catalan way

The Catalan Council for Constitutional Guarantees states that the Spanish Labour Reform is unconstitutional

April 5, 2012 11:45 PM | CNA

This advisory body dependent on the Catalan Government affirms that two aspects of the Labour Reform Law, recently approved by the Spanish Government, go against the Spanish Constitution. Furthermore, the report also highlights three elements that invade the Catalan Government’s jurisdiction. The four Left-Wing Catalan parties that requested the assessment one month ago are pushing for the reform to be brought to the Constitutional Court. CiU, who runs the Catalan Government, hopes to modify these aspects through parliamentary negotiations.

CatalunyaCaixa to be put up for auction after Easter, announces the Spanish Economy Minister

April 5, 2012 07:52 PM | CNA

The Spanish Minister for the Economy, Luís de Guindos, wants to speed up the process and have the entire Spanish banking system restructured before the summer. The Spanish Minister also said that he is expecting further concentration processes of other financial entities to be announced in the coming weeks. CatalunyaCaixa’s banking business had a profit of €304 million, although the €1.5 billion provisions for the real estate business caused a €1.34 billion loss in 2011.

All parties in Catalonia, except the PP, are against the Spanish Government’s Budget for 2012

April 5, 2012 12:19 AM | CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

CiU stated that it will be “absurd” that they support the current budget proposal in the Spanish Parliament although they are open to negotiate and modify it. Furthermore, CiU “does not rule out the possibility of taking the Spanish Government to court” for ignoring the current legislation. The Socialists directly considered the budget proposal “to mistreat Catalonia”. The Green Socialists ask for a “common Catalan front” against the budget. The Catalan Independence parties (ERC and SI) say the budget plunders Catalonia. The anti-Catalan nationalists stated the budget wants to please Merkel. The only party supporting the budget was the PP, which runs the Spanish Government.

The Spanish Budget for 2012 violates approved laws regarding investment in Catalonia

April 3, 2012 10:08 PM | CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The Spanish Government will not respect the territorial funding scheme, approved by the Spanish Parliament and in a referendum, as it will only invest 11% of its regional spending in Catalonia. According to the current legislation, in order to compensate for an historical lack of infrastructural investment in Catalonia recognised by the Spanish Parliament and the Constitutional Court, the Spanish Government must invest at least the equivalent of Catalonia’s economic weight within Spain, which represents 18.7% in 2012. Furthermore it does not include €1 billion pending from 2008 and 2009, to which Catalonia is legally entitled.

Lula da Silva awarded this year’s ‘Premi Internacional Catalunya’

April 2, 2012 09:13 PM | CNA

The former President of Brazil has been awarded this prestigious International prize that recognises individuals who have decisively contributed with their work to the development of cultural, scientific and human values around the world. Last year’s winner was the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami. Other winners are Jimmy Carter, Aung San Suu Kyi, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Harold Bloom, Jacques Yves Cousteau, Karl Popper, Amartya Sen, Václav Havel, or Jacques Delors. Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has been honoured with the prize for “his policies at the service of fair economic growth”, significantly reducing poverty in Brazil.

Ferran Adrià's creative universe on show in Barcelona

March 31, 2012 12:28 AM | CNA / Marina Vicens

'Ferran Adrià i elBulli. Risc, llibertat i creativitat' ('Ferran Adrià and elBulli. Risk, freedom and creativity') is on show in Barcelona to coincide with the Catalan chef’s 50th's anniversary and is the basis for a future museum in the Costa Brava town of Roses. The exhibition shows a huge number of texts, graphic documents and objects related to the history of the world’s most famous restaurant.

European Liberals in Barcelona seek a “real Marshall Plan” for North African countries

March 30, 2012 10:34 PM | CNA

The European Liberals in the European Parliament have organised an international summit in Barcelona to discuss the Arab Spring within the framework of the Union for the Mediterranean, which has its headquarters in the Catalan capital. At the meeting, the President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, who is also the leader of the Catalan Liberal Party (CDC), asked the EU “not to turn its back on emerging democracies in the southern Mediterranean”. Furthermore, Mas emphasised the need to create jobs in the region. The European Liberals also urged the international community to take immediate action in Syria.

General Strike: irregular support, massive demonstrations, isolated violence and no changes in the Labour Reform Law

March 30, 2012 04:38 PM | CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

The General Strike on March 29th ended without significant changes in the Spanish Government’s Labour Reform, but with a clear acknowledgement that there is growing social anger. The strike was unevenly supported in Catalonia. Unions talked about sector strike participation ranging between 97% and 57% and the Catalan Government about strike participations ranging between 24% and 10%. Minimum services worked as planned, without any significant incidents. Demonstrations took place in the main Catalan cities, with the largest in Barcelona. Isolated violent incidents were the only negative parts of what was a relatively calm day.

Áreas consolidates its international business by managing USA’s largest highway rest stop

March 28, 2012 10:25 PM | CNA / Laura Quintana

The Catalan company Áreas will manage two service areas in the United States until 2047, including the largest in the entire country, located on the I-95 in Maryland, the busiest motorway in the US. The Catalan company will invest $56 million in their renovation, which will produce a turnover of about $1.8 billion in 35 years. With this operation, Áreas becomes the second largest operator in the US. The Catalan multinational ended the 2011 financial year with a turnover of €649 million, which represents 4% more than in 2010. This growth has been possible due to the company’s expansion in international markets.

The Catalan Government supports creating ‘hispanobonds’, Autonomy bonds with a Spanish Government guarantee

March 28, 2012 01:36 AM | CNA

The Spanish Minister for the Economy, Luís de Guindos, announced in Barcelona the future creation of the so-called ‘hispanobonds’, common bonds issued by the Autonomous Communities and backed by the Spanish Treasury. The objective is to reduce high interests rates, and thus the financial costs that the Autonomous Communities have to pay when they turn towards financial markets to get liquidity. The Catalan Finance Minister proposed the original idea several few weeks ago.

Barcelona-based CaixaBank buys Banca Cívica for €1 billion and becomes Spain’s largest bank

March 27, 2012 03:28 PM | CNA

Banca Cívica has accepted the offer from the Catalan bank to pay €1.97 per share. With this operation, CaixaBank, the private bank created last year by the Catalan savings bank ‘La Caixa’, becomes Spain’s largest financial entity, ahead of BBVA and Banco Santander. After buying Banca Cívica, CaixaBank will have more than €342.6 billion in assets in the Spanish market. Banca Cívica was the merger of four savings banks: Caja Navarra, Caja Canarias, Caja de Burgos and Cajasol.

The main Catalan nationalist party points towards Catalonia’s independence

March 27, 2012 12:35 AM | CNA / Gaspar Pericay Coll

‘Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya’ (CDC), the Liberal force within the two-party Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition ‘Convergència i Unió’ (CiU), held its party congress over the weekend. For the first time in its history, CDC has claimed for Catalonia to have its “own state” in order “to avoid being erased off the map of cultures, languages, and world nations” as “Spain threatens Catalonia” and is no longer a “project that can be shared”. The current President of the Catalan Government and until last weekend the CDC Secretary General, Artur Mas, has now become the party Chairman. Oriol Pujol, son of the former Catalan president Jordi Pujol and Mas' close collaborator, has been elected the new Secretary General with 97.8% of the votes.

Magnetic field invisibility discovered by Barcelona-based researchers, a first step towards the invisibility of light

March 23, 2012 10:32 PM | CNA

Researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, in collaboration with a team from Slovakia’s Science Academy, have developed a cylinder that is invisible to magnetic fields and any object put inside cannot be detected. No one had ever achieved such results in such a simple manner, with much precision in the theoretical calculations and conclusive results in the laboratory. They believe this scientific discovery might be a first step towards light’s invisibility. Their research has been published in the prestigious journal ‘Science’.