Search Results for: Catalan

CYPRUS is under pressure to appoint a full-time prosecutor working with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO), with the EPPO’s chief prosecutor Laura Kövesi claiming 10% of the office’s 3,000 anticipated initial cases will involve this small island country.

Kövesi was addressing a joint meeting of the European Parliament’s committees on civil liberties, justice and home affairs and budgetary control, saying the claim was based on data received from the 22 European Union (EU) member states participating in the EPPO, which includes offshore banking centre Cyprus.…

Like other European cities, the sheer number of cheap nail salons that have exploded in Barcelona in recent years has reached saturation point. There is one, however, that has a waiting list. Dvine creates the ‘art nails’ that have become the statement accessory of Rosalia, the Catalan singing sensation who swept the 2020 Grammy Awards.…

The European Commission has launched a new European Union (EU) Wine Market Observatory, an EU-organised body drawing on wine sector expertise to generate and make available market analyses, short-term outlook reports and assessments of medium-term prospects for Europe’s wine sector. A formal launch meeting in Brussels on November 4 was told its goal is to give EU wine makers more insight on potential wine markets and how their competitors are innovating in pricing, production and trade, helping EU winemakers understand and manage market volatility.…

SPAIN’S personal care product market is continuing to grow after years of post-financial crisis weakness. Spain’s skincare, cosmetic and perfume industry continues to mature, and has turned in solid sales figures for 2017, reflecting the optimistic mood of the economy after the ‘lost’ years of the recession.…

Green and European Free Alliance (EFA) members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are calling on the Spanish government to block a requested extradition to Switzerland of a French-Italian whistleblower arrested in Spain on April 4.  Hervé Falciani revealed details of 100,000 accounts held by French nationals, including politicians and celebrities, to France’s then finance minister Christine Lagarde (now managing director of the International Monetary Fund – IMF) in 2006 and 2007 when working as a computer scientist at HSBC’s Swiss affiliate.…

OVER a sunny weekend in May 2017, 74,000 people headed to Barcelona’s Palau Sant Jordi, a futuristic events space built for the city’s 1992 Olympic Games, and many were going to learn about Spain’s organic and natural cosmetics products. On other occasions, these impressive numbers would be expected for the international pop stars who regularly perform here.…

THE SPANISH book sector has declared that it is optimistic about growth in sales at its annual LIBER International Book Fair, which wrapped up on Friday (Oct 14). A statement from the organisers said that there was a “positive feeling about the sector’s upswing”.…

MIRRORING how Spain is crawling out of its long recession, the country’s personal care product market is recovering. UK-based market researchers Euromonitor released a report last month concluding: “After years of decline in value terms, beauty and personal care finally saw a positive performance in Spain in 2015.”…

A strong demand for ‘jamón serrano’ – or dry-cured ham – in Asia, the US, and Canada has prompted Spain’s meat major Grupo Cañigueral to acquire Far Jamón Serrano SA, a company that specialises in the product. Jamón serrano is considered to be one of the Spain’s most prestigious and unique foodstuffs. …

‘LA TORRE PUIG,’ the 22-storey Puig Tower now being fitted out in the Plaza de Europa, of the Catalan capital, Barcelona, for Puig SL, the family owned fragrances and fashion firm, will be yet another landmark building for one of Europe’s most beautiful cities.…

SPANISH cava and fine wines exporter Freixenet is stonewalling questions about reports that it could be on the verge of acquiring a bodega in the Rías Baixas area of Galicia, northwest Spain.

“We neither confirm nor deny this,” Freixenet spokeswoman Marta Raventos told just-drinks after Spanish-language drinks and food newsletter Alimarket suggested that the privately-held Catalan firm could soon re-establish a winemaking presence of its own in the area.…

BY ROBERT STOKES

GRUPO Planeta, Spain’s foremost publishing and media group, has started distributing its entire Spanish language catalogue through Apple España’s iBookstore.

e-books from 24 of Planeta’s imprints can now be downloaded via iPad, iPhone, iPod touch and www.itunes.es

Leading Spanish and international authors feature among more than a thousand digital titles.…

BY PAUL RIGG

THE DIRECTOR of Spanish e-book platform Libranda has welcomed an announcement at LIBER, the international book fair for the Spanish speaking world, that Spain’s ruling socialists plan to "super-reduce" e-book IVA [VAT] to 4%. The announcement came from Alfredo Rubalcaba, who is the socialists’ candidate to become prime minister in the upcoming Spanish elections next month.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CATALAN sparkling wine producer Freixenet SA has failed to persuade the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to permit the pan-European trademarking of its classic frosted glass bottle (in black and white). This case focused on whether judges thought the design was sufficiently distinctive and famous across Europe for it to attract trademark rights preventing other drinks producers aping this bottle.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

AS Barack Obama wrestles with the challenge of pushing healthcare reform through the US Congress, he could create political capital by highlighting the need to fight fraud in the sector. Keith Nuthall reports.

IT is something of a sacred cow.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

CATALAN wine producer Castell del Remei has lost a case at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Court of First Instance where it has been trying to gain approval for registering a trademark ‘Castell del Remei ODA’. This has been opposed by Rioja producer Bodegas Roda, which has claimed rights to the trademark ‘RODA’, and which it fears would be confused with Castell del Remei’s ‘ODA’.…

BY ALAN OSBORN

Fact box – Andorra

Population of country: 76,875 (2004)

Number of students enrolled at university: 718

Percentage of students native to the country where the university is located: 60%

Percentage of eligible population attending university: 10% (see text)

INTERNVIEW

IT’S something of a surprise to find that a country as small as Andorra has its own university, and perhaps easy to be a little patronising about it.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
TINY, mountainous and very very friendly to rich people with plenty of cash to stash away, Andorra ought to be a money launderer’s paradise. On balance, anti money laundering people say that it is not, though the relentless culture of secrecy about financial matters makes this impossible to say with certainty.…