Information updated or added to the website in the last few hours

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  Start of the webinar cycle ‘Barcelona never stops: Let’s reactivate the economy!’

  A series of measures are being rolled out to tackle the economic crisis caused by Covid-19, the goal being to regenerate the city’s social and economic fabric and speed up the economy. 

  A cycle of webinars is being organised to help citizens find out about what tools are in place, discover the most suitable ones for each type of economic activity and even learn how to access them. Find out more!

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  International Talent Day is reinvented with Barcelona Expat Week

  Barcelona is organising Expat Week, from 19 to 23 October, a hybrid face-to-face and remote event offering workshops webinars and ‘meet & share’ activities, to become an annual meeting point of the city’s international talent. It offers 39 activities, with 88 speakers, mostly women, from 27 countries and nine hosts who have established themselves professionally in Barcelona.

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  Subsidies to reduce rents for commercial premises

  Barcelona City Council has earmarked one million euros for subsidies to help reduce rents on commercial premises in response to the Covid-19 crisis. Subsidy applications can be made until 3 november.

  The subsidies are for natural and legal persons who own commercial premises in the city of Barcelona and who significantly drop the rent they charge to tenants operating businesses affected by the declaration of the state of emergency for Covid-19.

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  Barcelona City Council publishes a guide to the services and subsidies in place to reactivate the economy (PDF 1.46 MB)

  The guide ‘Barcelona never stops. A practical guide to services’ sets out 55 measures being implemented by the City Council relating to subsidies and initiatives to provide support for Barcelona’s economic, business and entrepreneurial network in the face of the situation caused by Covid-19.

  Over 24,000 printed copies will be distributed around shops and markets in all city districts. The guide can also be viewed and downloaded online.

   

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  UN-Habitat and Barcelona, working together to make cities more resilient during pandemics

  Barcelona City Council and UN-Habitat have renewed their collaboration agreement under the United Nations’ global resilient cities programme, so the Sant Pau Modernista Complex can continue to house the office working to create and plan more resilient cities in the current scenario of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The agreement reaffirms the UN-Habitat’s commitment to and confidence in Barcelona, the only city in the world to play host to a programme outside its central headquarters.

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  'B·credits': a new €12 million credit line for micro-SMEs and the self-employed

  ICF, Avalis de Catalunya and Barcelona City Council, through Barcelona Activa, have launched a line of funding known as B·Credits with a budget of 12 million euros for city businesses, to cover occasional lacks of liquidity caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. These loans will primarily be allocated to the commercial, restaurant and catering, tourism, creative industry, care, education and sport sectors as well as to self-employed and business women.

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  New scientific research awards for tackling urban challenges in the age of COVID

  Barcelona City Council is calling on the local scientific-research ecosystem to seek solutions to the challenges facing the city as a result of the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Area for Culture, Education, Science and Community has launched a call for entries for new research awards aimed at members of the scientific community, up to age of 40, working in any branch of knowledge, with the clear intention of stimulating and boosting Barcelona’s young talent.

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  Agreement to foster new labour mobility in Barcelona

  Barcelona City Council has signed a collaboration agreement with the main trade union organisations and business associations to promote safer, more sustainable and efficient mobility in the city and the metropolitan area. One of the main goals is to reduce congestion and avoid journeys being concentrated during rush hours. Various measures have been put forward to achieve this. Read more.

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  Bonus Cultura

  Bonus Cultura is an initiative promoted by the cultural sector’s associations, with Barcelona City Council’s support, which is aimed at incentivising cultural consumption in the entrepreneurial sector of Barcelona’s culture.

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  Bizbarcelona recognises 11 projects for their contribution during Covid-19

  Bizbarcelona, the trade fair for entrepreneurs, start-ups and SMEs, has awarded the “Barcelona never stops” awards to highlight the work of individual citizens, organisations, entrepreneurs, freelancers, self-employed business people, SMEs and businesses that has helped to sustain economic activity during Covid-19. A total of 95 ideas have been assessed and 11 recognised in three categories: “Starting up or reinventing a business”, Initiatives for maintaining business activity” and “Collaboration or joint initiative”.

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  €20.5 million in subsidies for energy efficiency and economic reflation

  The Barcelona Housing Consortium has published its new 2020 call for applications for home-renovation subsidies, with a total budget of €20.5 million which includes several lines of subsidies: common parts, dwelling interiors, renovation of buildings with vulnerable communities and specific areas. Its aim is to improve the city’s residential housing stock, as well as aspects linked to the climate emergency and economic reflation.

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  Barcelona Global and the City Council sign an agreement to boost investment and employment

  The First Deputy Mayor of Barcelona City Council, Jaume Collboni, and the chair of Barcelona Global, Aurora Catà, have signed the Barcelona & Partners collaboration protocol, a programme to identify, attract and establish economic activity for a Great Barcelona, promoted by Barcelona Global. Barcelona & Partners will identify quality investment projects and help them to set up in Barcelona in order to create jobs.

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  Barcelona recognises the work of tourism companies during the pandemic with the BST Awards

  Within the framework of the Business With Social Value event, rebranded this year as ‘Coses que importen’ (‘Things that matter’), the Barcelona Sustainable Tourism (BST) Awards were given to nominees, businesses or institutions in the social and tourism sector for their contribution and exemplary conduct during the pandemic. One of the aims of the awards is to acknowledge businesses that have managed to reinvent themselves during the pandemic.

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  The City Council creates an emergency fund to cover 34,000 people’s basic needs

  The City Council is expanding and grouping together the grants available for vulnerable families with a new fund, which is managed automatically and simply and offers greater autonomy to the 33,873 people who could benefit from it. This new benefit aims to fulfil one-off, urgent and basic subsistence needs and minimise the impact of the crisis caused by the pandemic during the second half of 2020.

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  Barcelona is accelerating 14 projects through its CREAmedia programme

  Barcelona Activa, the ICEC's Business Development Service and the Catalunya Cultura Foundation are promoting another edition of the CREAmedia programme. This year, around seventy projects were presented. Of these, 14 projects were selected, dealing with activities related to audiovisuals, design and the support platforms for creative and cultural industries which will receive advice on defining and completing their business models in 2020.

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  Barcelona brings forward 65% of the subsidies awarded in the general campaign

  In order to ensure the most efficient use of public resources and to ensure liquidity for companies, SMEs and self-employed people, Barcelona City Council has speeded up the subsidy process and reduced the payment period for its suppliers. These two measures mean that for the first time, 65% of all the subsidies requested from the City Council have already been paid in August, and the payment period for suppliers has been reduced by a third, with payments made at 20 days for the fifth month running.

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  Barcelona will have six child-minding venues, in order to facilitate people's work-life balance

  Project Concilia, which is being launched this September as a pilot project, will run continuously for five months, until 31 January, with the aim of facilitating people's work-life balance in low-income areas of the city that are part of the Neighbourhoods Plan. For this reason, the new service will be open from 8 am to 8 pm, seven days a week.

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  City Council approves €90 million Covid Fund

  The Full Council has passed a budget amendment that will give it the financial resources it needs to respond to the social, economic and health emergency.

  A total of €35 million will go to social needs, €30 million towards reviving the economy, €15 million to transforming urban spaces and €10 million to culture.

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  Over half a million euros to tackle the effects of Covid-19 around the world

  Eight international humanitarian action projects are to benefit from the emergency fund to tackle the effects of Covid-19 around the world. The initiatives are to be rolled out by NGOs in Barcelona and correspond to projects in cities currently at the peak of their infection curve, with health services overwhelmed and the impossibility of maintaining lockdowns due to the need for people to access food and basic resources.

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  Barcelona allocates its tourism tax to the city's economic recovery

  Barcelona City Council has approved a €3,318,000 investment package, funded by part of the money collected from the Tourist Accommodation Tax (IEET) for projects concerning economic revitalisation, sustainability and promoting the city.

  This year, the City Council has allocated over €9.34 million of the money collected from the IEET tax in 2019 to projects that focus on the post-Covid-19 tourism economy, in order to showcase points of interest in the city's districts, as well as promoting the city internationally.

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  Package of measures for the digital transformation of shops

  A set of resources to help shops and the restaurant industry take the plunge into the digital world. This new service includes the necessary advice to create a digitisation plan, access to a selection of training programmes with over 50 online courses and a set of grants.

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  €95 million from the European Investment Bank to fund action on climate change

  The European Investment Bank, EIB, is going to fund nearly 40 Barcelona City Council projects that focus on supporting climate-change mitigation and adaptation in the city. In order to achieve this, the EU bank will provide €95 million, for promoting urban regeneration from an environmental perspective, while also promoting social inclusion and job creation in order to contribute to the city's economic recovery after the Covid-19 crisis.

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  Promotion of the Pact for Barcelona

  Barcelona City Council has presented the final document of the Pact for Barcelona ​after an extensive participation and debate process initiated as a result of the Covid-19 health emergency.

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  BCN Safe City. BCN Safe Visit

  Barcelona City Council is offering an online advice service for enterprises linked to the visitor economy to find out what the most appropriate health and safety protocols or measures are for each type of business.

  Barcelona City Council’s aim with BCN Safe City. BCN Safe Visit is to support companies in the various sectors working for the public, including both locals and visitors, so that they know which regulations and protocols are best adapted to their needs.

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  Barcelona City Council to open an office for capturing European Reconstruction Funds

  The City Council is setting up this service to capture the reconstruction funds announced by the European Council, while ensuring maximum coordination with the offices in Brussels and Madrid from Barcelona City Hall.

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  The Mobile World Capital Barcelona board of trustees ratifies the agreement to extend MWC Barcelona to 2024

  The Mobile Word Capital Barcelona board of trustees held a new meeting in which it ratified the agreement to extend MWC Barcelona to 2024, a move that consolidates the city’s position as the world’s mobile capital.