0.6.2.2. Resolution on languages in the Community and the situation of catalan

The European Parliament

- having regard to Petition Nº 113/88 by the Catalan Parliament,

- having regard to Petition Nº 161/89 by the Parliament of the Balearic Islands,

- having regard to Articles 217 and 248 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, Articles 190 and 225 of the Treaty establishing the European Atomic energy Community and to the various acts of accession,

- having regard to Council Regulation Nº 1 of 15 April 1958, amended with each new accession, and particularly Articles 1,6,7 and 8 thereof,

- having regard to the report by the Committee on Petitions and the opinions of the Committee on Legal Affairs and Citizens' Rights and the Committee on Youth, Culture, Education, Information and Sport (A3-169/90),

A. whereas, amongst international bodies comprising Member States using a variety of languages, the European Communities and particularly the European Parliament, are unique in having adopted the principle of 'full multilingualism'; whereas this means that with the exception of Luxembourgish (which became an official language of the Grand Duchy in 1984) the ten languages with the status of official languages throughout the territory of a Member State also enjoy the status of Community languages, although the text of secondary legislative acts is not published in Irish,

B. whereas experience has shown that systematically working in nine languages, at a far from negligible cost, gives rise to technical problems and difficulties, which may well increase if there are further accessions to the Community,

C. whereas the European Parliament nevertheless intends its widespread practical use of multilingualism to be understood as a mark of respect for the fact that languages are the reflection and expression of cultures and peoples; whereas the positive results of multilingualism are abundantly obvious, in that it allows all texts submitted to Parliament, particularly proposals for Community measures that will be legally binding, to be considered in the languages of all the countries of whose legal systems they are to form part,

D. whereas the Catalan language is an European language with a history going back over a thousand years, employed at all levels of education and in all the media, boasting a cultural and literary tradition of major importance, and actively used on a daily basis by the greater part of a population of over 10 million; having regard, furthermore, to the language's official character,

E. whereas, for all the above reasons, it is not possible fully to respect the principle of equality for all the languages spoken in the countries of the Community, but there are in the case of Catalan, opportunities for its use which could be taken up at present time,

1 Stresses the importance of the use made of languages by the European Communities, which should endeavour to be seen by the peoples of Europe not as an extraneous foreing body but as an integral part of the daily life of the individual citizen;

2 Believes that Petitions Nos 113/88 by the Catalan Parliament and 161/88 by the Parliament of the Balearic Islands will express this need with regard to Catalan, an official language in the region of the peoples represented by the two Parliaments which submitted these petitions under the terms of their respective Statutes of Autonomy and those of the general provisions of Article 3 of the Spanish Constitution of 1978.

3 Notes that with regard to the objective of the petitions in question , the rules governing the languages of the institutions of the Community under the provisions of Article 217 of the EEC Traty, Article 190 of the EURATOM Treaty and Council Regulation Nº1 of 15 April 1958 are determined by the Council acting unanimously and that for Member States which have more than one official language, the language to be used must, at the request of such States, be determined by the general rules of their laws;

4 Calls on the Council, comprised of representatives of the Member States, and the Commission to take whatever steps are necessary to achieve the following objectives:

- the publication in Catalan of the Community's treaties and basics texts;

- the use of Catalan for disseminating public information concerning the European institutions in all the media;

- the inclusion of Catalan in the programmes set up by the Commission for learning European languages;

- the use of Catalan by the Commission's offices in its written and oral dealings with the public in the Autonomous communities in question;

5 Welcomes the fact that under the Rules of Procedure of the Court of Justice, Catalan may already be used at the Court by witnesses and experts if they are unable adequately to express themselves in one of the procedural languages of the Court;

6 Calls on its Bureau to take the apropriate decisions, concerning the objectives set out above within the framework of the legal arrangements referred to in paragraph 3 and in those areas which relate directly to the European Parliament;

7 Instructs its President to forward this resolution and committee report to the Council and Commission and the two Parliaments which submitted Petitions Nos 113/88 and 161/89.