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The site of Empúries’ ruins will this summer include a new activity to complement your visit to the Greco-Roman site: the Emporiae Road to Rome Festival. The Road to Rome, organised by the Drakonia company from Figueres, will run from the 25 to 27 July 2014. The fast-paced and dynamic show will feature over 30 artists, ranging from riders, charioteers, dancers and legionaries, and 14 horses. Highlights of the festival will include a chariot race, something that has not been held in Spain for over 40 years. A circular stand has been installed right next to the Forum, with capacity for 2,500 people. Tickets to the festival, which will be held in the afternoons, will include a visit around the ruins of the site.

The Catalan President, Artur Mas, stated on Thursday that he is happy to meet with Spanish President Mariano Rajoy in Madrid anytime if he calls a meeting. “If you say to someone that you are available to meet him when he wants and he does not come back to you, you get the impression that he does not want to see you”, Mas admitted during a parliamentary session in Barcelona. The Catalan and the Spanish government have been embroiled in the last few days in a discussion on whether or not the Catalans have requested a meeting, and whether or not this is actually going to happen.

The future president of the European Commission said during a meeting with the EFA/Greens Group in the European Parliament that he does not want to interfere in the political process started in Scotland or Catalonia. “I greatly respect democratic expressions in European territories, but I do not have the arrogance nor the wish to try to get involved in a debate that affects the territorial and political organization of member states”, said Juncker. The PPC candidate to the top job of the EU added that the Catalan situation “should be solved in Spain” and not in Brussels.

In Girona there are 65 music festivals and more than 250 performances scheduled throughout the year. Often, however, these festivals are not marketed effectively abroad and there is a lack of international promotion. Therefore, the Costa Brava Tourism Board has facilitated the creation of a single brand, through a website that brings together all of the different musical delights on offer in the region, in order to make these events more accessible and better advertised. For now, the site costabravagironafestivals.com gives the music festival programme for Girona, but has a goal to expand to include theatre, circus and dance events.

The Agricultural Science and Technology Park of Lleida (PCiTAL) celebrated its 9th anniversary on Monday, and did so "reaffirming its commitment to the economic future of Lleida", according to the Mayor Àngel Ros. The park hosts some 111 organisations, comprising of 89 companies, 14 research and development centres and 8 research groups. This constitutes five times the number of businesses that were based in the park just five years ago, representing a 540% growth. Significantly, there are more than 1,400 people employed in the park´s facilities, many of them young people. The turnover of the Agricultural Science and Technology Park of Lleida has reached €102.5 million, with an annual growth of 30%.

The director of the Dalí Theatre-Museum, Antoni Pitxot, stated on Monday that he does not contemplate changing the functioning of the museum in the event of Catalan independence. "I think there will be no conflict because the museum was created by Dali and an intelligent leader would never put any obstacles to the continuation of his great work" said Pitxot, who was a close friend of the artist until his death in 1989. Pitxot also stressed that the museum and its collection is "not divisible". In his last will, Salvador Dalí named Spain as the universal heir to his property, and the state negotiated with the Catalan government to leave 134 works of art in Figueres and bequeath 56 to Madrid.

The Catalan Government forecasts that unemployment will fall to 21.7% in 2014, and will be below 20% in 2015. This is according to the Macroeconomic Forecasts report published by the Catalan Ministry of the Economy on Monday. The report confirms the recovery of the Catalan economy, which has accumulated positive growth since the second quarter of 2013. For 2015, the Catalan Government expects the economy to grow 2.1%.

The Catalan Government has presented a new strategy to boost important industries such as chemical, energy and resources, design, sustainable mobility or healthcare. Those sectors will have, by September, a team of experts that will include members of Government and the most important companies, and will prepare strategic plans to help them develop further. The Catalan President, Artur Mas, said on Friday that Catalonia needs its industries, and urged businesspeople to work together with him in order to improve the state of the economy.

A newly published book, 'Catalunya de Pel·lícula' offers 25 trails, covering 300 sites across 145 Catalan towns that have together featured in over 175 films. The work aims to be a reference guide for all those tourists interested in the world of cinema, who want to learn famous Catalan destinations through thematic routes linked to films. The book, written by author Eugeni Osácar and published by the Department of the Catalan Tourism Agency, was presented on Thursday at the Palau Robert by Catalan Minister for Enterprise and Employment, Felip Puig.

A team of surgeons at the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital in the Catalan capital successfully removed a tumour from a five year old child by first preparing and practicing the “highly complex” procedure on a 3D printed tumour. The child had neuroblastoma, a difficult cancer to extirpate because of the surrounding blood vessels and arteries. In such cases, testing the procedure in advance "is key" because it allows surgeons to study the most effective way of extracting the tumour without damaging other tissues, and to test the method before surgery. This has been possible thanks to the use of a 3D replica of the tumour.

Josep Oliu admitted in an interview that the bank “does not have a plan B” in case of a break-up of Catalonia from Spain. The chairman of the Catalan financial institution admitted that they do not contemplate the independence of Catalonia as a feasible scenario. “Reaching agreements, changing some things, giving in a bit, trying to find a settlement suitable for everyone, that’s what we are all hoping for”, Oliu said. Commenting on the state of the economy, the banker regretted that politicians in government in Spain and Catalonia seem to be “ashamed” of the economic policies that they are introducing, when they should “explain to people that they are reasonable”.

At the end of June 2014, the unemployment lists in Catalonia registered 570,214 people, 22,090 fewer than in May, and 47,074 fewer than in June of last year, according to the Spanish Ministry of Employment and Social Security. These figures represent a decrease of 3.73% in the number of unemployed between May and June, and even more significantly, a decrease of 7.63% between June 2013 and June 2014. This reduction of 47,074 persons in annual terms constitutes the greatest fall in unemployment registered in Catalonia since 1998, 16 years ago. Catalonia has experienced the largest decreases in the numbers of people unemployed of any autonomous community in Spain.

The MEPs from the Centre-Right pro-Catalan State (CiU), Ramon Tremosa and Francesc Gambús, and the MEP from the Basque Nationalist Party (PNB), Izaskun Bilbao, wrote to the re-elected President of the European Parliament stating that the use of Catalan, Basque and Galician languages in the plenary just depends on a “political decision”. The MEPs asked the leader of the Chamber, a former bookshop owner, to show “respect” for their languages. Tremosa, Gambús and Bilbao said that the decision would cost nothing to the European Parliament as many Spanish translators also speak Catalan, Basque or Galician.

James Costos confirmed that the United States and its enterprises “are watching” the political process in Catalonia and are “of course interested in what the outcome will be”. The representative of the US government in Spain said in Madrid that in the event that “things change,” business needs to be prepared for this. “Business leaders have to look at things that are coming down the pike and take decisions based on that”, he stated.

On Sunday 29 June, a stellar cast performed 'Ferran Adrià and the factory of solidarity food', a comedy show which aimed to share the secrets of Catalan haute cuisine while raising money for the Casal dels Infants, a community centre for children in need. The Grand Theatre of Liceu was chosen as the venue where internationally renowned Catalan chefs Ferran Adrià, Carme Ruscalleda, Cristian Escribà and Joan Roca demonstrated how to cook in an 18th century kitchen, to commemorate the tercentenary of the War of Spanish Succession of 1714. Familiar faces such as journalist Josep Cuní or chef Alberto Chicote also participated in the show.