industrial

At least three vulnerable people killed as building was inhabited for eight years

17 injured, some in critical condition, as firefighters fear others might be trapped inside as number of people residing unclear

Universal Robots and Mobile Industrial Robots have invested €2 million into the new technological and commercial center

Authorities assure there was “no danger” to citizens in the nearby areas

Catalonia has the “cultural capital” and the “knowledge” to promote a new model of production, more sustainable than the “obsolete” one. This is the main conclusion of a lecture given at the conference “A new Economic Paradigm for a Sustainable Catalonia’ by economist Jeremy Rifkin organized on Wednesday in Sant Cugat, a city near Barcelona, by the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat). According to the sociologist and political advisor, Catalonia has the potential to “lead the way of Regional Europe” to the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’. Rifkin predicts an economic paradigm shift as a result of two merging factors: Internet technology and renewable energies, which will create a powerful Third Industrial Revolution where people will produce their own green energy and will share it on a sort of “Energy Internet”, in the same way we share information today.

Leo Messi and his father testified this Thursday before Barcelona’s High Court. They are accused of having moved 4.1m EUR earned from the player’s image rights to tax havens between 2007 and 2009. In his statement, the FC Barcelona player assured that his life is “limited to playing football” and that he had “full confidence” in his father and the lawyers who managed his publicity contracts. This is the same statement that Messi gave in 2013, when he had to testify before the Court for the same case. Spain’s Tax Agency has requested 22 months in prison for each of them for having moved 4.1m EUR earned from publicity contracts to tax havens between 2007 and 2009. On the other hand, the public prosecutor is only accusing Messi’s father.

The Catalan GDP increased by 0.9% between April and June this year, which is a positive figure but slightly lower than the 1.1% rate registered during the first quarter. However, in annual terms, the Catalan economy grew by 3% in the year to June, which is more than the 2.6% annual growth registered in March. Such a high level of annual growth had not been registered since September 2007, before the financial crisis started. According to the Catalan Finance Ministry, the minor fall off in growth registered between April and June compared to the growth rate from January to March is due to the "extraordinary" 1.1% growth rate of the first quarter. The Ministry stressed that 0.9% growth is still a very positive rate and does not break the trend of the economic recovery, on the contrary proving its strength.

The 10^th edition of Barcelona Design Week started Monday with a programme of more than 70 activities, under the slogan 'Design is here!' ('el Disseny és aquí'). The event is a call for companies, designers and other agents of the business, innovation and creativity fields, and it is also open to the wider public, with event locations scattered throughout Barcelona. Barcelona Design Week also marks the beginning of the 5^th Barcelona Design Festival, which is being held from 8 June to 5 July. Among the new features is the 'Design is Future Congresstival,' midway between the conference and the festival, which delves into the world of innovation through design.

In times of economic crisis, the Mariano Rajoy-led Spanish Government has been making recentralisation a main driver of its political agenda, using the economic recovery as the reason for passing the reforms. An additional step in this direction was taken on Monday with a new regulation forcing Spanish Autonomous Communities to seek permission from the Spanish Ministry of Finance before granting loans and guarantees to private companies located in their territories. From now on, Madrid's permission will be conditional upon the applicant's compliance with deficit targets. The new regulation substantially curbs the Autonomies' powers to shape their industrial policies, following a reform passed in May that modifies both the Organic Law for Financing the Autonomous Communities and the Organic Law on Budgetary Stability and Financial Sustainability.

The price competitiveness index for Catalan industry in relation to other industrialised countries improved by 0.4 points in the last quarter of 2014 compared to the same period of 2013, according to figures released on Monday by the Statistical Institute of Catalonia (IDESCAT). This improvement is particularly noticeable when compared against newly industrialised Asian countries, over which Catalan industry held a 2.7 percent advantage in competitiveness. A recent decline in the Euro's value has aided in facilitating the attractiveness of Catalonia's industrial products in the market. The favourable exchange rate has helped offset the loss of competitiveness of industrial prices compared to other industrialised countries.

The German multinational company Basf announced on Tuesday it will invest €21 million to expand one of the plants it has in the area of Tarragona, in Southern Catalonia. Basf operates several plants in the Tarragona area, which is Spain's main centre for the petro-chemical industry and one of the most important ones at European level. The investment announced this Tuesday is the largest made by the Spanish division of the German multinational in a single plant in many years, confirmed the company. The centre producing the innovative liquid fungicides for sustainable agriculture will extend its facilities and increase production capacity of these fungicides for high performance crops. Once the work is completed, the company will add 30 workers to its staff. Basf expects the expansion work to end and the new production line to be fully operational by the end of next year.

The GDP of Catalonia increased by 1.5% during 2014, according to the definitive figures released by the Catalan Statistics Institute (Idescat) on Friday. However, on the same day, the Spanish Statistics Institute (INE) published its economic growth figures for 2014 and announced that the Catalan economy had grown by 1.4% last year, the same rate as Spain. In any case, both figures are quite positive after many years of economic crisis and slowdown. In fact, 2014 has been the best year since 2007, when the Catalan economy grew by 3.2% according to the Idescat. The final figure for 2014 is higher than the provisional 1.2% growth rate previously announced. Following European Union instructions, the calculations for last year include R&D activities, as well as prostitution and trafficking of drugs and tobacco.

The Swiss multinational will build a new factory for Nescafé in Girona, where it has already an important plant that exports its products to more than 70 countries. Nestlé will invest €102 million in the project and the new facilities should be operational by the end of 2017, explained the company's Director General for Spain, Laurent Dereux. It will become the most important plant in Europe and its third-biggest in the world in terms of soluble coffee production capacity. The new factory will be built next to the existing plant and will add 10,000 additional square metres to the compound, increasing its production capacity by 30%. It will replace the plant’s oldest production chain, which will not be dismantled as it could be useful in the medium term. The expansion will bring some 40 new jobs to the Catalan plant.