 0.45% budget surplus, while in the same period of 2011 it had a 0.65% deficit. Montoro emphasised that the data shows “the big effort” the Autonomies are making.

After 13 years, the Constitutional Court has denied the appeal presented by the Spanish Government in 1999 against a Catalan Parliament Law that allowed the Catalan sports federation to compete internationally. However, the Court states that Catalan teams cannot compete “in sports where no Spanish federation exists”. According to the Catalan Government, this sentence is “a first step” on the road to the international recognition of “all sports federations”. In addition, the Platform for Catalan said that Spanish legislation does not apply internationally and that International Federations are private organisations; it is thus their decision, as the CAS confirmed in 2008. They also mentioned the case of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The seven FC Barcelona players in Vicente del Bosque’s squad for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine joined their team mates on Friday morning at the Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas. Carles Puyol and David Villa, who are a regular feature of Spain line-ups, but are recovering from their respective injuries, visited the 23-man squad.