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The French defender has signed a season long deal, with the option of a further year. Abidal returns to the football club where he played from 2000-2002 before signing for Lyon. Abidal played for Barça between 2007 and 2013. The Catalan club and the player announced in late May he will not continue playing with FC Barcelona in the next season. Abidal’s touching farewell took place in early June at the Camp Nou, after he had played the last 15 minutes of the FC Barcelona vs Malaga game.

On Friday, the Spanish Government approved a proposal of law strengthening market unity, officially aiming to simplify the bureaucratic and legal framework in which companies operate. However, the Catalan Executive fears Madrid’s reform does not really aim to boost the economy and help companies, but to recentralise power. Barcelona thinks that the new proposal “radically modifies” the current distribution of competences on economic regulation and it aims to recentralise power. The Catalan Government hopes that the definitive law will be significantly changed in relation to the current proposal, as otherwise Barcelona will totally oppose the initiative. Catalonia is critical of the current proposal and accuses it of “homogenising the Autonomous Communities”.

CNA interviews, Albert Adrià, the dessert chef of El Bulli, which was run by his brother Ferran Adrià and was recognised as the best restaurant in the world on five occasions. BCN 5.0 is the new project by the Adrià brothers, with five different high level restaurants located on Barcelona’s Paral·lel Avenue. Although it is an associative idea, it is a personal dream of Albert Adrià, which has already three restaurants in the same area: Tickets, a Spanish tapas gastrobar; 41º, with one Michelin star, and PAKTA, a Japanese-Peruvian Nikkei one. Three new establishments will complete the BCN 5.0 project.

On Thursday, the Parliament of Catalonia set up the parliamentary committee for the right to self-determination with the support of all parties except the Spanish nationalists People’s Party – which runs the Spanish Government – and the anti-Catalan nationalism Ciutadans. 80% of MPs support the creation of this commission, which will study legal ways to organise a self-determination vote in Catalonia. The Speaker of the Catalan Parliament, Núria de Gispert, will chair the committee due to its importance. De Gispert has guaranteed she will play the “neutral” role of “moderator”. On the same day, the youth of the parties supporting the creation of this committee signed a manifesto backing up Catalonia’s right to self-determination.

Catalonia’s industrial sector decreased by 1.1% in 2012 due to the economic crisis. Catalan companies exported products for €58.28 billion, the highest figure ever. This represented 5.7% more than in 2011 and 15.4% more than in 2008. Exports from Catalonia represented 26.2% of Spain’s total exports in 2012. Furthermore, foreign investment in industrial projects in Catalonia increased by 6.2% last year compared to 2011. Therefore, the highest volume of exports ever and an increase in foreign investment in industrial projects meant that the Catalan industrial sector decreased at a slower pace (-1.1%) than the Spanish average (-2.9%). The lack of access to bank credit is the main obstacle for corporate investments, stated the Catalan Government. The other great obstacle is the poor internal demand.

50% of tumours are related to mutations of this gene, according to the researchers. A study developed by the Bellvitge Institute of Biomedical Research (IBIDELL), based in Greater Barcelona, and the University of Cincinnati have discovered the role of the noncoding 5S rRNA molecule. This molecule regulates the P53 Tumour Suppressor Gene, which protects healthy cells from turning into cancerous cells. When the cell functions correctly, the levels of P53 are low and stable, but when something wrong is detected, the levels increase and cause the cell’s death, avoiding the development of a tumour. The director of the study, George Thomas, explained that understanding how the P53 works and regulates itself is extremely important since “more than half of the tumours present mutations of this gene”.

Following a petition by the Spanish Public Prosecutor Office, the judge has called Germà Gordó, the Catalan Minister of Justice, to testify as witness in the alleged influence peddling case of the allocation of licenses to technical vehicle inspection garages. This case affects the ‘Number 3’ of the governing Centre-Right Catalan Nationalist Coalition (CiU), Oriol Pujol, since the Supreme Court of Catalonia (TSJ) suspects he could have participated in irregular allocation of these licenses. At the time the alleged incidents happened, Gordó was not the Justice Minister but the Secretary of the Catalan Government, a key position overseeing all the daily decisions of the Executive. The TSJ wants to hear Gordó’s version of the tender procedure. Besides, Pujol’s defence has called the former Catalan Business Minister as a witness, since his department was running the tender.

The exposure to music during in vitro fertilisation has a positive impact on the fecundity rate of egg cells according to a study developed by the assisted reproduction centre Institut Marquès, based in Barcelona. The study concludes that the micro vibrations in the music shake the culture liquid in which the ovum swims and this improves the distribution of nutrients and also avoids the accumulation of toxic products. As a result, the fertilisation of the ovum is facilitated and the success rate is improved by 4.8%. Three styles of music were tested (pop, heavy metal and classical) but no significant differences were observed in relation to the different frequencies.

The Catalan capital will host the certification and inspection lab that the China Certification & Inspection Group (CCIC) will base in Europe to analyse and validate the products that the Asian giant imports. The Chinese company will initially invest €2 million in its Barcelona centre, which will be built in the Zona Franca industrial and business district, located next to the city’s port and airport. The CCIC carries out the inspection, verification and certification of foreign products entering the Chinese market. The news was confirmed on Tuesday by the CCIC’s President, Zhan Li Qiang, in a meeting in Beijing with a business delegation from the Barcelona City Council. A year ago, the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias, met the CCIC in Hong Kong.

Registered unemployment in Catalonia decreased by 3.87% in June compared to the previous month’s figures. June is a month when unemployment tends to be reduced due to summer jobs, but last month registered the highest drop since 1996. The total number of people registered as unemployed at the Catalan Public Employment Service (SOC) by the end of June reached 617,288 individuals. However, compared to a year ago, registered unemployment increased by 1,712 people, 0.28% more than in June 2012. In the whole of Spain, registered unemployment also increased in annual terms (+3.2%) and decreased compared to a month ago (-2.6%). Catalonia is the Autonomous Community where unemployment decreased the most in monthly terms. Furthermore, in the Lleida Province (Western Catalonia), unemployment also decreased in annual terms.

The Italian ferry company has built a 63,000 square metre terminal at the Costa dock, with an investment of €20 million and a capacity of 3,600 passengers per day. The new terminal will allow the city of Barcelona to gain a new urban area, since the space accessing and surrounding the terminal will be integrated into the city for the first time. Urban planning work will be concluded by the end of the year, announced the Mayor of Barcelona, Xavier Trias. The terminal has restaurants, bars, shops and free Wi-fi, and will allow the boarding of passengers and goods.

On Saturday evening, 90,000 people gathered in FC Barcelona Camp Nou stadium to attend a concert backing Catalonia’s right to self-determination. The event, organised by a civil society entity – Òmnium Cultural – and without public funding, called for a self-determination referendum in 2014. The two largest political parties in Catalonia, which share a parliamentary stability pact, stated that a specific date for a self-determination vote should be fixed after December 2013. In addition, they insisted that the Catalan President will send a letter to the Spanish Prime Minister in July asking for this vote to be organised. However, in Madrid, the reactions have been almost non-existent. The Spanish Justice Minister insisted that a referendum would be illegal since sovereignty is rooted into the Spanish people as a whole.

The Catalan Ombudsman, Rafael Ribó, accused the Spanish Government of trying “to manipulate” data in its report last week, in order to push forward a recentralisation reform, which “goes against the self-government principle”. Ribó explained that the Spanish Ombudsman undertook 33,849 actions in 2012, which means each action cost an average of €428. In addition, it refused to accept 20,164 complaints. Meanwhile, the Catalan Ombudsman undertook 25,073 actions, with a cost of €279 each. The Catalan institution only rejected 267 complaints. Regarding resolutions and recommendations, the Spanish Ombudsman issued 548 while the Catalan body issued 3,635. This means that each resolution by the Spanish body cost €26,447 while the Catalan’s cost €1,925, which is 13.75 times less.

The Brazilian team are currently 16th in the Campeonato Brasileño Serie A after five matches. Neymar's former team will have to face the challenge of overcoming the sale of its biggest star. Santos’ participation in the Joan Gamper Trophy was agreed upon when Barça signed the Brazilian forward. From Wednesday July 3, tickets go on sale for the FC Barcelona v Santos match for the Joan Gamper Trophy. For this game, the font used on the Barça shirt will be different to the usual one. A special typography designed by Anna Vives will be used.

France will not allow High-Speed Trains from Barcelona to Central and Northern Europe to run at their maximum velocity since it refuses to build the 156 kilometre high-speed railway stretch between Perpignan and Montpellier. This infrastructure has been declared to be one of the European Union’s strategic transport priorities, since it connects the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of the continent via the Mediterranean Railway Corridor. Many years ago, the French Government promised to build this stretch before 2020, an engagement reconfirmed by Sarkozy’s executive. However, the current Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has paused work on the project and delayed it until after 2030.