Society

Barcelona hosts what is likely to be its very last bullfighting season after the Catalan Parliament banned it last summer, but the support of the Spanish conservative party could force a moratorium until 2015

The Catalan capital secures this global event despite competition from Paris, Milan and Munich. The economic impact for the entire period of 2013-2018 is estimated at a staggering 3459 million.

Barcelona, the so called 'Pick pocketing Capital of Europe' takes small steps to changing its reputation by ensuring a police presence on the metro. For the last three years, the estimated 150 thieves who operate on Barcelona's metro have been met by the lone efforts of Eliana Guerrero, a native Colombian who has made it her mission to warn the city against the dangers of pick pockets.

"Catalanophobia exists" and "Catalonia has to communicate its ideals if it is to be understood by the rest of Spain" says the socialist candidate to the next Spanish general elections

The final 365 boxes of the controversial civil-war archives were returned on Wednesday, ending a 5 year process to reinstate them in Catalonia. However several artefacts still remain in Salamanca.

50 international experts are working in Lleida on the Base Plan, which aims to be a reference tool for the United Nations. The project makes “radiographies” of cities to point out the physical and strategic aspects of the urban areas over the next ten years.

The Museu Blau (Blue Museum) is part of Barcelona’s Natural History Museum, divided into four different locations. It is housed in a futurist blue triangular building by Herzog & De Meuron, at the Forum Park. Blue Space will have a permanent zoology exhibition called “Planet Life”, focusing on the Gaia theory and the link between the Earth and natural life. The 19th century buildings at the Ciutadella Park will be renovated and will host other parts of the Natural History Museum.

A product labelled only in Estonian could be sold in Catalonia, but not a product labelled only in Catalan. The new rule authorises the Spanish Government to force all products in Spain to be labelled in at least one official language of the EU, and therefore ban products only labelled in Catalan from being sold within Catalonia. The new European rule aims to authorise Member States to prevent products from being labelled only in a non EU language, such as Chinese or Arabic, but it has consequences at local level. Three Catalan MEPs pushed for an amendment, but it was rejected.

The private school will follow the British curriculum so, that when the students finish high school, they will be able to attend any public or private university either in Spain or in the United Kingdom. It is the latest addition to a series of international schools in Catalonia, which infuse an international and intercultural perspective into their teaching programmes, or they directly follow a curriculum from another country.

The website ‘Xplore Health’ is an educational tool for secondary school students. It aims to improve the understanding of biomedical science, as well as “inspire future researchers”. It is a European Commission project, led by Barcelona Science Park (from the University of Barcelona) and involving research centres and science museums from across the EU.

Jean-Pierre Filiu, expert in Islamic terrorism expert, tells ACN that the death of the Al-Qaeda leader should weaken the organisation and provoke a short circuit between their three main connected branches: the Maghreb, Iraq and Yemen.

Public university undergraduate students will have to pay between 64 and 100 euros more per year. Those repeating once will pay the same amount, but those taking a course for the third time will pay 60% more. The measure would bring in 20 million euros in one year. 25% of the revenues from the fee increase will be reinvested via scholarships, the first that will be aimed at university students managed by the Catalan Government.

Lmrabet was sent to jail in 2003 for writing about Morocco’s king and his supposed real estate interests. He was also banned from media. Finally he has created ‘Demain’, an online newspaper directed from Barcelona. It has the same name as the publication he had in Morocco, which was shut down by King Mohammed VI’s regime.

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.

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.