With PEN Català’s participation in the Universal Forum of Cultures a new phase begins, with two overarching principles: PEN Català’s projection abroad with the aim of participating in international discussion forums; and the involvement and participation of PEN Català in major cultural events. The organisation has set out on a path of modernisation and presence in the most important cultural events of solidarity in the country, working on new projects, both alone and in collaboration with other organisations such as Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International and UNESCO, amongst others. Thanks to this, PEN Català has been able to gain prestige and is recognised by institutions and cultural actors across Catalonia. Accordingly in 2005, Any del Llibre I Lectura (The Year of books and reading), PEN Català was invited to participate in the “Llibres per canviar el món” (“Books to change the world”) roundtable, organised by the Culture Institute of Barcelona and commissioned by Carme Arenes.  Also of note is the awarding of the Creu de Sant Jordi (“Saint George’s Cross”, one of the Catalan Government’s highest civil distinctions) for PEN Català’s continuous work in favour of freedom and for representing Catalan culture throughout the world. Also in 2005, and in collaboration with the Institució de les Lletres Catalanes (Institute of Catalan Literature), homage is paid to Helena Valentí.  Another example of PEN Català’s commitment and involvement is its participation, in November 2006, in the II Saló del Llibre (Book Fair), with a stand and an agenda full of activities which was attended by Wole Soyinka, Nobel Prize Winner in Literature, amongst others.

PEN Català was also present at the Frankfurt International Book Fair in 2007, at which Catalan culture was the guest of honour. This collaboration with the Ramon Llull Institute allowed PEN Català to participate in the debate about the current position of literary translation in the world, with the international report ‘To Be Translated or Not to Be’, presented during the fair. The section relating to Catalan literature was written by Carme Arenas and Simona Škrabec, who were also the authors of the “Report on translation in Catalonia”, published by the Ramon Llull Institute and the Institute of Catalan Literature. This publication also served to consolidate one of PEN Catala’s most ambitious projects: “Visat”, the Translations and Linguistic Rights Committee’s website, dedicated to translation. Running since 2006 to the present, Visat acts as a translation and literary magazine.