Catalonia closed the month of June with 2,142 new companies. According to the provisional data on the formation of commercial companies from the National Institute of Statistics, the Principality increased new business activity by 9.8% year-on-year, after a June 2025 that already approached historical records. In fact, according to INE records, it is the best June in terms of the inauguration of new companies in the historical series, with data available since 2008.

On Monday, July 20, the creation of the Catalan Centre for Business and Human Rights (CCDH) was made official, a demand from Catalan civil society that, after many negotiations with different governments and failed attempts, has finally seen the light. At a time when the West seems to question the rules of global governance (supposedly) inspired by its values and driven by its supremacy, the emergence of such an institution in Catalonia is no small matter.Without a shadow of a doubt, it is the small artifact that can be given to a small country, recalling the song. Its value lies, once again, in proposing an anti-cyclical image, totally opposed to the spirit of times when the jurists of the International Criminal Court receive sanctions from the world's leading power for trying to make international law something more than a vademecum of forgotten laws. If Josep Pla were alive, it would be a truly typical local absurdity, effectively characteristic of the Gallic village into which we are turning, at a state and European level, in recent times, regarding (very) minimally coherent foreign policy.

Let's think about what is needed for an economy to produce goods and services. At the center are the people who work, individually or organized in large or small companies. We all use tools, machinery, and infrastructure. We depend heavily on others, our suppliers: we are not Robinson Crusoe doing everything alone. Finally, there are the different levels of government, which set the rules of the game, enforce them, and directly manage a significant part of the economy's resources (almost half of what we produce).

The co-founder and executive president of Holaluz, Carlota Pi, receives ARA a few hours after the company has presented the allegations against the file from the Ministry of Ecological Transition that opens the door to the disqualification of the company as a marketer. First thing the next day, at the company's offices, Pi defends that Holaluz's business model is "one hundred percent viable" and that, what it needs, is "scale". She cannot confirm or deny that an alleged non-payment to large electricity companies is the reason for the possible disqualification. She defends, however, that the company's debt "is not excessive, not by a long shot".

Renewable energy companies, research centers, and professionals are sounding an alarm: "It has been a very, very, very bad year," assured Víctor Cusí, one of the spokespeople for the Observatory of Renewable Energies of Catalonia (OBERCat), during the presentation of the annual report.

The Catalan energy company Holaluz has gone from being considered a success story to being one step away from losing its operating license. Last week, the Spanish government began the procedures to withdraw its consideration as an electricity marketer and a procedure to transfer their clients to other reference companies. However, what has happened since the applause in entrepreneurship forums and the headlines for Holaluz to have reached this point?

News at various levels in the Catalan wine sector. Just weeks after the renewal of the presidency of the Regulatory Council of Cava, which placed Marta Vidal at the head of the designation of origin (DO) of Spanish sparkling wines, the employers' association of producers will have to change its president. The direction of Barcelona Wine Week, the main wine event in the country's capital, is also being reshaped. Outside the vineyard, PepsiCo is undertaking an appointment in its human resources department, and Ikea in Spain seeks to build "an increasingly relevant, close, and accessible brand".

A bag of salad, some cookies, cat food, or the plastic label from a water bottle. It's hard to find a supermarket without some kind of flexible packaging. They are present, on average, in half of the products, even up to 80%. But behind these wrappers lies an industry practically invisible to the consumer, yet essential for products to be promoted on shelves. From Riudellots de la Selva, in the urban area of Girona, Comexi has been developing the technology for over seventy years that allows for the printing and transformation of this type of packaging, a global market where it competes with some of the world's leading manufacturers.

Can you imagine if the president of the Spanish government, Pedro Sánchez, or the French president, Emmanuel Macron, quadrupled or quintupled their wealth during their term in office? Many of the corruption cases we are experiencing in this country, despite being extraordinarily serious, might seem like amateur games compared to Donald Trump's practices since he arrived at the White House. This first year in office, he has continued doing business (he and his family, directly or indirectly), despite being president and applying a very mercantile diplomacy and international policy as well.

Chef Gessamí Caramés (l’Ametlla de Mar, 1992) finished her degree in audiovisual communication and realized it wasn't her path. She saw her classmates dedicated with a passion she didn't share. Without realizing it, cooking was becoming the center of her life. She dedicated her free time to cooking, watching gastronomic programs and recipe books, and investing her savings in kitchenware.

The housing crisis is also a drag on business growth. This is according to a report prepared by the SME Observatory of the Catalan employers' association of small and medium-sized enterprises, Pimec, which indicates that one out of every two businesses in the country has renounced applying growth measures – from expanding staff to opening new production centers – due to the residential pressure suffered by both the company and the workers.

Until the forties, the Hungarian football league had been a matter of three: the vast majority of titles had been shared between Ferencváros, MTK, and Újpest Dózsa, the three great clubs of Budapest. But coinciding with the Second World War, a modest team from Csepel Island emerged, which was precisely called Csepel SC. It broke the prevailing hegemony thanks to its victories in 1942, 1943, and 1948. By the way, four years after the last title, during the 1951/52 season, Csepel SC had a young forward in its ranks destined to make history: his name was Zoltán Czibor, and some time later he would tread the Camp Nou to triumph dressed in blaugrana.

In Europe, as always, we love to legislate. One of the latest regulations to come into force, on July 1st, is the obligation to have the MiCA license (an EU authorization) to operate with cryptocurrencies in European territory. Until that date, there were about 3,000 companies that allowed buying, selling, and custody of cryptocurrencies. However, only 210 have obtained the license and only 14 have it fully operational. In practice, how does this affect us?

Ezequiel (Zequi) Giró, president of Grup Giró, shares the same name as his grandfather, the company's founder, and his father. Around four out of every ten fruit and vegetable mesh containers worldwide have come from the factories of this family business from Badalona, which celebrated its first century last year. With its annual mesh production, one could travel more than 36 times around the Earth or go to the Moon and back almost twice. Production will increase from the end of next year, when a plant in Morocco, which will be the sixth, plus two more for machinery, will begin operating, with an investment of 20 million. This year, the group is looking towards 200 million in turnover, after closing 2025 with consolidated sales of 190 million and an operating result of 25 million, explain at the company's central headquarters in Badalona, Giró and his nephew, Àlex Rivière Giró, who is the CEO.

10.623 million euros has been the tax collection by the Treasury in this year's income tax campaign. We can debate whether it is a lot or a little, but it has grown by 53% compared to last year. And the truth is that it makes perfect sense.

Night of January 20, 1985. Location of Zuoz, in the Swiss canton of Grisons. Two masked men move silently through one of the rooms of the Lyceum Alpinum boarding school, where the children of Central Europe's great fortunes study. They wake a 19-year-old young man who was sleeping peacefully and convince him to accompany them when they show him a pistol. After hours of travel in a car confined to the trunk, they lock him in a room and force him to record a message for his family in which he asks for a ransom of 15 million German marks, quite a fortune (about 825 million pesetas at that time, or almost 5 million euros).

Movements at the top of Grifols in the United States. These movements suggest that the Catalan hemoderivatives company continues with its intention to take part of its biopharmaceutical business in the North American country to the stock market. Another move this week has been the announcement that the director of the State Tax Agency, Soledad Fernández, will leave her post, which has occurred just as the income tax campaign is closing.

The covid-19 pandemic blew up part of the economic postulates that had prevailed in Europe since the financial crisis. Thus, for example, member states agreed to approve European funds Next Generation, that just end this August; but there was also consensus on suspending fiscal rules. To both of these was added an element: the European Commission's relaxation of EU rules on state aid. Thanks to this, the Spanish government was able to create in July 2020 the Fund for the Support of the Solvency of Strategic Companies (FASEE, in its Spanish acronym), conceived as a kind of rescue fund and managed by the State Industrial Participations Society (SEPI), an entity dependent on the Ministry of Finance. Six years later, what was the most desired pandemic measure for some companies is experiencing a reputational headache: the shadow of corruption pursues it.

The L'Azure hotel in Lloret de Mar closed its doors in 2018 as a two-star establishment, and when it reopened, more than two years and 35 million euros of investment later, it had four. It had become a high-end hotel. In the last decade, this segment of the offer has gained weight in Catalonia to become the majority, going from representing 47.41% to 56.93% of the total.

Ferran Martínez (Barcelona, 1968) shone with Barça, Penya, the Spanish national team, and Panathinaikos during the 80s and 90s. But even then, he was preparing for a new life as an entrepreneur and financial advisor. Martínez meets with ARA on a Barcelona terrace, where for over an hour he talks about businesses, quantum computing, and AI. And about basketball, of course. He now publishes The Algorithm of Success (EmpreBooks), a book where he uses his sporting experience to understand the business world.