catalan way

The Catalan Executive announced the creation of a website showing the support of social organisations, NGOs and private companies for its policies, named the “file of endorsements”. The Catalan Government’s official aim was to foster participation as well as gather endorsement for its policies. The idea was heavily criticised by some opposition parties and some Madrid-based media. They considered the website to be an anti-democratic measure. According to them, it would split society into two sides: those backing the Government and “being good Catalans” and those going against it and being “bad Catalans”. The Catalan Executive admitted that it was quite shocked with the controversy, since other governments in Spain have published similar lists of supporters. However, it announced that it will totally modify the project.

Catalan cookery is known worldwide for Ferran Adrià’s revolutionary contributions and for ‘El Celler de Can Roca’ recently chosen by ‘Restaurant’ magazine as the best restaurant in the world. However the vast majority of Catalans have never tasted such haute cuisine and still defend their gastronomy as one of the richest in the world. It’s not about patriotic boasting: traditional Catalan cooking is characterised by an overwhelming variety of ingredients and cooking methods and no less than seven centuries of documented history.

The Catalan band Delafé y Las Flores Azules is one of the most unclassifiable groups in Spain. Their style is a mix of hip-hop, pop, indie and rock, and their concerts are an exhibition of movement, music and colour. After ten years on the stage Delafé y las Flores Azules release their fourth album, “De Ti Sin Mí/De Mí sin Ti” (You Without Me/Me Without You). The disc has two CD’s in which the band performs the same songs in two different melodies. Compared to their latest albums, this record is a more melancholic, nostalgic and less electronic product.

Car manufacturer SEAT, which is part of the Volkswagen Group and is based in Greater Barcelona, has announced that the temporary mass lay-off will affect its entire staff in two phases. The first phase will be between September and December of 2013. 571 contracts per day will be temporarily suspended, in turns. In addition, the production lines for the Audi Q3 and the Seat Exceo will be closed for 16 days, affecting 2,800 employees. The Exceo car model will no longer be produced as of 2014. Furthermore, there will be a second phase of temporary lay-offs next year, when the Set Leon’s production line will be closed for 35 days, affecting 3,800 workers. The company explained that the decision was taken “after having exhausted all the internal flexibility measures”.

On Friday, the Spanish Government approved a proposal of law strengthening market unity, officially aiming to simplify the bureaucratic and legal framework in which companies operate. However, the Catalan Executive fears Madrid’s reform does not really aim to boost the economy and help companies, but to recentralise power. Barcelona thinks that the new proposal “radically modifies” the current distribution of competences on economic regulation and it aims to recentralise power. The Catalan Government hopes that the definitive law will be significantly changed in relation to the current proposal, as otherwise Barcelona will totally oppose the initiative. Catalonia is critical of the current proposal and accuses it of “homogenising the Autonomous Communities”.

CNA interviews, Albert Adrià, the dessert chef of El Bulli, which was run by his brother Ferran Adrià and was recognised as the best restaurant in the world on five occasions. BCN 5.0 is the new project by the Adrià brothers, with five different high level restaurants located on Barcelona’s Paral·lel Avenue. Although it is an associative idea, it is a personal dream of Albert Adrià, which has already three restaurants in the same area: Tickets, a Spanish tapas gastrobar; 41º, with one Michelin star, and PAKTA, a Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei one. Three new establishments will complete the BCN 5.0 project.

On Thursday, the Parliament of Catalonia set up the parliamentary committee for the right to self-determination with the support of all parties except the Spanish nationalists People’s Party – which runs the Spanish Government – and the anti-Catalan nationalism Ciutadans. 80% of MPs support the creation of this commission, which will study legal ways to organise a self-determination vote in Catalonia. The Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Núria de Gispert, will chair the committee due to its importance. De Gispert has guaranteed she will play the “neutral” role of “moderator”. On the same day, the youth of the parties supporting the creation of this committee signed a manifesto backing up Catalonia’s right to self-determination.

Catalonia’s industrial sector decreased by 1.1% in 2012 due to the economic crisis. Catalan companies exported products for €58.28 billion, the highest figure ever. This represented 5.7% more than in 2011 and 15.4% more than in 2008. Exports from Catalonia represented 26.2% of Spain’s total exports in 2012. Furthermore, foreign investment in industrial projects in Catalonia increased by 6.2% last year compared to 2011. Therefore, the highest volume of exports ever and an increase in foreign investment in industrial projects meant that the Catalan industrial sector decreased at a slower pace (-1.1%) than the Spanish average (-2.9%). The lack of access to bank credit is the main obstacle for corporate investments, stated the Catalan Government. The other great obstacle is the poor internal demand.

Following a petition by the Spanish Public Prosecutor Office, the judge has called Germà Gordó, the Catalan Minister of Justice, to testify as witness in the alleged influence peddling case of the allocation of licenses to technical vehicle inspection garages. This case affects the ‘Number 3’ of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Oriol Pujol, since the Supreme Court of Catalonia (TSJ) suspects he could have participated in irregular allocation of these licenses. At the time the alleged incidents happened, Gordó was not the Justice Minister but the Secretary of the Catalan Government, a key position overseeing all the daily decisions of the Executive. The TSJ wants to hear Gordó’s version of the tender procedure. Besides, Pujol’s defence has called the former Catalan Business Minister as a witness, since his department was running the tender.

Registered unemployment in Catalonia decreased by 3.87% in June compared to the previous month’s figures. June is a month when unemployment tends to be reduced due to summer jobs, but last month registered the highest drop since 1996. The total number of people registered as unemployed at the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC) by the end of June reached 617,288 individuals. However, compared to a year ago, registered unemployment increased by 1,712 people, 0.28% more than in June 2012. In the whole of Spain, registered unemployment also increased in annual terms (+3.2%) and decreased compared to a month ago (-2.6%). Catalonia is the Autonomous Community where unemployment decreased the most in monthly terms. Furthermore, in the Lleida Province (Western Catalonia), unemployment also decreased in annual terms.

The Italian ferry company has built a 63,000 square metre terminal at the Costa dock, with an investment of €20 million and a capacity of 3,600 passengers per day. The new terminal will allow the city of Barcelona to gain a new urban area, since the space accessing and surrounding the terminal will be integrated into the city for the first time. Urban planning work will be concluded by the end of the year, announced the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias. The terminal has restaurants, bars, shops and free Wi-fi, and will allow the boarding of passengers and goods.

On Saturday evening, 90,000 people gathered in FC Barcelona Camp Nou stadium to attend a concert backing Catalonia’s right to self-determination. The event, organised by a civil society entity – Òmnium Cultural – and without public funding, called for a self-determination referendum in 2014. The two largest political parties in Catalonia, which share a parliamentary stability pact, stated that a specific date for a self-determination vote should be fixed after December 2013. In addition, they insisted that the Catalan President will send a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister in July asking for this vote to be organised. However, in Madrid, the reactions have been almost non-existent. The Spanish Justice Minister insisted that a referendum would be illegal since sovereignty is rooted into the Spanish people as a whole.

The Catalan Ombudsman, Rafael Ribó, accused the Spanish Government of trying “to manipulate” data in its report last week, in order to push forward a recentralisation reform, which “goes against the self-government principle”. Ribó explained that the Spanish Ombudsman undertook 33,849 actions in 2012, which means each action cost an average of €428. In addition, it refused to accept 20,164 complaints. Meanwhile, the Catalan Ombudsman undertook 25,073 actions, with a cost of €279 each. The Catalan institution only rejected 267 complaints. Regarding resolutions and recommendations, the Spanish Ombudsman issued 548 while the Catalan body issued 3,635. This means that each resolution by the Spanish body cost €26,447 while the Catalan’s cost €1,925, which is 13.75 times less.

The Intermediterranean Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe organised its annual Plenary Assembly in Barcelona, since Catalonia currently holds the organisation’s presidency. This organisation brings together 45 regional governments from 9 different Mediterranean countries. For the first time, the Union for the Mediterranean – which brings the 27 European Union Member States and 16 countries from the Northern Africa, the Middle East and the Balkans together – signs a cooperation agreement with an organisation of regional governments. At the signing ceremony, political leaders asked the European Union to pay more attention to the South, as once it did with Eastern Europe.

The participants to the so-called National Alliance for the Self-Determination Right have met for the first time, bringing together almost 50 entities, including political parties, business associations, trade unions, social organisations and cultural institutions. This transversal initiative gathering together a wide part of Catalan society aims to reach an internal consensus on how to proceed in order to allow Catalans to vote on their collective future. Attendees agreed to ask the former President of the Catalan Parliament, Joan Rigol, to draft a text expressing the “common denominators” of the participants. In addition, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, will send a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, making a formal petition for the organisation of a self-determination vote in Catalonia.