A pilot programme set up by the Catalan Police in one of Barcelona’s districts will enable tourists to report minor thefts on city streets from their hotels, without needing to go to a police station. The programme will be in place on a trial basis in July and August in 18 hotels. If successful, it could be applied to all Barcelona hotels.
A Barcelona-based newspaper announced in its Tuesday edition that the two Catalan savings banks would see a state intervention and would be nationalised by the Spanish Government and the Bank of Spain this summer. CatalunyaCaixa has denied the claims. Unnim also denied the rumours and reminded the press of the 30th September deadline set by the Bank of Spain to restructure its business and find additional capital.
Thanks to a five-year contract, the Catalan Government undertakes the enlargement of the airport terminal and Neilson-Thomas Cook agrees to include ski resorts in the Lleida Pyrenees as part of its winter holiday offer.
This season, in addition to continuing to fill the cabinet with more trophies, has served to break down some barriers that until now had been insurmountable for this Barça team. Winning at grounds like Espanyol or Valencia are two examples.
The Japanese writer was awarded the 23rd Premi Internacional Catalunya in Barcelona. Haruki Murakami announced during the ceremony he will give the prize money to the Tsunami and Fukushima victims, after delivering an anti nuclear power speech. In a later interview with CNA, Murakami explained he will take many ideas with him from his Barcelona trip. He will store these “into one of the drawers” of his mind and later will use them in upcoming books, as he always does.
The new art museum will focus on Catalan painting and will display parts of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection. The city council approved the excutive project to build the Thyssen Museum. The project will cost 15 million euros (3 less than initially planned) and will restore an old cork factory.
Regal Barça got off to a winning start against Bilbao Basket in Spanish Basketball League play offs, the ACB final series. Lorbek (the top scorer with 24 points and 28 evaluation) and Perovic were especially outstanding.
The world’s leader chemical company is planning to invest 12 million euros in its Tarragona plant, the largest one in southern Europe. BASF Spain has its headquarters in Tarragona, and concentrates most of its plants and offices in Catalonia.
The European Commission also recognised "a different effort" to the rest of Spain’s Autonomous Communities. Brussels said so when on Tuesday it asked Spain “to strictly control” the public “deficit and debt of regional governments”, the day after Moody’s rating agency warned about Catalonia’s expected deficit for 2011. The Spanish Government took note from this particular recommendation but not the other made by Brussels, which included increasing energy taxes and VAT. The Catalan Government criticised Moody’s for “creating alarm” with assessments that do not take into account the whole situation. In addition, it denounced how the Spanish Government has reduced its own deficit by transferring it to the Autonomous Communities.
Faus: "In two or three years Barça will be the most financially solvent club in the world". FC Barcelona lost 21 million euros this year, although the club’s debt is being reduced.
An International inspection in 2009 issued 14 recommendations to improve security. Two years after, the International Atomic Energy Agency came back to certify that most of the issues had been addressed and the rest were in progress of being fully solved.
The surrealist Catalan painter Joan Miró will have a museum in the country house he spent parts of his childhood and youth, in Mont-Roig del Camp, next to Tarragona. The family, experts and Barcelona’s Miró Foundation will decide on the exact contents, which will be displayed via permanent and temporary exhibitions.
Mowafak Kanfach asks for the Syrian regime to be taken to the International Criminal Court. He is living in Barcelona because he was forced to leave his country because of political reasons.
This summer will be FC Barcelona’s third consecutive visit to the USA as European Champions, following their trips in the summer of 2006 and 2009.
From the 6th through to the 12th of June, thirty movies and a retrospective of filmmaker Ann Hui will be on show in Barcelona. The Casa Àsia Film Week takes over from the Barcelona Asian Film Festival (BAFF) in order to introduce the Catalan audience to the movie industry of one of the most active filmmaking areas in the world.