catalan way

Catalan pharmaceutical company Grífols has purchased 21.3% of Belgian biotech company TiGenix for €12 million through the subscription of a capital increase. TiGenix is a leading company in the field of cell therapy. The agreement settled on the appointment of two Grífols Members on TiGenix’s Board and a preferential right to negotiate the development and commercialization of all TiGenix products, with the only exception of advanced-medicinal product ChondroCelect. Earlier this month, Grífols had already strengthened its therapeutic arsenal by buying part of the Diagnostics unit of Swiss multinational Novartis for $1,675 million.

The Spanish Government has finally set a date for the first direct High Speed Train between Barcelona and Paris. Passengers will no longer have to switch trains near the French border and a direct TGV will link Paris and Barcelona from the 15^th of December. The journey will last 6 hours and 20 minutes, since there is no high-speed railway in the 200-kilometre stretch between Perpignan and Nîmes and trains circulate at a regular speed. The High-Speed railway between Nîmes and Montpellier should be operative by 2017, but the French Government announced last June that the construction of the 150 km between Montpellier and Perpignan would be delayed beyond 2030. The Catalan Executive as well as French and Catalan Euro MPs have requested the French Government to reconsider its decision after the EU has included the Mediterranean Railway Corridor among its 9 main transport priorities until 2020.

The Catalan Parliament’s Committee on self determination welcomed two Scottish MPs, Stewart Maxwell (SNP) and Patricia Ferguson (Labour Party) to learn from their experience on the political processes that led to the 2014 Scottish referendum. The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) is currently divided on the issue of holding a self-determination referendum without Madrid’s previous agreement. The PSC leadership is convinced that any self-determination initiative has to be agreed in advance with the Spanish Government. However, some PSC MPs believe that since Madrid is currently refusing to negotiate, the Catalan people is entitled to put their own legal proposals on the table and ultimately organise the referendum on their own. The PSC asked if a referendum was possible without a political agreement between governments. Ferguson answered she believed Scotland would have gone trough with the referendum, even without a Westminster approval.

The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, “regretted” on Tuesday evening the “confusion” about having announced in October he was cancelling a €1.76 billion transfer to the Catalan Government. Without this scheduled payment, the Catalan Executive is having serious problems to fund the 1.58% deficit approved for 2013. “These things can happen” said Montoro. In late October – 10 weeks before the end of the year – the Spanish Minister announced that the Catalan Government would not receive the €1.76 billion requested from the Liquidity Fund for the Autonomous Communities (FLA) since this money would be used by the Service Provider Fund to pay for arrear invoices. A week ago, the Catalan Government confirmed Montoro would transfer the €1.76 billion.

In a clear reference to the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, the former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar – who chairs the governing People’s Party (PP) think tank – asked for the approval of a former law sentencing any public figure organising a referendum that has previously been declared illegal to a 5-year incarceration. Aznar, who led the Spanish Government between 1996 and 2004, is a strong supporter of Spanish nationalist stances and has requested PM Mariano Rajoy to take a harder approach regarding Catalonia’s self-determination claims. The PP replied Aznar that currently there are “enough mechanisms” “guaranteeing” that an illegal vote will not take place. The Catalan President criticised Aznar’s “old-fashioned language”.

The German chemical and pharmaceutical company has picked Barcelona to provide shared services to its subsidiaries in Greece, Turkey and Latin America, which account for 25% of the total group sales. Bayer’s Shared Service Centre in the Catalan capital will expand its tasks and responsibilities by taking over the accounting, controlling and IT services for these geographical areas. The expansion will take place over 2014 and the centre will pass from being in charge of 11 countries to 22, managing over 50 Bayer subsidiaries. The General Manager of Barcelona’s Centre, Erik Schonebeck, stated the project would “consolidate” the 300 existing jobs in the Catalan capital but no further new jobs would be created in the short-run. Barcelona hosts one of Bayer’s 5 global headquarters.

After years of debate, the new European Union’s Transport Priorities have finally been approved. The European Parliament has approved the Commission’s plan to build 9 major transport corridors connecting the continent from West to East, North to South and in diagonal. The Mediterranean Corridor for freight and passengers is one of these 9 priorities and will link Barcelona and Tarragona to the Gibraltar Straight and Central Europe, connecting major production centres, import/export infrastructures and tourist destinations. The final plan ignores the Spanish Government’s request to include the Centre Pyrenees Corridor as well, a project that was bypassing Catalonia and therefore Barcelona, despite being Spain’s main industrial, export and tourist centre and being geographically attached to France.

The parties supporting Catalonia’s right to self-determination regret the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC)’s decision to step down from giving active support to this political process. Last week the PSC’s leadership decided not to back any initiative in favour of a self-determination vote that has not been agreed in advance with the Spanish Government, which totally rejects the idea and even refuses to talk about it. The President of the Catalan Government and leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas, asked the PSC “not to get off the train”, stressing the party’s tradition of defending Catalan language, culture, identity and self-government. The Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) and the Catalan Green Socialist and Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA) consider the PSC is now against a self-determination vote.

The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) held this weekend an extraordinary meeting and approved the leadership’s proposal to oppose any initiative backing Catalonia’s self-determination that has not been agreed in advance with the Spanish Government. The PSC leadership wanted to lay the critics to rest but the crisis is far from being resolved. Critical PSC MPs do not rule out supporting a Catalan Parliament’s motion backing self-determination despite the leadership’s stance. The PSC is facing important internal tensions due to Catalonia’s self-determination issue, including tensions with the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE) – to which they are federated. After several months of doubts, the PSC leadership decided to prioritise its relationship with the PSOE and distance itself from Catalonia’s right to self-determination, despite its electoral promises.

Researchers from Barcelona’s Centre for Regenerative Medicine (CMRB), the Catalan capital’s Hospital Clínic and the Salk Institute of California have successfully created three-dimensional renal structures which are virtually indistinguishable from embryonic kidneys. They have started creating kidney cells from human stem cells, and ultimately proven that these newly created cells could aggregate in vitro to form a “micro-kidney”. The team led by Juan Carlos Izpisúa, from the CMRB, said that this scientific breakthrough would facilitate the study of kidney diseases and enable scientists to work on new treatments. He added that this achievement was a great step towards developing therapies based on the use of stem cells.

Emin Capital will buy Barcelona’s Torre Agbar, designed by Jean Nouvel, for €150 million. North-American Hyatt will invest a further €35 million to transform the 145-metre-tall building into one of its grand luxe hotels. Grand Hyatt hotels – the US company’s luxury brand – tend to occupy iconic buildings in the world’s main business cities. The Agbar Tower has become one of the most emblematic buildings of the Catalan capital, with its blue and red lightening and bullet shape imitating a flame. Nouvel’s tower was unveiled in 2005 to host the main headquarters of the water distribution multinational Agbar. The Catalan multinational, which owns the 50,000-square-metre tower, will now look for another building in Barcelona to place the 700 people working in its central offices.

The extensive Catalan Police operation against drug trafficking in Barcelona’s Zona Franca quarter and in Sant Adrià de Besós’ (North of Barcelona) ‘La Mina’ neighbourhood resulted in 33 arrests and 29 homes searched. With 300 police officers deployed from 7 different police areas, this operation was the largest-ever made by the Catalan Government’s police corps in terms of officers deployed. Catalan Minister for Home Affairs, Ramon Espadaler, stated that further arrests could still be announced in the following days. The investigation leading to this operation had begun in December 2012.

Catalonia’s music is one of the highlights of this year’s Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival with a specific programme called ‘Catalan Series’. Barcelona’s Hèctor Parra, who achieved international recognition with pieces performed by KNM Berlin, the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, or the National Orchestra of Ile-de-France, is the resident composer. The festival will feature several of Parra’s pieces, notably the world premiere of his latest work, FREC, performed by the composer himself alongside famous Catalan pianist Agustí Fernández. The well-known BCN216 Ensemble will also give a concert within the ‘Catalan Series’ in this year’s festival, which opens this Friday and will run until the 24^th of November.

The Catalan Executive says it has the Spanish Government’s commitment to send the €1.76 billion that the Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, announced in late October would not be transferred. This money corresponds to the loan to fund the Catalan Government’s deficit target increase from 0.7% to 1.58% in 2013 approved in July by the Spanish Executive. However, in late October – 10 weeks before the end of the year, Montoro said that this amount would be deducted from the fund to pay the Catalan Government’s service providers. This meant that Catalonia was missing €1.76 billion to fund public services and departments for the last part of the year. Negotiations during the last 4 weeks have modified Montoro’s October decision.

Writer Luís Goytisolo, who was born in Barcelona in 1935, was awarded on Thursday the 2013 National Prize for Spanish Literature. The € 40,000 prize is awarded each year by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to distinguish the entire literary work of one Spanish author. Luís Goytisolo, the youngest son in a family of writers, was one of the core members of the ‘Generación del 50’ (The 1950 Generation) in Barcelona. This post Spanish Civil War generation of writers, who are considered to be the ‘War’s Children’, have reflected on literature as the ultimate human art form and they have redefined its aesthetics. The Prize’s jury praised this Catalan writer, who writes in Spanish, for his “narrative work and his constant commitment towards expanding literature territory”.