Highlights

With a 2-1 advantage from the first leg, the Catalans are looking to seal qualification to their eighth Champions League semi-final in nine years. Barça go into the game on the back of a disappointing league defeat to Real Sociedad but last week’s win over Atlético gives them a boost going into tonight’s second leg. "We have a small advantage but the tie remains open and so we will try to win the match as always," said Luis Enrique speaking to the mediabin Madrid on Tuesday. Barca’s record against the side from the capital has been perfect since the appointment of Luis Enrique in the summer of 2014. Luis Suarez’s brace last week sealed a seventh straight win over Atlético under the Asturian.

Barcelona’s Port registered an 8% growth in container traffic this March in comparison to the same period last year, reaching 493,000 TEUs (one TEU = one 20ft container). Both exports and imports saw a growth of more than 5%, along with an increase in container cargo coastal trade. All in all, 11.1 million tons of merchandise were registered from January to March of 2016. This is also represented by an increase both in liquid and solid merchandise in bulk. Meanwhile, the Barcelona El Prat airport experienced a rise in passengers in the first trimester of 2016, marking 16.1% more than the same period of the previous year, at a total of 8.5 million people. Along with this, both the Girona-Costa Brava airport and Reus airport, located in the Girona and Tarragona provinces respectively, witnessed an augmentation in traffic in the month of March. 

Half of the 14 Spanish projects selected by the European Commission from the State are from Catalonia. The 7 innovative SMEs, or small and medium enterprises, will receive a total of €9 million to launch their projects and receive business advice along the way. The Commission selected 50 SMEs across 14 different countries to invest €73 million in after phase 2 of the Horizon 2020 SME Instrument. In Spain, the 14 SMEs selected focus their projects primarily in the areas of information and communication, transport, energy efficiency, and food production. Since the start of the instrument in 2014, this has been Spain’s most successful year, with the 14 selected projects receiving €15.4 million — more than any other country in the programme. 

To celebrate its 40^th anniversary, the Joan MiróFoundation has updated its permanent exhibition and the collection of the Catalan painter´s work.The museum, founded in 1975 by Joan Miróhimself, will now permanently display the Kazumasa Katsuta collection, the triptych paintings ‘Painting on White to a Solitary Cell’and ‘The Hope of a Condemned Man’. Additionally added is the ‘Barcelona Series’, which will be part of the added works displayed in the eight halls of the museum. The museum itself was designed by architect Josep Lluis Sert in collaboration with his friend Joan Miró, and was created especially to display the painter´s key pieces. ‘Joan Miró. Collection’proposes the rediscovery of the permanent collection of the Foundation through a new exposition. The museum will also offer free activities, starting on the 9^th of April.

Four out of the ten Spanish universities included on the 2016 Times Higher Education (THE) list of the top 150 universities under 50 years old are native to Catalonia. The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) was named 12 out of 150, with Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF) ranked 15^th. Universitat Rovira i Virgili (URV) as well as the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) were included among the rankings. Though the universities are young, THE’s editor-at-large and the editor of THE’s World University Rankings, Phil Baty, cites Catalonia’s “strong sense of civil engagement” as a driving force in the universities’ growth and stand-out performance in this year’s rankings among educational institutions both young and old. 

The pro-independence forces in the Catalan Parliament, governing cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’ and radical left CUP, reaffirmed this Thursday the agreement to start building the Catalan Republic, which was approved by the Catalan Chamber on the 9th of November and later suspended by the Spanish Constitutional Court (TC). Both parties have supported the motion presented by CUP which aimed to relight the proposal. Thus, 71 MPs of the 135 sitting in the Parliament voted in favour, while the 11 MPs from alternative left ‘Catalunya Sí que es Pot’ have abstained. Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’, Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) and Catalan People’s Party (PPC), which is the Catalan branch of the conservative and current governing party in Spain PP, voted against the motion. “We are here to do what we said we would do” stated ‘Junts Pel Sí’ MP, songwriter and anti-Franco activist, Lluís Llach. On the other hand, PPC’s Xavier García Albiol stated that the vote didn’t mean anything as “Catalonia will continue to be Spain, whether you like it or not”.

The number of young Catalans living abroad will be tallied and efforts will be continued to encourage their return. The Department of Youth estimates that more than 3,000 young people left Catalonia to move abroad in 2014 and there were 242,070 Catalans living abroad by May 2015, according to data released by the Catalan Institute of Statistics (Idescat). Projects are being set forth to aid in providing access for entrepreneurs to profiles that are outside Catalonia, job opportunities in the field of research, and promote entrepreneurship within the region. Móncat, the web platform focused on employment opportunities, will also be geared towards connecting Catalans living abroad to opportunities in Catalonia. 

Pro-independence radical left CUP presented a document analysing the recent political strategy regarding Catalonia’s push for independence and the steps to be taken in the near future. The document sets an ultimatum to Catalan President Carles Puigdemont and his government to keep the commitment in relation to the agreed roadmap towards independence. CUP urge pro-independence cross-party list ‘Junts Pel Sí’to make a clear step “on the way towards the rupture”by the 10^th of January, when the government will celebrate its first year in office. Otherwise, CUP will consider these 12 months “a fraud”and will therefore promote “a change of paradigm”. The document also nuances that this step has to “turn”the “contention”expressed so far in the government’s political and public discourse.

FC Barcelona stayed true to their billing as a team endowed with a heaping dose of resilience, valiantly bouncing back from Saturday’s stinging home league defeat to emerge victorious on the very same pitch in a good old-fashioned Champions League thriller, with two goals from Luis Suárez. In the 25th minute, Fernando Torres fired from two paces right of the penalty spot through the legs of Ter Stegen for a 1–0 lead. It was Torres’s 11th goal in 15 career matches against FC Barcelona. It wasn’t until the 63rd minute when Luis Suárez redirected a deflected shot from the boot of Neymar Jr into the net to tie the match. The Camp Nou exploded, with an 88,534-strong chorus providing the soundtrack as the Catalans pushed even harder to take the lead. Luis Suárez's second half brace reversed early one-goal deficit in heart-stopping quarter-final opener and meant another victory for Barça.

The Government has announced that within three months it will promote a new plan of action to implement electronic voting. The plan of action includes tests for the novel system to be carried out before the end of the year, and the Government hopes for it to be implemented by the next Parliamentary elections. Catalan Minister for Public Administration Meritxell Borràs explained that the objective is to avoid a repetition of the “shame”of the elections held on the 27^th of September, during which a large number of Catalans residing abroad who were registered to vote did not have their ballots counted, although the documents were mailed on time. While Borràs, noted that she has not yet communicated the decision to promote the electronic voting system with Madrid, she has no doubt that the plan of action will be met with “maximum collaboration”. 

Barcelona’s Mayor, Ada Colau, travelled to Brussels this Tuesday to report Spain’s “immoral”management regarding the refugee crisis, which she described as “deeply shaming”. According to Colau, citizens in Barcelona “are asking to be a host city”and “die of shame and outrage when they see images of Lesbos and Idomeni”. “We are part of the solution, we have expertise and are willing to help”she stated, but regretted that sometimes local governments “are not taken into account”. Together with other European mayors, Colau met the EU's migration Commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, and the EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu, and asked them to “listen to the local governments”. Avramopoulos assured that he “took note”of Colau’s demands but emphasised that EU support to local authorities is always “through the Member States”.

FC Barcelona host Atlético Madrid for the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday, with the Catalans aiming to bounce back from Saturday’s Clásico defeat which ended a 39-match unbeaten streak. Luis Enrique will be without Aleix Vidal, who suffered an injury to his right abductor during Monday’s training session, as well as Jérémy Mathieu and Adriano. Diego Simeone's side always provide a tough test: Atlético came out victorious when the two teams met at the same stage of the competition two years ago but, since the appointment of Luis Enrique, Barça have enjoyed a run of six straight wins against Los Rojiblancos. The two sides met at the same stage of the competition in 2013/14 where they shared a 1-1 draw at Camp Nou before Atlético earned a 1-0 win in Madrid to go through to the semis.

The region which attracted the fourth-most foreign investment in Europe in 2015 was Catalonia. According to the Financial Times’ FDi Markets report, the Catalan economy attracted €5.224 billion throughout 2015, the highest figure of the data series, which sets Catalonia as the leading region in the Western European area. The sector which attracted most foreign investment was ICT, which according to Catalan Ministry for Business and Knowledge, Jordi Baiget, proves the “traction effect” of the Mobile World Congress for the Catalan economy. Baiget explained this good result as being due to Catalonia’s geographic situation and the neighbouring markets, as well as to its qualified workforce and its solid, diversified and innovative business network. In March, the Financial Times report FDi European Cities and Regions of the future 2016/2017 recognised Barcelona as the best city in Europe for foreign investment.

The number of unemployed registered in Catalonia totalled 499,991 this past March, which represents 10,246 less than in February. According to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security, this drop was mainly due to Easter seasonal hiring. This figure is below 500,000 unemployed, which hasn’t happened since July 2009. Moreover, the decrease registered this past month is the highest for a March month since the data series began, in 1996. Although unemployment fell in all the sectors, the one which registered the highest drop in the unemployment rate was the services sector. Unemployment in Catalonia now seen 33 months of annual decreases and continues to lead the unemployment decline in Spain. In the whole of Spain, the number of unemployment people reached 4,094,770, some 58,216 fewer than in February.

Saturday night’s match at Camp Nou, was an epic game that had it all — a tear-inducing pre-game tribute to the recently passed Johan Cruyff and a minute of silence, frighteningly fearless tackling, heart-stopping end-to-end play and, somewhat surprisingly, a tight, evenly matched encounter standing in juxtaposition to an uncommonly large gap between the two arch-rivals in the league table. The loss, a dramatic reversal from the first meeting between the two rivals this season, when FC Barcelona routed Real in Madrid, 4–0, is FCB’s first defeat since 3 October and snaps their Spanish record 39-game unbeaten streak. What had been a ten-point gap between the league's first- and third-place teams now sits at seven.