catalan way

The Catalan bank has issued debt securities for €1 billion that attracted a demand of €3.4 billion. As other multinational companies such as CaixaBank and Gas Natural Fenosa did this week, Banc Sabadell is profiting from the lower spread in order to pay lower interest rates than they were a few months ago. The Catalan private bank has obtained a spread of 250 basis points over the midswap rate, which is a better interest rate than that obtained by the Spanish Treasury in its recent operations.

The series, produced by the Catalan Public Television Broadcaster and Filmax, has been exported to several countries and Steven Spielberg and Marta Kauffman are going to shoot a remake for the ABC network. ‘Polseres vermelles’ – which literally means ‘red bracelets’ in Catalan - describes the life of a group of six teenagers who live in a hospital as patients. It is based on the personal experiences of its creator, Albert Espinosa, who had cancer as a child. The first season was aired in 2011 and it became a huge success with audiences. The second season premiered on Thursday and will be broadcast as from Monday on TV3 at prime time.

The IDIBAPS has opened a new research centre of more than 5,000 m2, where more than 200 researchers split into 23 different research groups will be working. It will focus its work on oncology, neurosciences and cell therapies along with infectious, respiratory, cardiovascular and renal diseases. The new centre has been possible thanks to a donation by the private foundation CELLEX, sponsored by Pere Mir. The new centre is located within the University of Barcelona’s Faculty of Medicine, which is integrated into the prestigious Hospital Clínic. The centre consolidates Catalonia, and in particular Barcelona, as one of Europe’s main biomedical poles.

The operation has rocketed CaixaBank shares in the Spanish stock exchange market, which increased by 11.75% in just one day. The Catalan CaixaBank, which is the largest bank in Spain, successfully issued €1 billion in 3-year senior bonds. The operation has attracted more than 300 orders from institutional investors, representing around €5 billion, which has allowed the Barcelona-based bank to sell its bonds at a better price thanks to the significant oversubscription. 80% of the bonds issued were placed among international investors, confirming the positive recognition CaixaBank has in international financial markets. It was the first time their senior bonds have been issued on the international markets since 2010.

The Catalan Government has created a Treasury Secretariat within its Finance Ministry, which will be in charge of managing revenue, with the objective of developing Catalonia’s own tax office. The creation of a treasury of its own would allow the Catalan Executive to collect all the taxes generated in Catalonia, as Navarra and the Basque Country have been doing for decades. It is one of the electoral promises of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU) and is also part of the parliamentary stability agreement reached with the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC). A Catalan tax office collecting all the taxes is an historical claim of a large part of the Catalan society. However the Secretariat created is in line with the CiU’s strategy of creating state structures and it has been criticised by the pro-Spanish unity parties.

The Spanish Government has finally finished the construction work and circulation tests on the last 131-kilometre stretch of railroad to France. Barcelona, Girona and Figueres are now linked by High Speed Train, although a direct connection between the Catalan capital and France will have to wait until next April. Now, passengers can travel from Barcelona to Girona in only 37 minutes and to Figueres in a total of 53 minutes. If they want to continue to France, they will have to switch trains until April, when the Spanish trains will be standardised to be able to run in France. However, from now on, the Spanish and the French High Speed railway networks will finally be connected, twenty years after the Madrid-Seville line was unveiled. The Catalan President has emphasised that Catalonia is the Autonomous Community with the smallest amount of public infrastructures in Spain.

‘Blancanieves’ with 12 nominations and ‘El Bosc’ with 11 are leading the race at this year’s Gaudí awards ceremony. They are followed by ‘Els nens salvatges’ and ‘Fènix 11-23’, who are also candidates for the Best Film in Catalan. The Premis Gaudí are organised by the Catalan Cinema Academy and they recognise Catalan productions or movies with a significant presence of Catalan artistic and technical staff. They also award a prize for European productions. Out of the 89 films in the competition, 30 have received one or several nominations, becoming candidates to receive one of the 22 awards. ‘The Impossible’, ‘In The House’, ‘Le Havre’ and ‘The Intouchables’ are candidates for the Best European Movie.

All towns in Catalonia welcome the arrival of the Three Wise Men on the 5th of January. Children and parents gather on the streets throughout the country to greet the Kings from the East in an enormous display of colour, sweets and presents that cannot fail to delight everyone. The Three Wise Men often travel by camel, but they have also been known to visit some towns using floats, classic cars, boats or even helicopters! Catalan children are very excited that night, because this is the “magical night” on which they traditionally receive their big Christmas presents – although some also get presents from other magic figures such as Santa or the very Catalan tradition of the ‘caga tió’ on the 24th of December.

Civil society and politicians joined the family of the doctor, who was 104 years old, at his funeral in Barcelona. Moisès Broggi died on the last day of 2012 at his home in Barcelona. He was renowned for his work as a surgeon and doctor during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) -and afterwards. During the war, he was head surgeon of the International Brigades that fought against Franco, and he developed several important medical innovations. Despite being 104 years old, he kept up a very busy social and political life, running as candidate for the Senate for the left-wing Pro-Independence Party Esquerra Republicana (ERC) and participating in several conferences and events. Catalan President Artur Mas paid tribute to the doctor, saying that Catalans should “follow his example”.

On the 5th of December, the Catalan Executive allocated the tender to privatise the public companies Tabasa and Túnels del Cadí to the joint venture formed by Invicat (owned by Abertis) and the investment bank BTG Pactual. On Friday, the deal was completed and the Catalan Government earned €309.6 million, representing 72% of the total of the €430 million operation. In addition, the two public companies will effectively disappear. The concession will last for the next 25 years and the Catalan Government will continue to own the infrastructures but it will transfer the management and exploitation. The operation includes the tolls at the Vallvidrera highway tunnels accessing Barcelona and the Cadí tunnel, at Cerdanya County, in the Pyrenees.

The Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has accepted the offer sent by the new Catalan President to talk about Catalonia’s claims, while keeping them “always within the Constitution”. Furthermore, he has rejected the possibility of modifying the 0.7% deficit target imposed on the Autonomous Communities for 2013. The Catalan Finance Minister, Andreu Mas-Colell, explained that, if the payment of financial interest is excluded, meeting next year’s 0.7% deficit target represents a budget surplus, which “makes no sense from an economic point of view in a context of recession”. Mas-Colell proposed that the Autonomous Communities meet a 1.5% deficit target in 2013, as they represent more than a third of Spain’s total public expenditure and Spain has been authorised a total deficit target of 4.5%.

Catalonia is the second Autonomous Community, behind Galicia, where drug expenditure decreased the most in November. The austerity measures approved by the Catalan and the Spanish Governments to reduce drug expenditure are behind the significant drops in spending in Catalonia and the rest of Spain over the last few months. Pharmaceutical expenditure dropped by 13.11% over the first 11 months of 2012. Besides, the number of drug prescriptions issued in November in Catalonia decreased by 21.27% compared to a year ago.

The President of the Catalan Government has formed a new Cabinet with more political weight controlled by some of the people closest to him, such as Francesc Homs and Germà Gordó, who have been promoted. Half of the previous ministers will continue in the same position, such as the Vice-President Joana Ortega and the Finance Minister Andreu Mas-Colell. The new Executive combines a few Social-Democrat figures – as a gesture towards the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC) – with members of the Christian-Democrat side of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), in order to respect the internal equilibrium. The new Government has the objectives of organising the self-determination vote, reducing the public deficit and reactivating the economy.

Artur Mas, leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), has sworn the oath as President of the Catalan Government again, two years after he did it for the first time. After swearing office, Mas delivered a long speech in which he asked Spain to not put the will of Catalans to freely decide on their own future “behind bars”. He also compared Spain and Catalonia’s relations with “two boats” following a “collision course”. Mas stated that he is ready “to change direction” because otherwise “Catalonia will be adrift, and when you are adrift, you are the most likely to crash against the rocks”. The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, was present at the ceremony as the highest representative of the Spanish Government.

The Catalan Parliament has voted Artur Mas, leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), in as President of the Catalan Government with the votes of his own group and those of the Left-Wing Catalan Independence Party (ERC). Mas has been re-elected in the first vote with an absolute majority of 71 affirmative votes from the 135 MPs. The rest of the opposition voted against him for two different main reasons: either because they opposed the budget cuts despite supporting the organisation of a self-determination referendum or because they opposed Catalonia’s self-determination altogether. Mas based his campaign on two main pillars: fighting the economic recession and the public finance crisis and pursuing “Catalonia’s national transition”.