community

Annual community celebration takes place from August 24 to September 1

Strong community links and affordable entertainment ahead of the new season

On International Romani Day, chamber supports call for more political representation for ethnic group

President of Pakistani association says ties between Muslims and non-Muslims in Catalonia stronger after terror attacks

Since inception in 2013, organization promoting use of cryptocurrency boasts membership of over 2,400 people

A survey by International Talent Monitor is published as the city bids to host the European Medicines Agency

Catalonia’s Muslim community stands firm against terrorism

Carme Forcadell speaks in front of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Francophonie

The Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, Raül Romeva, presented this Wednesday the draft of the Law on the Catalan Community Abroad, which is set to be passed in 2017. The Parliament rejected the two amendments of the whole bill submitted by Spanish Unionist ‘Ciutadans’ (C's) and the Catalan Conservative People’s Party (PPC) and therefore the law has now started its parliamentary process. The arrival of this bill in the Parliament is a step forward for the recognition of the Catalan community abroad, a historical demand. Romeva explained that its aim is “to recognise the Catalans abroad as subjects with rights and duties and addressees of the work of the Government”. One of the central aspects of the new law is the Register of Catalans living abroad, which Romeva described as “key”. “It should be the tool by which the Government can identify the citizens who live abroad”, he stressed. 

Spain’s executive position in relation to Catalonia’s push for independence and its “refusal to budge” concerns the international community. Catalan Minister for Foreign Affairs, former MEP Raül Romeva, explained this Friday that none of the diplomats he has talked to so far understand why “there is no one at the other end of the table”to discuss the situation in Catalonia. According to him, the international community rejects Spain’s executive campaign to confront both “politically and judicially”and tackle the situation in Catalonia through the court. Romeva also added that the perception that Catalonia’s push for independence and its future relationship with Spain is an internal matter is changing, and the international community is becoming aware that it is a topic which may also affect them.

Nowadays, multiple cultures, religions and traditions live side by side in the neighbourhoods of many European cities, and Catalonia is no exception, quite the contrary in fact. According to the Union of Islamic Communities in Spain, overall 1,858,409 Muslims live there. The majority of them are concentrated in Catalonia, a country with a long history of accommodating foreigners, where 509,333 followers of this religion dwell (out of a total population of 7.55 million people). Although acknowledging that individual acts of discrimination do occur, Muslims affirm that here the social climate is not filled with hatred. However, in the past few decades, 'anti-immigration discourses' have entered some isolated Catalan political parties' agendas and those whom we interviewed think that local media present a skewed picture of the Muslim community.

The People's Party (PP), which runs the Spanish Government and holds an absolute majority in the regional parliament of the Valencian Community (also called Valencian Country), has approved the Law on Identity Signs with votes from party members only. The Law entered into force this Friday. The new regional rule sets what are Valencia's identity symbols and traditions, and also insists on defining Valencian as a totally different language from Catalan, going against all scientific studies and experts. It also foresees sanctions for any organisation which states that Valencian is a dialect of Catalan. During the last few decades, Valencian regionalist politicians – most of whom have a strong Spanish nationalist ideology – have been working on differentiating the Valencian dialect from Catalan spoken in the rest of the territories that have Catalan as their native language. The PP has strongly contributed to this split, politicising the unity of Catalan language and also splitting Valencian society over identity issues.

Catalonia has a long history with immigration, welcoming foreigners from all over the world has left it with a cosmopolitan and multicultural nature. In more recent years, immigration has been well-documented by the Catalan Government and official statistics, which show various patterns. The first wave of people arriving in Catalonia, especially in the industrial capital of Barcelona, were domestic immigrants from within Spain, while later many came from South America and Northern Africa. The recent economic crisis caused a lull in these figures, but the number of foreign nationals from Asia and Europe (especially Italy and the UK) has increased over more recent years. Conscious of the need for sustainable co-living, Catalonia taken pains to accommodate its diverse population and the ACN spoke to several people about their experience moving to Barcelona.

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.  

On Friday, the Spanish Government approved the €1,350 million compensation to Escal UGS, the company behind the controversial Castor Project, a submarine facility built to store 1.3 billion tonnes worth of gas reserves off the Ebro Delta coast. This project failed after it was found to have caused almost 1,000 small earthquakes. This amount will be financed through increased tariffs to gas consumers over the next 30 years, resulting in public compensation for a private investment. The Spanish Government is obliged to pay the developer Escal UGS, because of a clause in the 2008 Royal Decree whereby the State would agree to compensate the company should the project be unable to be completed. An appeal of this law was rejected by the Spanish Supreme Court last October. The Spanish Government has argued that this solution is cheaper than operating the project. The Catalan Government however, which had opposed the project from the start, has appealed this decision to the Constitutional Court.