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The 2014 European parliamentary elections are likely to become a milestone for Catalan people for three main reasons, which taken together send a strong message to the international community, the EU institutions and Member State governments, including that of Spain. Firstly, political parties and civil society organisations supporting self-determination have called citizens to vote in these elections as a way to push for a referendum on independence to take place on the 9^th of November of this year. This may significantly increase turnout from the low 36.94% registered in 2009. Secondly, the two main self-determination parties are likely to be the most voted parties in Catalonia. In addition, the Left-Wing Independence Party (ERC) may go from 4^th place in the 2009 poll to 1^st place this time around. Thirdly, support for the two main parties behind the EU austerity measures that turned into drastic budget cuts in southern Europe – the People’s Party and the Socialist Party – is likely to plummet in Catalonia.

Girona-based El Celler de Can Roca, the family restaurant run by the 3 Roca Brothers, continues to be considered among the world’s very best places to eat by ‘Restaurant’ magazine, which gives the sector’s main international awards each year at a gala in London. However, the Catalan establishment has not topped the 2014 ranking as it did in 2013 but has been considered the second best in this sort of cuisine Oscars, a recognition it had already obtained in 2012 and 2011. First place was for the Danish Noma - run by René Redzepi – which had already topped the ranking in 2012, 2011 and 2010. In addition, the youngest brother, Jordi, who is in charge of El Celler de Can Roca’s desserts, has been awarded the world’s best pastry chef, a title given for the first time this year. Since 2002, a Catalan restaurant has topped the annual ranking on 6 occasions and has been second best in 6 others.

Francesc ‘Tito’ Vilanova died on Friday in Barcelona after a long struggle against the illness which was first diagnosed two and a half years earlier. He was the manager in FC Barcelona’s record-breaking season of 2012/13, when the team got 100 points in the league, and contributed to the greatest Barça team of all time as assistant coach to Pep Guardiola. He won everybody’s admiration for his achievements in the football world, and later for his immense courage in the final years of his life. FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu spoke on behalf of the Board of Directors today when he said on social networks that “Tito Vilanova was a wonderful person, and will never be forgotten at FC Barcelona. Thank you for everything you taught us. May you rest in peace.”

Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister of Spain, and Artur Mas, President of the Catalan Government, both attended a business forum in Barcelona on Thursday. However, their attendance did not coincide at the event, since Rajoy did not come to hear Mas' speech and the Catalan President did not wait for the arrival of the Spanish PM. Both politicians were making visible the lack of dialogue between them regarding Catalonia's self-determination demands. In recent weeks, Rajoy has been repeating his demand that Mas give up the intention to organise a self-determination vote totally as the sine-qua-non condition for him to start talking. However, Mas considers Rajoy's condition "an imposition" and demonstrating a lack of political will, since Rajoy refuses to discuss the issue a majority of Catalans want to talk about.

The President of the Catalan Government, Artur Mas, has insisted that he will call for the consultation vote on Catalonia's independence, despite the Spanish Government's obstructive attitude. Mas was answering Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, who asked him to give up on his referendum plans in order to start talking. For the Catalan President, this is not an offer to talk but "an imposition". Mas insists that the reason for not allowing Catalans to vote is not legal, since several legal ways have been identified to organise such a vote, but a lack of political will from the Spanish authorities. The Catalan President sent a clear message to the European Union: "the dynamics of states cannot drown the dynamics of peoples". He emphasised that the democratic will of the Catalan people has to be taken into account by the EU. Furthermore he praised Catalonia for being an example of "integrating people with very diverse origins […] without falling into populist and xenophobic movements", which "have been emerging in Europe lately".

Josep Maria Subirachs died in Barcelona after a neurodegenerative illness aged 87. Subirachs had a long career in several artistic disciplines but he will be mostly remembered at international level for the work he created in the Sagrada Familia basilica designed by the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí. In 1986, Subirachs was commissioned to create sculpture groups for the church's Passion Façade, picturing Jesus Christ's Via Crucis. He devoted 18 years of his life to creating a unique and controversial composition; he did not follow Gaudí's style but used his own. Instead of picturing rounded ornaments inspired by nature, Subirachs designed straight stone figures with a solid and sharp aspect, inspired by geometry and with a wrinkled texture. Caixa Penedès intended to create an exhibition centre devoted to his work near Barcelona Picasso Museum, but the financial crisis stopped the project.

More than 300 innovations from the agri-food industry are presented between the 31^st of March and the 3^rd of April in Alimentaria, one of the main trade fairs for this sector in Europe. The 20^th edition of this event, which takes place in the Catalan capital every two years, focuses on innovation and internationalisation. In fact, 40,000 visitors, 30% of the total 140,000 visitors, are foreigners. In addition, as explained by the Director General of Alimentaria, Antoni Valls, this year the organisers have managed to assemble 600 of the world's main international buyers, which is double the number at the previous fair in 2012. These top buyers have already arrived for 8,000 pre-scheduled business meetings with the 3,800 exhibiting companies at the fair, which occupies 94,500 square metres of Fira de Barcelona's Gran Via venue.

Spain's Constitutional Court has reached a unanimous decision against the Catalan Parliament's 'Declaration of Sovereignty', approved in January 2013 and appealed by the Spanish Government. In May 2013 the Constitutional Court put the Declaration on hold, temporarily stopping its implementation while it was reaching a definitive decision, which has happened this Tuesday evening. In the end the Court has declared the first part of the text, which stated that "the people of Catalonia is, for reasons of democratic legitimacy, a sovereign political and legal subject", "unconstitutional and void". However, it adds that the people of Catalonia have "the right to decide" but not "to self-determination", and it points out that the Constitution can be reformed. After months of internal debate and previous failed attempts to reach a consensus, the decision arrived a few hours after the Catalan Parliament had approved a motion to disqualify 3 of the 12 members of the Constitutional Court of not being impartial on this issue.

On Wednesday evening the main Catalan small- and medium-sized enterprises association, Pimec, organised a protest conference in which they accused the Spanish and Catalan Governments of politically and financially "discriminating" against them. With the slogan #diguemprou (#wesayenough) 1,400 owners of SMEs and self-employed workers protested against both Governments for not taking SMEs into account and only working for the interests of large corporations. The protest was explicitly backed by 220 guilds and associations, as well as by 9 professional associations and that of self-employed workers. The event issued a manifesto compiling a list of grievances, split into 7 different areas: entrepreneurship; loans and funding; taxation; labour market; energy; training and employment; and internationalisation.

International sales of Catalonia's sparkling wine Cava have amounted to 241.3 million bottles in 2013, 0.77% less than the previous year. The President of the Cava Regulatory Council, Pere Bonet presented such figures in a press conference on Tuesday. Bonet linked this decrease with the current economic context and recalled that other regions producing sparkling wine had registered sharper declines, for instance Champagne with a 2% drop. The Spanish market, accounting for one third of Cava sales, has performed better than in previous years and only fell by 0.47%. On the other hand, sales in the foreign market, which had increased every year since 1980, registered a 0.92% decrease in 2013.

FC Barcelona President Josep Maria Bartomeu and Catalan defender Marc Bartra signed the deal in the club offices this Tuesday that will keep the centre-back at Barça till June 2017. The new deal includes a 25 million Euro get out clause.The 23-year-old Bartra joined FC Barcelona as an eleven-year-old and worked his way up through the academy and Barça B teams before signing a first team contract in the 2012/13 season.After putting pen to paper, the Catalan centre-back admitted: “I’m very happy. It’s a great feeling and I hope everything continues to go as well as they have done in my time at the club so far. For me, Piqué and Puyol are my reference points - it’s a challenge to me to achieve what they have . Establishing myself in the team is a big test, but I am getting there”

Barcelona’s Hospital Clínic has installed the ‘Micra’ 24mm pacemaker - equivalent to the size of a one euro coin -  in 4 patients as part of a clinical trial involving 10 medical centres and 60 patients troughout the world. This innovative wireless system is minimally invasive since it does not require any surgical procedure but is implanted in the heart through the femoral vein using a catheter. Such a procedure can be performed within 30 minutes and also reduces the patients’ risks of future infections. According to the Medical Director of the Hospital, Josep Brugada, if the clinical study is successful, it will involve a “paradigm shift”. Experts estimate it could reach hospitals within the next two or three years.

Answering a question about dialogue and democracy regarding Catalonia and Spain, the Spanish Prime Minister, Mariano Rajoy talked about Crimea, where there is a pre-war situation. On Tuesday before the Spanish Senate, Rajoy has once again closed the door to any talks with the Catalan Government to hold a legal and agreed consultation vote, similar to the one scheduled in Scotland. Instead, Spain's PM preferred to use as an example the current situation in Crimea, where the regional parliament has declared independence and organised within 10 days a ratification referendum while pro-Russian troops have occupied the peninsula and a war with the Ukrainian Army could start at any moment. Rajoy highlighted that the international community has appealed to the territorial integrity of states in this case. He was answering a question from Josep Lluís Cleries, Senator of the Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), which runs the Catalan Government.  Cleries asked him "to be brave" and "talk in depth" with the Catalan President.

The Catalan club’s President Josep Maria Bartomeu launches the information campaign for the New Espai Barça with an exhibition at the Camp Nou. The campaign will run through to April 3, when club members will be called to vote on the reform. "This is the starting point of the referendum process. This proposal is centred on a comprehensive facelift of the Stadium, and a new Palau” explained FC Barcelona’s President. “The project is financeable. We will not be saddling a generation of Barça members with big debt payments” said the club’s Financial Vice President, Javier Faus.

Catalan cinema will once again play a significant part in this year’s prestigious Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale), with the presentation of two feature films and one short-film. The Catalan co-production Aloft ('No ploris, vola'), by Claudia Llosa, who also directed the 2009 Golden Bear winner The Milk of Sorrow, will compete in the official section of the festival, held between the 6^th and the 16^th of February. ‘El somni’ (The Dream) directed by Franc Aleu and centred on the creative dishes of the Roca brothers, universally acclaimed Catalan Chefs, will be screened during the ‘Culinary session’ of the festival. Finally, short-film lovers will discover ‘TABA, El Juego En La Mesa’ (TABA, Table Games), directed by Pep Gatell and Eloi Colom, and produced by the ‘Fura dels Baus’ a Barcelona theatrical group famous for its innovative performances.