José Canal, undersecretary of State, represented the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport in the solemn act of reception as honorary academics of the Royal European Academy of Doctors-Barcelona 1914 (RAED) of Aaron Ciechanover, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2004; Björn O. Nilsson, president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences; Ismail Serageldin, director of the Library of Alexandria and ex-president of the World Bank, and Josep Maria Gil-Vernet, pioneer in numerous urological techniques.

Canal shared the presidency of the session with Pedro García Barreno, secretary general of the Institute of Spain, and Alfredo Rocafort, president of the RAED. Also participated the subdelegate of the Spanish Government in Catalonia, Emilio Ablanedo; the rector of the International Universitat de Catalunya, Xavier Gil; the rector founder of the Open University La Salle, Lluís Vicent Safont; the rector of the University of Vic-Central University of Catalonia, Jordi Montaña, and the rector of the Ateneu Universitari Sant Pacià, Armand Puig. The event also be attended by archbishop emeritus of Barcelona, ​​cardinal Lluís Martínez Sistach.

More than 80 academicians of the RAED attended the event, held on December 20, to complete an assistance that exceeded 200 people.