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On the same day that Catalan hospitals presented their plans to reduce their budget by 10% and cut several services, the Catalan Government’s Spokesperson sent a strong message to Madrid saying that "enough was enough." The Spanish Government answered the calls by the Catalan Executive by saying that if it does not meet the 1.3% deficit objective for 2011, it will run out of cash. Madrid is asking for greater budget cuts. Almost all Catalan political parties, including the People’s Party, back up the Catalan Government, the main exception being the Socialist Party, which supports Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

The Spanish Government demands an additional budget reduction of 3.2 billion euros to Catalonia, while the Catalan Government claims 3.3 billion owed by the Spanish State. Catalan parties have accused Prime Minister Zapatero of reducing his government’s deficit by increasing that of the autonomous communities. The Spanish Government wants to force Autonomous Communities to pay for the deficit by limiting it through specific laws.

FDI in Catalonia surpassed the 3.9 billion euros mark in 2010. It represents 34% of FDI in Spain and was almost three times higher than 2009 levels. The Catalan Government is currently negotiating 189 projects that could bring in up to 6.5 billion euros to the Catalan economy.

The President of the Catalan Government Artur Mas announced in Madrid that in 2012, if the People’s Party (PP) or the Socialist Party (PSOE) want CiU’s support to form a new Spanish Government, Catalonia needs more money and greater control over its own finances. Mas made these comments the same day his Government agreed a 400 million euros loan.

Foreseeing a negative decision the Catalan Government already modified the law in 2009. The sentence declares illegal certain aspects of the law approved in 2005, such as conditioning the establishment of large retail centres to the expected effect on existing small businesses in the area or on the market share.

Catalan political parties will meet with social and economic agents to discuss how best to boost the Catalan economy. The Advisory Council is made up of academic experts and members of the business community. They drafted the report as a basis for discussion. Among many measures, they recommend partially paying for extra public services or reducing the number of public employees.

The Bank of Spain today released the debt of the Spanish Autonomous Communities. Catalan public debt represents 16.2% of Catalonia’s GDP and increased 36.7% in one year. The new Catalan Government stressed its austerity and stability plan, which will cut public expenditure by 10%.

The Catalan Government announced that knowledge of the Catalan language will be a “very determining” factor in proving integration in Catalonia in order to renew residency certificates or family grouping.

Experts in economics and regional fiscal redistribution concluded at a conference in London that the Spanish Autonomous Communities’ expenditure like Catalonia’s is not to be blamed for the downgrading of Spanish debt. They stated that the Catalan Government can not only be “an expenditure agency” and that it needs total control over its revenues and budget.

After the Spanish Governments announcement to reduce the price of local train tickets by 5% with the aim of fostering public transportation to save fuel, the Catalan Government, which manages the service in Catalonia, quantified in 26 million euros its loss in 1 year. Therefore, the Catalan Executive refused to pay for the measure. The Spanish Government will pay 6.75 million euros for 3 months of the measure.

Ryanair’s CEO, Michael O’Leary urges the Catalan Government to pay 11,5 million euros to the airline if it wants Girona’s airport to see all its Ryanair flights back from October onwards. O’Leary says that the Irish company cancelled 28% of its routes from Girona for the Spring/Summer season due to the “lack of commitment” from the new Catalan executive.

The President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso met with the President of the Catalan Government Artur Mas in Brussels. Barroso recognised the Catalan Government's efforts to reduce public deficit. Mas emphasised the importance of making Catalan an official EU language. Mas was accompanied by the Christian-Democrat Josep Antoni Duran i Lleida and the new Catalan Delegate to the European Union, Joan Prat.

With the aim of fostering vocational training in Catalonia, the Catalan Government approved a decree to modify it today. All students will have to learn foreign languages. Combining studies and a job will be easier. Programmes’ curriculum will be adapted to sector needs and student requirements.

Spain saw 2010 end with 9.24% of public deficit; 4.97% corresponds to the Spanish Government, 3.39% to the autonomous communities and 0.64% to the local administrations. According to the Spanish Government, half of the autonomous communities saw the year come to an end far away from the objective of 2.4% - Catalonia included. The Catalan Government emphasised that the Spanish Government cut down the revenues of the autonomous communities.

The Spanish Government gave eight autonomous communities the green light to issue a fixed amount of new debt in order to refinance old loans. With this, Catalonia will be able to issue new debt of 1,866 million euros. However, 1,090 million of this will be used on old healthcare payments from 2006.