The Barça manager will not instruct his team to play defensively to protect the 1-3 lead they have over the Bayer Leverkusen. Guardiola admits that the Champions League “is a beautiful competition that allows us to take a break from the Spanish League”. On Piqué’s controversy related to the referees’ actions, Guardiola completely agrees with the FC Barcelona’s stance.
“Absurd, useless, dreadful, and inopportune” is what Spain’s Finance Minister thinks about the Catalan Government’s proposal to internally split the 5.8% deficit target for 2012 more proportionally. The Catalan Government has asked for the Autonomous Communities’ deficit to increase from 1.5% to 1.7% of Spain’s GDP, and the deficit generated by the services directly managed by the Spanish Government to fall from 4% to 3.8%. The Spanish Government believes that it has already undertaken severe austerity measures and that now it is the turn of the Autonomies.
Virtual desks, automatic cash points, a new packaging line or consulting services on innovation are some of the Catalan products displayed at CeBIT. This is the Europe’s biggest trade fair on digital industry. It is being held in Hannover from March 6th to March 10th.
Catalan hotels registered in 2011 a new tourist record of 48.029.385 overnight stays. Foreign tourism increased by 10.6% in 2011. However the economic crisis led to a 2.5% fall in domestic tourism. Catalonia hosted 16.5 million of tourists last year, a 5% increase regarding 2010 figures.
The coastal city, located in southern Catalonia, is experiencing a significant renovation of its cultural infrastructure and will host special events throughout the year such as the inauguration of the Tarragona Theatre. Tarragona’s new status as Capital of Catalan Culture 2012 has triggered this year’s local artistic activity with a vast cultural agenda accessible to all citizens. Activities started in February with the first Congress of Catalan Booksellers. Initiatives like the inauguration of the Tarragona Theatre, the Historical Archive, the new Center of Contemporary Art and the Banc de la Cultura are some of the novelties expected to take place at the city this year.
The enlargement of Barcelona Port, where Hutchison’s new container terminal will be located, was supposed to be linked by International-width standard railway to Central Europe and be better connected by road. However, the Spanish Minister for Transport and Public Works, Ana Pastor, announced that work cannot start this year; neither can she guarantee the provisional solution will be in place in June, when the new container terminal was supposed to start operating. Since the Spanish Government has not started the work, the technical studies have expired. “Hopefully they will be redone by the end of the year”, said Pastor.
There has been a unanimous call in Catalonia for greater flexibility of the deficit objectives applied to the Autonomous Communities for the current year. Every political party in Catalonia, including the People’s Party (PP), has asked the Spanish Government to provide more flexibility to the Autonomies, which manage 40% of Spain’s public spending and run basic Welfare State services. The Spanish Government has set a new deficit target of 5.8% of Spain’s GDP for 2012; internally, the Central Government allowed itself a deficit of 4% and ordered the Autonomies to commit to a deficit of 1.5%. Some Catalan parties have said that the Spanish Government has double standards.
The Brazilian FC Barcelona player reckons that Barça’s win against Sporting will strengthen their aim to: “keep on fighting until the last day of this league season”. “We won’t be giving the League away”, he stated. Adriano also talked about the Pique’s red card in the FC Barcelona vs Sporting de Gijón game and the news that the referees technical committee wants to take the centre half to the Spanish Federation’s disciplinary panel for his comments after the game. Adriano explained: “he and the ref were talking about it after the game and they cleared things up”.
Barça put in a gritty performance to see off an ultra defensive Sporting team despite playing most of the second half with ten men after Piqué was sent off. Late goals from Keita and Xavi sealed the win after Iniesta had opened the scoring in the first half.
The Catalan Government considers the Spanish Government to be “disloyal” for unilaterally setting the new deficit objectives and for not allowing the same degree of flexibility to the autonomous communities, who manage all basic services. The Autonomies’ new deficit target has been set at 1.5% while that of the Spanish Government is set at 4%. Mariano Rajoy has announced that Spain will have a total public deficit of 5.8% of its GDP, and not the 4.4% previously agreed with the rest of the European Union Member States. Rajoy has argued that, with a recession coming, the situation has changed and the stability pact foresees changing the targets.
Unemployment has reached a new historical record in Catalonia, with 641,948 people being signed on. These figures mean that 8,738 more people were out of work in February compared to January. In Spain as a whole unemployment increased by 112,269 people in February. This is 2.44% more than the previous month and puts the total number of people registered as unemployed on February 29th at 4,712,098.
The main trade fair on mobile phones and technology in the world brought together 11% more participants than the 2011 edition and more than 1,500 companies, including the main multinationals in the sector. Barcelona was declared the Mobile World Capital last summer and will organise this top international event until at least 2018. The 2012 congress had a direct economic impact of €300 million for the city and Catalonia’s economy. The CEO of the organising company, John Hoffman, said that the 2012 MWC “has been a success in all aspects”.
ACN interviewed Neelie Kroes, Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Digital Agenda. Her “dream” would be to reach a European Union single market for mobile phone and internet services. “It is not normal” that when crossing artificial borders, “the borders from the past, you can see it in your bills” she said. Kroes affirmed that by 2015, mobile phone roaming fees from one EU country to another will have ceased. The EU Commissioner was attending the Mobile World Congress, which takes place in Barcelona every year. Kroes praised Barcelona’s good job at organising the MWC. And she stated that the Catalan capital “needs to find its own model”, although “Silicon Valley is a very good example”.
Dídac Lee is on the FC Barcelona Board of Directors, charged with managing New Technologies. In an exclusive interview with CNA, Lee considers that it is vital for FC Barcelona to be close to the fans, and social networks are the key to reaching this goal. Thanks to Lee, Barça is now the leading sports club in the field. Lee is a renowned Catalan entrepreneur and the Chinese work culture ethos has influenced him both in his life and work.
Catalan university staff and students protested against the budget cuts, temporary worker lay offs and an increase in university fees. Peaceful demonstrations with thousands of participants were organised in Barcelona, Tarragona, Girona, and Lleida. However, the Barcelona demonstration did not stick to the schedule and split into different protests. A group of students became violent and broke the glass at a bank branch, threw eggs at the stock exchange, burned three containers and one vehicle, and occupied the rectorate at Barcelona University. 500 students concentrated in front of the Mobile World Congress, which is taking place in Barcelona, and police prevented them from breaking in.