catalan way

The Institut Català de Finances (ICF), the Catalan Government’s financial institution which offers credit, announced that it gave €1.7 billion in loans to 8,500 companies over the last two years in an Action Plan. The plan’s main objective is to foster economic activity and prevent companies from going bankrupt due to liquidity issues. 98% of those who received loans were SMEs and independent workers. The ICF’s Action Plan had the objective of injecting liquidity into the real economy, into the Catalan business network, while the private banks are going through their restructuring process and access to credit is particularly difficult for many companies.

The fashion label Desigual based in Barcelona has obtained a €200 million line of credit from different banks. This financial support will be used to finance international expansion as well as plans for a new logistical centre in Vilamoura (Barcelona). Leading this investment is the Catalan bank CaixaBank, mostly owned by La Caixa. Under the slogan “Desigual – It’s not the same” the label wants to focus on continual improvements, innovation, engagement, tolerance, positivism and fun. Within this slogan now Desigual is trying to attain a more international status, enlarging its current team of 2,900 people from 72 different nationalities.

The use of rubber bullets by the Catalan Police is at the centre of a fierce social and political debate. The Catalan Parliament has recently decided to create a commission in order to discuss the methods used by riot police, which is expected to take place at the beginning of April. This kind of ammunition in Catalonia has allegedly caused the loss of an eye and sight loss to 8 people over the last three years and heart necrosis to a man. All sides in this conflict will be consulted in the parliamentary debate and a quick process is expected in order to respond to increasing public concern regarding this method.

Classic and contemporary authors from Catalonia, writing in Catalan or in Spanish, are one of the main attractions of this year’s Salon du Livre in Paris, which is one of the main book fairs internationally. Running from Friday the 22nd to Monday the 25th of March in the French capital, this year the book fair has Barcelona as its guest city under the title ‘Barcelona, ville des prodiges’. The Institut Ramon Llull, the public body in charge of promoting Catalan culture abroad, is organising the presence of Catalan literature at the fair. During the first day, the visitors were mainly interested in Eduardo Mendoza, Carlos Ruiz Zafón and Josep Pla, who wrote ‘The Grey Notebook’ which has just been translated into French.

The Spanish Finance Minister, Crístobal Montoro, confirmed that if Brussels relaxes Spain’s total deficit target for 2013, he will share this flexibility with the Autonomous Communities’ governments. A working group has been created to analyse the most convenient formula for this, including that of setting different deficit targets for each Autonomous Community. The Catalan Government celebrated the decision, since it has been asking for it for many months. In addition, the Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, stated that he will look for “a smooth relationship” with the Spanish Executive to negotiate the details. On Wednesday, Mas-Colell proposed the idea that deficit targets could be set according to debt levels. In the last few days, the Catalan Government has sent several messages in order to show a willingness to talk to Rajoy’s cabinet about the most important subjects on the table.

According to the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE), the Catalan GDP fell by 1% last year. However, according to the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat), it dropped by 1.3%. Regarding Spain’s economy, the INE declared that it fell by 1.4% while the Idescat indicates it plummeted by 1.9%. The reason for these differences is that data from both institutes are based on estimates and are still provisional. In any case, Catalonia is one of the Autonomous Communities with the mildest recession in Spain and continues to be that with the highest GDP, €198.63 billion. In addition, Catalonia is among those with the highest GDP per capita, set at €27,248 while the Spanish average was €22,772.

The Catalan Government’s grant will be reduced by 14% and revenue from advertising is expected to decrease by 10%. The budget reduction has been approved with loud protests from the workers, since it will mostly affect labour costs, which may plummet by 18%. Since 2010, the production and investment budget has dropped by 50%. The Catalan Public Television Broadcaster’s main station, TV3, has been clearly leading audience rankings in Catalonia for most of the years since its creation in 1983. The majority of the political parties and citizens in Catalonia support strong public television and radio stations. The idea of reducing the TV3 budget has been constantly presented by Spanish nationalists as the way to reduce Catalonia’s public deficit despite the €225 million public grant only representing 5% of the total budget adjustment to be accomplished in 2013.

The Catalan multi-peaked mountain, which displays unique rock rounded shapes, received 3.7% less visitors than last year, due to a drop of local tourists as a consequence of the economic crisis. However, there has been an increase in the number of visitors to the Natural Park surrounding Montserrat. The mountain is the Catalan spiritual centre, and apart from the Benedictine abbey, it is a place where visitors can go hiking and climbing.

The Supreme Court of Catalonia (TSJC) has indicted Oriol Pujol, who is the ‘number three’ of the CiU – who run the Catalan Government – over a case of influence peddling regarding an irregular public tender for technical vehicle inspection garages. After his indictment was announced, Pujol “delegated” his party and parliamentary roles as Secretary General of CDC – the Liberal and largest force within the two-party coalition CiU – and as Chairman of the CiU group in the Catalan Parliament. However, Pujol explained that he would not resign as an MP, as it would be “out of proportion”. The Catalan politician insisted that he was innocent and he hoped justice would act quickly. The opposition has displayed a divided reaction: some parties have left it to the CiU to decide whether Pujol’s decision was enough while others heavily criticised him continuing as an MP.

Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) has announced the indictment of Daniel Fernández, a Member of the Catalan Parliament and Organisation Secretary in the Catalan Socialist Party (PSC). Fernández has resigned from his party and Parliamentary positions, but he will continue to be an MP while waiting to find out whether he will go on trial in the end. The High Court believed there to be signs that Fernández could have committed a felony of influence peddling by participating in the irregular hiring process of a manager in one of Greater Barcelona’s municipalities. The anti-corruption prosecutor and the judges investigating the so-called ‘Mercuri’ case, dealing with municipal corruption in Greater Barcelona mostly affecting members of the PSC, asked for Fernández’s indictment to the TSJC since he is an MP.

UNESCO has declared the Montsec mountain range, located in Western Catalonia, to be one of the world’s six Starlight Tourist Destinations for the excellent qualities of its night sky for astronomic observation. Only six spots in the world hold this distinction; three of them in Spain. The Starlight Foundation has plans for this distinction to be held by up to 15 spots at the most. The Montsec, located between the towns of Balaguer and Tremp, holds one of Southern Europe’s most important astronomic observatories: the Centre d'Observació de l'Univers, cooperating with the NASA. On the 21st of March, the diploma will be presented as well as some recommendations to keep the luminescent qualities and promote the area for astronomic tourism.

The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell has announced that the Catalan Government had a public debt of €50,948 million on the 31st of December, 2012. Catalonia’s debt has increased by €16 billion in only 2 years due to the financial crisis. Furthermore, in 2013, the Catalan Government will have to pay €2.2 billion in interest on the debts – equivalent to 8% of its budget and 1% of Catalonia’s annual GDP. Catalonia has been a net contributor to the European Union for decades and has been paying around 8.5% of its annual GDP – equivalent to €17 billion – every year for services and infrastructure in the rest of Spain. Despite this fact, the Catalan Government does not receive enough money from the Spanish Executive, which raises most of the taxes and distributes revenue among Autonomous Communities.

The Catalan Parliament has approved the same declaration that the Spanish Parliament rejected 2 weeks ago with 104 votes out of the 135 MPs. The text urges the Spanish and Catalan governments to talk and agree on the organisation of a legal self-determination vote in Catalonia. The Catalan Socialist Party (PSC) presented the proposal, which also received the votes from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) – which runs the Catalan Executive, the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) and the Catalan Green Socialist and Communist Coalition (ICV-EUiA). The radical left-wing and independence party (CUP) abstained. The People’s Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government, and the anti-Catalan nationalism Ciutadans (C’s) opposed the vote.

A few hours earlier, the Swiss bank Lombard Odier stated that the Catalan presidents Artur Mas and Jordi Pujol do not have any relationship with the company. The Spanish nationalist newspaper ‘El Mundo’ published a report 9 days before the Catalan elections, with the official stamp of the Spanish Police on it, accusing the incumbent President of the Catalan Government, and candidate for re-election from the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Artur Mas, of having secret accounts in Switzerland. The fake report also incriminated Mas’ family, the former Catalan President Jordi Pujol and two of Pujol’s sons. The report completely altered the election campaign. Now, four months after the report was issued, the Catalan Government has demanded a public rectification since some Spanish Ministers and leading members of the People’s Party validated the report at the time.

Andreu Mas-Colell, the Catalan Government’s Finance Minister, emphasised that a 0.7% deficit objective means implementing an additional budget adjustment of €4.4 billion. This amount represents around 15% of the Catalan Executive’s budget for last year, which had already been reduced over the previous two years. Furthermore, expected revenue will decrease by 1% despite increases in tax, debt interest will grow by €300 million and the amount of spread payments will also increase by €150 million. In such circumstances a €4.4 billion one-year adjustment would blow up public services in Catalonia. Therefore, Mas-Colell urged the Spanish Government to find an agreement, as otherwise no one wants PM Rajoy to act “as the viceroy of Catalonia”.