government

Convergència Democràtica de Catalunya (CDC), which is the Liberal party within the governing centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU, has announced the sale of its headquarters, based in Barcelona. CDC, whose leader chairs the Catalan Government since 2010, has justified the decision in order "to save money", as they will relocate their activities in a smaller building, better adapted to the party's current needs, they said. However, the Córcega building is famous for being CDC's warranty before the judge investigating a corruption case (known as the Palau case) that could affect the party's funding scheme. The judge asked the CDC to pay a bailout or present assets as warranty for the payment, if the party was finally found guilty of illegal funding. No trial has taken place yet. The CDC explained they have replaced the headquarters by a group of other properties as warranty, in order to sell the main building.

The Catalan Government President and leader of the centre-right pro-Catalan State coalition CiU, Artur Mas, complained on Wednesday that his ally, the left-wing pro-independence party ERC, is not fully honouring their agreement to call elections on 27 September, which should become a 'de facto' vote on independence. According to Mas, the ERC is not offering its full parliamentary support to the Government. "There is an agreement signed in January, and it is also an agreement that talks about stability until elections are called" and "some [parliamentary] votes are being lost, which harm such a stability agreement", he said. Furthermore, he stated that elections will be "expectedly" held on 27 September and did not rule out the option of running in a cross-party list yet. The leader of the left-wing party, Oriol Junqueras, replied that the ERC is honouring the agreement and that Catalans will vote on 27 September.

The governments of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Andalusia, the Canary Islands and Asturias, which are the only Autonomous Communities that are not run by the governing People's Party (PP), have protested once again against yet another recentralising measure of the Spanish Executive that violates their exclusive powers on Education. The representatives of these 5 Autonomous Communities, which together represent almost 50% of Spain's population, left a meeting organised by the Spanish Minister for Education, José Ignacio Wert, held to present a new centralist and imposed measure in this field: from now on, the final exams of the obligatory education cycle and the baccalaureate (A-levels) will be drafted by the Spanish Government, which will make sure they are "homogenous" for the whole of Spain, as Wert said. Far from being anecdotal, the measure means subjects such as History of Catalonia, Catalan Geography and Catalan Language and Literature will not be included in the exams or will be treated as second-class subjects. 

CataloniaVotes.eu provides an international audience with basic information on Catalonia as well as its self-determination process. On Thursday 22 April, the website will celebrate its 1^st anniversary with almost 150,000 hits. According to its traffic statistics, people based in the USA, the UK and France were its top followers in these first 12 months. The website is an initiative of the Public Diplomacy Council of Catalonia (Diplocat), an organisation backed by the Catalan Government, the 4 Provincial Councils, universities, chambers of commerce, the main business-owner associations, trade unions and FC Barcelona, among other public and private institutions. CataloniaVotes is available in English, German and French.

L'Amical de Ravensbrück association and the Catalan Government commemorated the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany on Sunday. The association of Catalan survivors of this Nazi camp and their relatives organised the event, in which some of the camp survivors participated, including Neus Catalá - the only living Spanish survivor of Ravensbrück. The commemoration coincided with celebration of Neus Catalá, aged 99, who this year was given the Gold Medal of the Government of Catalonia, the highest award given by the institution.

B-Travel is a Barcelona-based tourism show bringing together some 215 exhibitors from across the industry and more than 50 different destinations. The event, one of the most important of its kind in Europe, kicked off on Friday at Fira de Barcelona's Montjuïc venue, taking over Catalonia's International Tourism Fair after 23 years. Conceived as a new meeting point for travellers and tourism companies seeking enriched customer experiences, it aims at tailoring the tourist offering to each visitor's needs. This year, attendees can sign up to the B- Travel Internet Community upon their arrival and receive customised information on the vast array of tourism offers on display, focusing on specific types of tourism such as cultural, gastronomic, shopping, rural, and adventure sports, among others.

The highest-ranked officer of the Catalan Government's Police Force Mossos d'Esquadra, Chief Josep Lluís Trapero, has accused the Spanish Police Force of not sharing important information that affects Catalonia's security. Despite the Mossos d'Esquadra force being in charge of the main police tasks for Catalonia, it does not have access to relevant intelligence that the Spanish Police receives from international organisations and foreign police corps. Trapero emphasised that the Catalan Police has international level powers since 2006 and therefore is legally entitled to receive such information. However, the Spanish Police always keeps it for itself, which "makes our work more difficult", complained Trapero, and thus diminishes Catalonia's overall security.

The 33^rd edition of the Barcelona International Comic Fair opened its doors on Thursday. The event is an initiative organised by FICOMIC, a non-profit entity aimed at spreading comic and Japanese manga culture. This year it is taking place from the 16^th to the 19^th of April at the Fira de Barcelona’s Montjuïc venue. The fair has increased its exhibition surface from 32,000 square metres in 2014 to 36,000 this year, and the number of exhibitors has grown from 161 to 165. The Joker and Captain America will be among the main characters at the event and different genres of comics will be on display: from science fiction to heroic fantasy comics, through to humorous comics. In total, the event will host 19 exhibitions by national and international authors. Patrici Tixis, FICOMIC President, has declared that he hopes that the fair will attract 100.000 visitors in its 2015 edition.

As was expected, the Constitutional Court has accepted the Spanish Government's appeal against the Catalan Law on External Action and Relations with the EU, which was approved last November and was already foreseen in the 2006 Catalan Statute of Autonomy. The Court's acceptance of a Spanish Government appeal automatically represents a temporary suspension of the legal measure for an initial 5-month period. The temporary suspension does not mean that the law will ultimately be suspended, but that there are enough reasons to study whether the Catalan law fits within the Constitution or not. According to the Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy, the law goes beyond the Catalan Government's attributions and invades the Spanish Executive's exclusive powers regarding international relations and the direction of Spain's external policy.

The Spanish Home Affairs Minister, Jorge Fernández Díaz, linked Islamic terrorism with immigration and organisations working for Catalonia's independence. Fernández Díaz made this controversial statement last week, after the Catalan Government's Police Force arrested 11 alleged jihadists in Greater Barcelona. His words were reacted to by Catalan politicians and opinion makers. However, Fernández Díaz and other members of the Spanish Government have insisted on linking jihadist terrorism with the peaceful movement for Catalonia's independence as well as with immigration in general. On Tuesday, the Catalan Minister for the Presidency, Francesc Homs, accused Fernández Díaz of acting in "a total reckless" way, an attitude that puts "the entire Spain in danger". The Spanish Minister replied to this, saying that he rejected any "lessons about security" from those who want to split from Spain.

The Euromed ministerial conference held in Barcelona on Monday 13 April has ended with agreement on a number of initiatives to fight jihadist terrorism. The informal meeting gathered together the foreign affairs ministers of 22 European Union Member States and 10 southern Mediterranean countries and is the most important Euromed conference since 2008. They discussed irregular immigration, trade and Islamic terrorism. In regard to the latter, they agreed on increasing cooperation and information exchange between them to face this threat, as well as improving the education offered to young people, so as to avoid recruitment by jihadist activists, explained the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and European Commission Vice President, Federica Mogherini. Besides this, the Spanish Foreign Affairs Minister, José Manuel García-Margallo, also insisted on his proposal to create an International Penal Court for Terrorism.

In front of the foreign affairs ministers of 22 European Union Member States, those of the southern Mediterranean countries and the Spanish PM, Mariano Rajoy, gathered in Barcelona for a summit on trade and the fight against jihadism, the Catalan Government President, Artur Mas, said in his opening speech that "Catalonia and Barcelona were born as Mediterranean and have developed as both Mediterranean and European". The Catalan President, who addressed the audience in Spanish, English, Catalan and French, also stressed that Catalonia's future horizons are "always Mediterranean and European", underlining "the umbilical cord with Europe and the Carolingian Empire that has never been broken". "We have the vocation of being a Mediterranean and European capital city", he added. In turn, Rajoy highlighted that Barcelona is "the Spanish capital of the Mediterranean".

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.

The Catalan Government earned €41 million last year thanks to the tourist tax, which represents a 6.56% increase over the figures from 2013. Since this tax was created in November 2012 with the aim of increasing revenue for reducing public deficit and having greater resources for tourism promotion, €82.3 million has been collected. Catalonia has been increasing its number of foreign visitors over the last two years, posting record figures of 15.6 million in 2013 and 16.7 million in 2014. Tourists pay the tax, which ranges from €0.50 to €2.50 per night per person, in relation to the type of accommodation, and the location. The tax includes several exceptions, such as for children, and it is not paid on stays of over 7 nights.

Sónar+D is an international professional conference for creativity and technological innovation, which coincides with Barcelona's Sónar Festival of electronic and advanced music. The 3^rd edition of the professional event will take place in Barcelona on the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th of June 2015, at the same time as the popular and prestigious music festival. Its main aim is to bring together international experts presenting initiatives and tools that will shape future creative experiences in the fields of music, visuals, and interactive content and transmedia platforms. This year, 4,000 professionals and 2,000 companies from all over the world will take part in the event, a remarkable leap forward on last year's figures. "It is not just a fair or a conference", Sonar co-Director Ricard Robles said on Thursday. "It is a 360-degree, all encompassing event, a point of interaction between the creative and technological communities".