Highlights

Cookbooth and dondeEsta Family are two of the sixteen apps which are finalists at the Mobile Premier Awards, which will be awarded at Barcelona's Sala Apolo on the 2^nd of March, coinciding with the first day of the Mobile World Congress (MWC). The MWC is the world's largest event of the mobile and phone-related industry, which takes place each year in the Catalan capital at the end of February or in early March. The Best App Award, the Best Audience App and the Big Impact Award will be given. Cookboth is a recipe photo-sharing platform for chefs and food connoisseurs and dondeEsta Family helps families locate their members. Both are available for iOS and Android devices.

After having filmed in Ireland, Albert Serra has chosen Lleida to finish ‘Singularity’, his latest project. The Catalan filmmaker won the Golden Leopard – the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival – in 2013 for ‘Story of my death’. His new film will be presented in a multi-screen format at the 56^th International Art Exhibition of the Biennale di Venezia. The Ramon Llull Institute, the public body promoting Catalan culture abroad, has chosen it as the project that will represent Catalan culture at this edition of the Biennale. Albert Serra, who won a Golden Leopard in 2013 for ‘Story of my death’, explained that ‘Singularity’ is “completely fanciful” and that more than being a film, it is a “baroque installation” with mining as a common link.

The Children’s Choir of Montserrat is participating in a tour of China between 23 February and 10 March. Montserrat is home to one of the oldest boys’ choirs in Europe, dating back to 1223. Concerts will take place in China’s largest auditoriums in Beijing and Shanghai. Around the seventeenth and eighteenth century, the music school at Montserrat really began to grow in importance and recognition at international level and nowadays it is one of the world’s most important children’s choirs. The concert programme will be directed by Lawrence Castellon and include Catalan folk songs and some Chinese folk songs. The Chinese cultural manager invited the Choir of Montserrat following their success in the United States.

According to a recent study published by the Swiss research centre, IMD World Competitiveness Centre, Catalonia would be the 38^th most competitive state in the world if it were independent. The list, headed by the United States, shows that an independent Catalonia would be 2 places above Spain, which currently occupies 40^th position (including Catalonia). The report highlights the strengths of Catalonia such as business efficiency, as well as the weaknesses, which stem from certain inefficiencies of the public sector. Apart from focusing on quantitative indicators, the study also has a section that is based on qualitative surveys of a country’s companies. Catalan executives consider Singapore, Germany, Ireland and the UAE to be the most lucrative for business development and ranked Catalonia 24^th on the list, which is 21 places above Spain.

Jordi Pujol Ferrusola, the eldest son of former Catalan President Jordi Pujol, has testified before the Catalan Parliament’s commission investigating fraud and corruption. He did so after the testimonies of his father and mother, while all 3 have been indicted and are in the middle of judicial processes for alleged fraud. Unlike his parents, Pujol Jr answered most of the questions posed - except those related to money the family had kept in Andorra for 34 years without informing the Spanish tax authorities. Pujol Jr said he will explain this directly to the judge in his testimony scheduled for the 26^th of March. However, he did speak before the parliamentary commission for 4.5 hours about some of his business activities and his accumulated wealth. He also denied having operated from fiscal havens (besides the family money in Andorra) and having practiced influence peddling or any corrupt activity profiting from his father’s position. Besides this, he also emphasised he is an “intimate friend” of the current Catalan President, Artur Mas, despite the latter having denied this a few days ago.

In the press conference ahead of the first leg of the Champions League last 16 tie, Gerard Piqué has declared that he expects a “similar game” to the one last season. He also added that despite the defeat against Málaga in the Spanish League at the weekend, the Catalan team are in good form as well as highlighting Manchester City’s strengths. Piqué on the Champions League tie: “I think it will be a similar game to last season. We are two sides who like to attack and have the ball. There was a key moment in the first leg with Demichelis' sending off and the goal from the penalty spot, without that it would have been closer.”

Before the Catalan Parliament's commission investigating fraud and corruption, former President of the Catalan Government Jordi Pujol has testified in order to address his family's alleged fiscal fraud. Pujol was asked to talk before the parliamentary committee despite having been indicted by the judge and having already testified in front of her in January. Pujol, who ran the Executive between 1980 and 2003, did not add any new information and refused to answer many questions, referring to his previous statement before the judge and the previous hearing before the Catalan Parliament in September. He criticised the current parliamentary commission for not sufficiently proving their accusations., Pujol's wife, Marta Ferrusola, who is also indicted and who has previously testified before the judge, also spoke before the parliamentary commission. Ferrusola did not answer many questions but stressed that she "never" travelled to Andorra to manage funds.

Former two time Formula One World Champion Fernando Alonso had to be kept in hospital last Sunday night after he was involved in a serious accident at the Circuit de Catalunya, in Greater Barcelona. The Spaniard suffered head injuries and concussion and had to be airlifted from the circuit to hospital via helicopter. Alonso was given the all clear after undergoing a series of scans and tests but was kept in hospital overnight for observation because of the nature of his injuries. The Spaniard was completing the 21st lap of the day for his new McLaren team when the accident happened at turn four on the fourth and final day of the test. According to his team, Alonso was “conscious” upon his arrival at the circuit’s medical centre and able to talk to doctors before being airlifted to hospital.

The Chinese community welcomed the 'Year of the Goat' last week. The biggest New Year festivity took place this Saturday, when a parade of a thousand people filled the Barcelona streets with a trail of red dancing dragons and lions. This is the second year that Chinese organisations and Catalan folklore groups, such as Catalonia's traditional human tower builders (‘castellers’) and the traditional giant figures representing kings, knights and princesses called ‘gegants’, joined together to celebrate Chinese New Year. Almost 10,000 spectators lined the parade route through the streets of the Eixample district in the centre of the city. Barcelona has 17,400 Chinese inhabitants, the third largest foreign population, after the Pakistani and the Italian communities; however a great number of Chinese people live in the surrounding towns of Greater Barcelona.  

All it took was one small mistake. A seemingly innocent back-pass from Dani Alves to Claudio Bravo in minute seven ran out of steam and was intercepted by a charging Juanmi, who beat Bravo to the ball and waltzed in all alone for the game’s only goal, stopping Barça’s 11-game winning streak dead in its tracks. The loss means that Barça, playing in front of a raucous home crowd, have missed an opportunity to become the overnight leaders in La Liga and will be a minimum of one point behind leaders Real Madrid come Monday morning.

A day after the President of the Catalan Government and leader of the centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU, Artur Mas, announced his plan to further develop the so-called state structures before the 27 September elections, the leader of the left-wing Catalan independence party ERC, Oriol Junqueras, has once again requested to be part of the Executive and sit in Cabinet. Junqueras justified his request in order “to guarantee the indispensable state structures”, such as Catalonia’s own tax administration and Social Security system. The embryonic frame of such structures should be created before the next Catalan elections, which will be called early and will be transformed into a ‘de facto’ referendum on independence from Spain. On Tuesday, Mas had already ruled out the possibility of the ERC sitting in Government and, on Wednesday, the Catalan President stressed that the current Cabinet will only be in office for the next 6 months.

The 19^thedition of the International Animation Film Festival of Catalonia, Animac, is to be held in Lleida, western Catalonia, from the 19^thto the 22^nd of February. Over 170 films are to be showcased at this year’s event. With the growth of handmade products, this year’s programme focuses on the theme 'The hand of the artist' to recognise the role of artists in the digital animation process.The Director of the event, Carolina López, remarked that "the art of ‘touching’ remains a pleasure for most artists, while the younger generations are rediscovering it". This year focuses on the drawing techniques of the artist in the digital animation process. 80% of the films presented at Animac this year (including from major international schools) have been created through manual techniques.

Exports from Catalonia increased by 3.1% in 2014, reaching €60.2 billion, meaning that more than 30% of the Catalan GDP is sold outside of Spain. Furthermore, Catalan exports grew more than those of Spain as a whole, which increased by 2.5% last year, reaching €240 billion. This means that 25.1% of all Spain’s exports come from Catalonia’s economy, some way ahead of the Madrid region, which produces 11.7% of Spain’s total exports. In addition, the growth rate of Catalan exports was much higher than the Eurozone average (exports from which grew by 1.8%) and also higher than that of EU Member States such as France (-0.2%), UK (-11.1%) and Italy (+2%). The figures posted this Wednesday confirm the good health of Catalonia’s export sector and the high degree of internationalisation of its economy.

Last night, the coastal town of Sitges located about 35 kilometres south of Barcelona, brought to a close its famous carnival. This event, known for its extravagance and huge number of visitors, is especially popular among the gay community. For a full week, the whole city is dedicated to the celebration of Carnival, dressing up and organising activities for both children and adults. Sunday and Tuesday’s parades filled Sitges’ streets with tens of thousands of visitors.No less than 1,000 police officers were mobilised for the event, as were fire fighters and health personnel. 38 extra trains and 45,000 additional seats were provided to help visitors attend the event. The Carnival finishes this Wednesday with the traditional ‘burial of the sardines’.

The regional Government of Aragon, run by the People's Party (PP), has removed the last legal trace of the Catalan and Aragonese languages in the region. This action has provoked a civil and political movement in defence of both languages spoken by thousands of citizens in the Aragonese Pyrenees and in “la Franja” (the Strip), a narrow piece of land in the eastern part of the region, bordering Catalonia. Since 1999, the Aragonese Cultural Heritage Act recognised Catalan and Aragonese as “minority languages from Aragon” and as a “specially protected cultural wealth”. However, the regional Parliament, led by the People’s Party (PP) and the Regionalist Aragonese Party (PAR), passed a law that ends this protection and the denomination of "Catalan" and "Aragonese".