Several three-day marches kick off across Catalonia
Thousands set off in the early morning, all expected to come together in a major rally in Barcelona on Friday
ferran bel
Tortosa recreates the Renaissance with its annual international festival
From Thursday to Sunday the 19th edition of Tortosa's Renaissance Festival attracted more than 200,000 visitors from all over Europe, who filled the city located in the Ebro Delta area in southern Catalonia. The Mayor of Tortosa, Ferran Bel, emphasised the consolidation of the festival and the high participation numbers with many international visitors, including foreign tourists and participating companies, such as theatre groups, music bands and food traders. Bel revealed that development work would soon take place in the old town of Tortosa and further changes would be introduced to improve next year's festival.The Mayor said that the festival had attracted considerable attention not only in southern Europe, but across the entire continent.
Spanish Government “regrets” the “confusion” about cancelling the €1.76 billion transfer
The Spanish Finance Minister, Cristóbal Montoro, “regretted” on Tuesday evening the “confusion” about having announced in October he was cancelling a €1.76 billion transfer to the Catalan Government. Without this scheduled payment, the Catalan Executive is having serious problems to fund the 1.58% deficit approved for 2013. “These things can happen” said Montoro. In late October – 10 weeks before the end of the year – the Spanish Minister announced that the Catalan Government would not receive the €1.76 billion requested from the Liquidity Fund for the Autonomous Communities (FLA) since this money would be used by the Service Provider Fund to pay for arrear invoices. A week ago, the Catalan Government confirmed Montoro would transfer the €1.76 billion.