Barcelona opens Brexit information point for UK nationals and firms

From Wednesday, the more than 20,000 British citizens living in Barcelona now have an information office available to resolve any doubts they may have about the consequences of the United Kingdom leaving the European Union.

A joint project between the Barcelona city council, the UK embassy in Spain and the Spanish interior ministry, the office, located in the Catalan capital's 22@ business district, will also provide information to the more than 600 British companies based in Catalonia.

Punt Brexit, as the initiative is called, is part of the Barcelona council's Brexit Plan, which aims to provide support to the city's British community, encourage UK businesses operating in Catalonia to remain, and attracting new firms and talent from Britain to the city.

At the same time, the council has also included a new section to the "Barcelona International Welcome" information website, to inform the British community of upcoming information sessions and provide support on social media and via a regular bulletin.

Over €52m in UK investment so far this year

Also on Wednesday, the British Chamber of Commerce in Spain presented a new study showing that Catalonia is the third autonomous community in terms of investment from the UK, which between January and June this year amounted to 52.4 million euros.

Carried out by the Analysts Financieros Internacionales consultancy company, or Afi, the report presented in Barcelona shows that most British firms believe the "political instability" currently affecting Spain is having "very little" effect on business.

While the report shows that Catalonia is the third community in Spain in terms of UK investment, it is far behind Castilla y León and Madrid, which this year have received investment from Britain amounting to 1.6 billion euros and 1.2 billion euros, respectively.

Catalonia also comes third in UK investment for the period between 2014 and 2019, in which it received 1.1 billion euros, followed by Valencia with 715 billion euros. Yet, Afi says that it is "difficult" to attribute any volatility in investment in certain areas "to only political factors."