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The leader of the Spanish Socialist Party (PSOE), Pedro Sánchez, will not offer the Catalan Government a referendum on independence in exchange for his investiture, said the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont. The politician stressed during an interview on Thursday that PSOE backbenchers are already warning Sánchez against this possibility, despite the leader having not made any move in that direction. The General Coordinator of the Catalan Democratic Party (PDC), Marta Pascal, stated on Wednesday that the referendum is a “red line”. “We will not sit at the negotiation table unless the referendum issue is solved”, Pascal said, while stressing that there will be “no chance” to debate Sánchez’s investiture if Catalonia’s right to a referendum is not recognised.

Catalonia has the “cultural capital” and the “knowledge” to promote a new model of production, more sustainable than the “obsolete” one. This is the main conclusion of a lecture given at the conference “A new Economic Paradigm for a Sustainable Catalonia’ by economist Jeremy Rifkin organized on Wednesday in Sant Cugat, a city near Barcelona, by the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat). According to the sociologist and political advisor, Catalonia has the potential to “lead the way of Regional Europe” to the ‘Third Industrial Revolution’. Rifkin predicts an economic paradigm shift as a result of two merging factors: Internet technology and renewable energies, which will create a powerful Third Industrial Revolution where people will produce their own green energy and will share it on a sort of “Energy Internet”, in the same way we share information today.

Paris, the city of light, is the guest at this year’s edition of ‘La Mercè’, the festival of Barcelona’s patron saint. From the 22nd to the 25th of September many French artists will perform at Ciutadella Park. “Our desire is to keep the spirit of an open and cosmopolitan city in contact with other capitals, in this case, Paris", said Jaume Collboni, Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor for Culture. Popular activities such as ‘cercaviles’, parades which include all the folklore symbols of the city, and ‘castellers’, traditional Catalan human towers, will also be part of the programme. The festival will finish with the traditional ‘Pyromusical’, a performance where music and fireworks are synchronised.

Visitors coming to Barcelona in 2017 may be levied with a tourist tax. This would be added to the fee Catalonia already applies to people staying in Catalan hotels, camping sites and tourist cottages. The Municipal Commission of Economy and Finance passed on Tuesday a proposal presented by liberal ‘Convergència i Unió’ (CiU) in which the political party asks the local government to consider the application of a tourist tax, fee or public levy. The aim is to balance the costs and benefits of receiving around 30 million visitors each year. The text approved also insists on the necessity of demanding from the Catalan Government the transfer of all the revenue collected from tourists visiting the city, and not just half of it.

Catalonia is a land of wine and cava, therefore Catalan wineries want to expand their market beyond the Catalan borders. This week the 6th International Wine Business Meeting is taking place in Lleida, in eastern Catalonia. In this edition the guest country is Russia. The aim of this event is to promote Catalan exports and find new trade opportunities. Up to 20 Catalan wineries are participating at the meeting and considering whether to increase or open their exports to Russia. For their part, a dozen of the major wine and cava importers in Russia are attending the meeting with the aim of for new trading partners, which offer quality but which also make products that the average Russian consumer can afford.

El Vendrell, a coastal town near Tarragona in southern Catalonia, will hold from the 29th of September to the 30th of October some 20 activities to commemorate the 140th anniversary of Pau Casals’ birth. The programme for ‘Pau Casals Month’ includes conferences, concerts and exhibitions which aim to pay tribute to the prominent cellist. The two principal activities will be the talks given by Casals’s widow and the Abbot of Montserrat, Josep Maria Soler Canals. The commemoration, which last year went on for a week, has been extended to a month this 2016. El Vendrell’s Councillor for Culture, Eva Serramià, stated during the presentation of the programme on Monday that the goal of this extension is to “surpass the local sphere and situate El Vendrell in the international scene”.

The Catalan and Valencian governments, together with social and economic representatives, have created a common front to push for the execution of the plan for the Mediterranean Corridor Railway. On Monday, they urged the Spanish Government to change its attitude and undertake pending investments within a “credible timeframe”. In a document presented after the bilateral summit celebrated at Valencia’s Generalitat Palace, the representatives demanded the realisation of the Corridor’s technical configuration and the designation of a Technical Coordinator in order to build a piece of infrastructure that should have a “high capacity” and be “efficient”. The delays in the construction of the infrastructure are affecting private investment: in Catalonia and Valencia pending investments are worth €300 million, according to the Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull.

Catalonia’s Supreme Court said that Altafaj, head of the Catalan Government Delegation in Brussels, cannot use the title of Permanent Representative to the European Union. The judicial decision came after a complaint by the Spanish Government, which considers that such a title can only be used by member state diplomats. “There is nothing against the Catalan Government having a representative to the European Union or my current role”, said Altafaj. The Catalan diplomat in Brussels described the case against his title as “absurd”. “I am representing the Catalan Government to the EU with more determination than ever”, he said.

The former Catalan Minister and Catalan Democratic Party (PDC) spokesman in the Spanish Parliament, Francesc Homs, testified on Monday before the Spanish Supreme Court. The politician is being investigated for co-organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence in 2014. During his testimony the former Mminister stated that the consultation was “legal” because it “corresponded to the Catalan Parliament mandate”. Moreover, Homs claimed that the main Spanish institutions are not acting with autonomy but are rather “copycatting People’s Party interests”. “The sentence has been already been dictated” and “it is going to be condemnatory and not absolving”, said Homs with regret.

The former Catalan Minister and Catalan Democratic Party (PDC) spokesperson in the Spanish Parliament, Francesc Homs, is testifying this Monday in the Supreme Court for co-organising the 9th of November 2014 informal consultation on independence. The politician arrived at the Court accompanied by former Catalan President, Artur Mas, who, together with other Catalan Ministers, is also facing trial on charges of disobedience and perversion of justice. Homs has been summonsed “for listening to people’s demands and putting out ballot boxes” for the 9-N symbolic vote, the Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, said with regret.

The Spanish Government won’t file a criminal complaint against the Catalan Parliament’s President, Carme Forcadell, at least until Spain’s Constitutional Court decides on her suspension from office. After a reform passed by the People’s Party (PP) in 2015, the Court has the competency to dismiss public representatives and impose fines on them if they disobey a resolution. The Spanish Government filed a complaint against Forcadell over the declaration adopted by the Catalan Parliament last July that introduced a “democratic unilateral mechanism” to split from Spain. The Spanish Deputy Prime Minister, Soraya Sáenz de Santa María, stated this Friday that this is the “main procedure” for now.

The Catalan Minister for Planning and Sustainability, Josep Rull, has pointed to Spain’s lack of investment in the Mediterranean Corridor as the main cause for the collapse of TP Ferro, the concessionaire for the new high-speed (HS) railway between Spain and France. The number of trains circulating on the railway in 2015 was lower than expected. The estimations were 19,000 trains per year, but in fact only 800 trains used the infrastructure. “This is the result of the delay in the planned investments”, Rull said and regretted the "lack of interest" from the Spanish Government in a piece of infrastructure of "vital" importance for Catalonia.

Catalonia’s Supreme Court (TSJC) has dismissed this Thursday the appeals filed by former Catalan President Artur Mas, former Vice-President Joana Ortega and former Catalan Minister of Education Irene Rigau against their prosecution for alleged crimes of disobedience and administrative prevarication when organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence. The Court magistrates believe that it is necessary to go on with the prosecution of the defendants for having authorised and co-organised the consultation, which took place on 9 November 2014. In its resolution, the TSJC insists on the “conscious resistance” of the three politicians to the Spanish Constitutional Court’s suspension of the participatory process. The resolution arrives three days before former Catalan Minister for Presidency, Francesc Homs, is due to testify in Madrid for the same cause.

Catalan President, Carles Puigdemont, stated this Thursday that he “will do the same” as the previous Government did regarding the 9-N symbolic vote on independence, which took place in 2014. “If the Government has to make decisions in a comparable situation, we will do exactly the same and assume responsibility before those who believe that the Rule of Law is not reinforced by participation but through the Court”, he said. Puigdemont made this statement, joined by Catalan Vice President, Oriol Junqueras, after meeting with former Catalan Minister and Catalan Democratic Party (PDC) spokesman in the Spanish Parliament, Francesc Homs, who is due to testify before the Supreme Court for co-organising the 9-N symbolic vote on independence.

The Catalan Secretary of Universities and Research, Arcadi Navarro, and the President of the European Association for International Education (EAIE), Laura Howard, have a meeting next Friday September the 16^th to discuss the candidacy of Barcelona as the venue for EAIE 2020. This annual event is the largest higher education conference in Europe and its 28^th edition is currently taking place in Liverpool. Indeed, the meeting is going to be held within the framework of EAIE 2016. A Catalan delegation has set up a pavilion at the fair to improve the visibility of the Catalan higher education offer, from primary degrees to Master’s degrees and doctorates.