catalan

The inter-annual rate shows four consecutive months of price decline which has not been seen since November 2008.

The Barcelona-based energy multinational and the Catalan Government have signed a cooperative agreement. The Catalan President Artur Mas emphasised that the Catalan multinational “is rising to what the country needs” in the current economic context.

This Monday Catalan pupils begin their school year. 1,280,232 students from elementary, primary and secondary education returned to the classrooms with normality. However, controversies are lingering over this year. The Catalan language at schools, the sixth hour of tuition and budget restrictions all frame the school year’s kick off. The day finished with teacher and parent demonstrations in front of town halls defending the Catalan school model.

The strong heat diminishes the production of grapes of the wine region Priorat, but their quality is better. Priorat’s Protected Geographical Indication, which brings together some 600 farmers, expects a fall in grape production of around 15%, but the surviving grapes will be of great quality. Priorat red wines, produced in South-West of Catalonia, are internationally appreciated and are famous for their strong character.

The spokesman for Education at the European Commission warns that "monolinguals are potentially at a disadvantage" in terms of finding work. “From very young children should speak their mother tongue and two other languages”, he says.

In a solemn ceremony and accompanied by his family and friends, the FC Barcelona manager has received the greatest honorary distinction from the Parliament of Catalonia.

The chairman of the committee on Education, Doris Pack, defends the Catalan model of education and says that people coming from outside Catalonia have to make an effort to learn the language of their new home: "It's like immigration in Germany, we do not have Turkish schools, newcomers need to get used to speak the language", she argued in an interview with the CNA.

The Catalan President says that he will not work with the conservative PP after the Spanish general election if the party “crosses the red line” and tries to push a language agenda which puts at risk the current Catalan educational system. The leader of the PP in Catalonia, Alicia Sánchez Camacho, says Mas should accept the Courts ruling that have obliged the Government to offer Spanish as well as Catalan as a language of instruction at school.

The President urges institutions and citizens to defend the Catalan education system, which has been put at risk following a court order obliging the Government to include Spanish as a school language of instruction. Meanwhile, the Catalan Minister for Education, Irene Rigau, warns that on the 2nd of November the government “will not separate pupils by language”

The Catalan Supreme Court of Justice issues a court order giving the Catalan Government 2 months to change the current school model and include Spanish as a school language of instruction. The Government will appeal. Teacher unions and the main parent associations back the current model. Currently, Catalan is the language used and Spanish is taught in school but only as a subject. For the Catalan Government, the court decision breaks a model praised by international organisations, which guarantees social cohesion and the knowledge of both languages by all pupils.

The CNA went to the streets to ask tourists what they thought of some of the traditions that live on here. Tourists appear unaware of Catalan culture suggesting that it is not sufficiently promoted internationally.

The Catalan Government is reducing public deficit and cutting public spending by 10% this year. All areas are affected, including healthcare, which is one of the departments with a smaller percentage budget reduction. Last August, 25 community health centres (CAP) reduced their opening hours, closing their emergency room during nights and weekends as they were scarcely used; as of this September, another 21 centres in a similar situation have been added to the list. Citizens have been camping in some CAPs to protest about the decision.

“It means that we are not wanted, we are excluded, we are ignored” stated Artur Mas, President of the Catalan Government and leader of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU). It was the first time he has spoken on the Constitutional amendment limiting the public deficit that has been agreed on only between the PSOE and the PP. The CiU has protested against reforming the Constitution solely on the basis of the agreement of only two parties. Members of the PP and the PSOE have been trying to convince the CiU to support what both parties had previously agreed, and PM Zapatero (from the PSOE) asked the CiU to show some “moderation”.

The Catalan Government approves a support program that will advise the promotion and development of activities from the Union for the Mediterranean Secretariat, whose headquarters are in Barcelona. It will provide advice on Euro-Mediterranean policy and projects, until the UfM has enough resources of its own.

‘Jo confesso’ (‘I confess’) is the new novel by Catalan author Jaume Cabré (Barcelona, 1947). Seven years after publishing ‘Les veus del Pamano’, which sold more than 100,000 copies in Catalan, 450,000 in German and has sold well in a further eleven languages, the writer returns with a novel about love, lack of affection, guilt and evil.