September 2005

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THE CATALAN GOVERNMENT ISSUES THE NEW LANGUAGE POLICY PLAN

September 2005 - Josep Bargalló, first minister of the Catalan government, and Miquel Pueyo, secretary of Language Policy, submitted last summer the Language Policy Plan for 2005-06 and analized the results of last year’s Plan in the Language Policy Report of 2004-05. Regarding last year’s report, governmental action temporarily came to a halt due to the substitution of Antoni Mir as a secretary of Language Policy, who was replaced by Miquel Pueyo, director of the Language Planning Programme until then. However, both Bargalló and Pueyo considered the outcome of 2004-05 Plan highly positive and pointed out that the program, funded with 3 million euros, was successfully implemented.

The Plan for 2005-06 aims at promoting the adoption of administrative and legal measures to guarantee the everyday use of the Catalan language as well as fostering its social use amongst youth people. It also aims at reinforcing the resources to offer Catalan language classes to adult newcomers and improving the quality of the language advise service. Moreover, it foresees to offer a Catalan course on-line in collaboration with the Ramon Llull Institute, the institute in charge of the international projection of Catalan language and its literature. The Plan establishes that the government will develop a programme in order to foster new technologies of information and communication in Catalan and will support cinema either originally in Catalan, dubbed or with Catalan subtitles. Additionally, it intends to encourage the availability of products and services in the language and endorse the use of Catalan in websites of private companies, strengthen the cooperation with other Catalan-speaking territories, especially Alghero in Sardinia and Northern Catalonia in France, and promote its legal equality in public state and European institutions.

Several organizations in favour of Catalan, such as Plataforma per la Llengua, regard these aims and principles as very convenient and opportune, in particular those relating to youth and leisure, fields in which usage of the Catalan language is weaker. The fact that the Department of Trade, Tourism and Consumer Affairs has started to fine companies violating the Linguistic Policy Act of 1998 is also viewed positively, an unprecedented action the former government did not dare to take clearly even though the law provides for it. As regards the welcome and language integration of newcomers, Plataforma per la Llengua finds the increasing number of language course offered appropriate, but suggests that agreements between government and private companies should be signed to allow students attend courses during working hours. It proposes to extend the campaign Volunteers for Language to non-students –an initiative whereby one Catalan speaker and a student who wishes to reinforce what he/she has learnt in the classroom share several hours of conversation - also, given the fact that more than 150.000 newcomers settle in Catalonia each year and not all of them attend the language courses. However, and according to Plataforma per la Llengua, there are several disadvantages, particularly when it comes to applying provisions that foresee a quota on cinema and a fairer distribution and exhibition of films in Catalan, and labelling and publicity in the country’s language, fields where Catalan shows low permeability. In Plataforma per la Llengua’s opinion, the measures “are too vague and are not clearly defined”. In conclusion, the organizations in favour of Catalan language are of the believe that the instruments set out in the document could be useful to take a step forward towards its normalization, but they might be in vain if they are not combined with a real and determined enforcement of the law.