April 2005

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CATALAN AND VALENCIAN WILL FINALLY NOT BE TAUGHT AS SEPARATE LANGUAGES IN OFFICIAL LANGUAGE SCHOOLS

April 2005 – The controversy over the unity of the Catalan language has appeared in the political scenario once more. This time regarding the languages to be taught in the so-called Official Language Schools (Escuelas Oficiales de Idiomas). In accordance with a draft decree prepared by the Spanish Government, it was planned that Catalan and Valencian would be taught as two different languages. However, as reported in several media, the decree’s definitive version, passed by the Council of Ministers (Consejo de Ministros) on 15 April, unexpectedly establishes that Catalan and Valencian will be put together in one single curriculum. Such decree will start to be implemented in 2005-2006.

The Spanish Government’s last-minute decision is thus in line with its recent policy regarding the unity of the Catalan language, initiated in December 2004 when it requested the officiality of Spain’s co-official languages in the EU. The Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs referred then to “the language called Catalan in the Autonomous Community of Catalonia and in that of the Balearic Islands and Valencian in the Valencian Community”. However, such decision has come rather unexpectedly, as the draft decree made public only a few days before the Council of Ministers’ final decision proposed to separate both languages in two different curricula. The Government’s first intention was to not modify a decree issued by the previous Government (PP) in December 2003, which faced strong opposition from different political and social sectors.

In the last weeks, the Valencian regional factions of the ruling party (PSOE) and of the minor left-wing party Izquierda Unida, for instance, have put pressure on the Government to use the so-called “Catalan/Valencian” double designation, while Official Language School representatives have sent a letter to the Minister of Education requesting her not to separate them as two different languages. In addition, the Government has received protests from the education trade union STEPV-IV and from several civil organisations, like Plataforma d’Estudiants per la Llengua or Acció Cultural del País Valencià. By contrast, the Valencian regional government, in the hands of PP (now in the opposition in the Spanish Parliament), has announced that it will appeal against the Government’s decree.

(See also previous Mercator-Legislation news regarding the language unity issue: January, February and March 2005).