Catalonia Arranges Latest Independence “Referendum”

Catalonia Arranges Latest Independence “Referendum”

Catalonia again tries for independence

The regional government of Catalonia has long-sought independence from Spain, and continues to be the proverbial thorn in Madrid’s side by calling for a referendum later in the year.

The Catalan government – led by spokesman Carles Puigdemont – is to oversee a simple vote of “In or Out” that, even though it will likely draw a lot of interest and bring a big turnout, will unfortunately have no legal standing in Spain at all.

This basically means that unless the Madrid government of Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy sanctions the referendum – and they won’t – then the referendum will only be symbolic.

No one will be surprised to hear that the Catalan separatists continue their push for independence. It wouldn’t even be the first time that they have held a symbol referendum like the one being held later this year. Something similar happened back in 2014. The calls for separation from the Catalan people went unheeded back then by the Madrid government, and it’s likely going to be the same this time around.

There is a difference this time in that the referendum has been organised by the Catalan government rather than by passionate voters, which is what happened in 2014. This has led to people expecting that over 2 million people might make their voices heard, even if the result is still likely to only be symbolic. If the referendum gets a lot of support for independence then it will make it even harder for Madrid to continue to ignore the demand for change and independence.

While it is unlikely for Madrid to grant complete independence for Catalan, there could be regional elections for Catalonia in the future. It’s possible that Spain could at least afford the region some more autonomy, if not independence.

Madrid currently holds power to directly intervene in the Catalan government – something that continues to irk politicians and Catalans alike. The region has its own language and can turn Barcelona into their own internationally-recognised and respected capital city.

However, the Spanish economy has continued to grow and recover in the past few years, which has diminished the calls for independence in Catalonia somewhat. The latest official polls suggested that 48.5% of Catalans are interested in maintaining the current status quo. Only 44.3% of those polled were looking for independence from Spain.

Latest Data Finds Spain is Home to 30% of Vineyards in EU by Area

Latest Data Finds Spain is Home to 30% of Vineyards in EU by Area

Spanish wine has always been placed in a bit of a unique position by the wine drinkers of the world.

Spanish wines have long been considered the best in Europe

It’s not quite as traditional or exceptional as French wine, nor is it as romantic as Italian wine. It doesn’t carry the buzz of the New World wines of Chile, South Africa, and Australia. Spanish wine is the kind of wine you take with you for a housewarming party. It says you aren’t cheap, but that you aren’t going to splash out either because your friends have a new house.

This “everyman” nature of Spanish isn’t a bad thing however. It is because of this that Spain has become the largest wine producer in the European Union, according to data released by Eurostat this week. The data shows that Spanish vineyards account for 30% of vineyards in the EU.

With 940,000 hectares, Spain has a larger area of vineyards than any other member of the EU. France came in second with 803,000 hectares (25%), with Italy snatching third with its 610,000 (19%). Portugal was a distant fourth, with only 199,000 (6%).

There’s an interesting statistic hidden in the data. Romania – which is the fifth-largest wine producer with 184,000 hectares – is also the EU country with the most individual wineries. There are 855,000 wineries in Romania, putting it well ahead of Spain, which came in second with 518,000 wineries.

Spain is still one of the most important producers of plonk in the EU however, as grapes from Spain are used not just in Spanish wine, but also in French and Italian wines. The Castilla-la-Mancha region of Spain is the largest wine producing region; housing 434,000 hectares – 14% of the entire vineyard area of the EU. The other large regions are Languedoc-Roussillon (293,000 hectares) and Aquitaine (144,000 hectares) which are in France.

The EU has a total of 3.2 million hectares of vineyards spread among 2.4 million individual sites. Most nations in the EU have some vineyards at least, all the way from Romania to the UK (553 vineyards) and Luxemburg (326 vineyards).

There are a few EU countries with absolutely no vineyards. They include Belgium – which has beer, Ireland – which has Guinness, Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania – where the weather is too cold, Poland, Finland, and Sweden – with similar weather issues, and, perhaps most surprisingly, the Netherlands.

Latest Survey puts Spain at Top of the Chart for Expat Healthcare and Social Life

Latest Survey puts Spain at Top of the Chart for Expat Healthcare and Social Life

If you’re an expat looking to find safety, healthcare, culture, and build a strong family and social life then it doesn’t get much better than Spain.

Spain and the Costa del Sol continue to draw

expats as its a great place to live

The latest Expat Explorer Survey from HSBC was published this week and it showed that Spain is considered to be one of the best destinations in the world for expats; at least as far as having an active social life and good quality healthcare goes.

The survey was taken by 21,950 people across 39 countries. According to these participants Spain did well in terms of property value and choice as it ranked in third place overall. Spain also did well in quality of life (coming second) and culture (coming third).

Even though Spain only came in 13^th overall the country still did well in the metrics that families and expats are more interested in; including safety, integration, making friends, and provide for the family. Spain did particularly well in how easy children find it to settle in to their new lives abroad.

This was the eighth annual HSBC Expat Explorer Survey and this year things seemed to favour the financial metrics. Singapore came in first because of their ability to provide expats with well-paying jobs. They also performed well in terms of safety and their scores in culture and integration improved over recent years.

Spain found itself let down thanks to the quality of schools and finance; ranking 26^th and 17^th respectively. It’s interesting that school quality was an issue given that many of the countries in the survey, such as Singapore, are known for doing everything they can to accommodate expats; so the quality of education would develop as a matter of this.

While there is a lot of choice on the Costa del Sol, many expats in Spain feel there are still some regions where there are very few British or international schools, which is why there is such a discrepancy. When it comes to finance many people are aware of the economic problems Spain has dealt with in recent years. Many are also aware of the recovery, which has really picked up steam this year.

The good news for expats is that Spain did above-average in the areas that will matter most to them. Spain is known for providing great healthcare, a welcoming culture that makes it easy to socialise and make friends, and overall a country filled with tolerant people that is easy to integrate into and has a low cost of living.

The areas that let Spain down were job security, entrepreneurship, wage growth and career progression. While these metrics may not be easily fixed, they are at least problems Spain can work on to improve.

The survey took the countries and broke each one into three different categories; Experience, economics and family. Spain may have come in 36^th out of 39 for Economics but it came in second for Experience and fourth for Family – presenting the largest divide between the categories seen with any nation.

The results send a clear message to the politicians of Spain; do something about the job market and the economy and you’ll build up the best country in the world to be an expat in.

To contrast the 13^th place of Spain, the UK came in 23^rd and France came in 29^th. In a disappointing and somewhat surprising move Italy came in 38^th; beating out only Brazil.