Seydou Keita has spoken to Barça TV about why he thinks this team has been so successful, about the difficult times regarding Abidal’s illness and about the run in to the end of a season where the squad is still hoping to win everything.
As the 6 Nations Rugby Championship ended, Catalonia looks to join this elite club in the near future. Barcelona has a long tradition of rugby.
Catalans traditionally exchange roses and books with their loved ones on 23rd of April. Streets and squares around the country fill with crowds in celebration of the National Day or ‘Diada’.
The organisers stated that Barcelona’s Japanese twin festival of electronic and advanced music will take place despite the tsunami and the nuclear crisis. In addition, Barcelona’s Sonar Festival and its Galicia twin will give 25% of the money made at the box office to Japan’s Red Cross.
Foreseeing a negative decision the Catalan Government already modified the law in 2009. The sentence declares illegal certain aspects of the law approved in 2005, such as conditioning the establishment of large retail centres to the expected effect on existing small businesses in the area or on the market share.
Éric Abidal is now back home, after having a tumour removed from his liver. The FC Barcelona’s medical services report that his post-operation progress has been satisfactory.
Catalan political parties will meet with social and economic agents to discuss how best to boost the Catalan economy. The Advisory Council is made up of academic experts and members of the business community. They drafted the report as a basis for discussion. Among many measures, they recommend partially paying for extra public services or reducing the number of public employees.
Catalan Olga Fontanillas is the founder of this NYC-based company. She assures this is the best time to break into the American market.
The French train manufacturer plans to lay off 1,380 employees at its plants in Germany, Italy and Spain. Alstom’s Spanish factory, which has 900 staff members is located in Santa Perpètua de la Mogoda, in the Barcelona Metropolitan Area.
Among Barcelona’s biomedical cluster, a project is comparing the genomes of great apes in order to identify the common structures and differences with human DNA. The aim of the project is to use genomic science to find a cure for human illnesses.
FC Barcelona announces an agreement with Dani Alves to extend his contract with the club for another three seasons, until June 30, 2015.
The Catalan pharmaceutical and chemical company was identified in a Wikileaks cable from the U.S. State Department as one of three strategic items the United States had in Spain, together with the natural gas pipeline from Algeria and the Gibraltar Strait. Grifols leads the blood plasma-based products’ market in Europe and is expanding its U.S. presence.
The Comic Book and Illustration Museum aims to contribute to the development of a cultural industry with a long tradition in Catalonia. Professionals ask the already approved museum to open its doors by 2013 in Badalona, next to Barcelona.
The ruling coalition Government promised the immediate abolition of the Inheritance Tax in the last election campaign; however the public finance situation has complicated the move. The Catalan President took the floor to stress that his Government is preparing a radical modification of this tax system. He wanted to stop the debate launched on Sunday by the Government’s Secretary.
PIMECAVA is the Association of Small and Medium-sized Cava Producers. It is chaired by Mercè Rosell, who claims in a video interview that the only way to compete against French champagne is by marketing cava as a quality and prestigious product. In order to do that it is fundamental to have the support of big cava companies like Freixenet and Codorniu and a good relationship with exporters.