November 2005

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THE PROPOSAL FOR THE REFORM OF THE STATUTE OF AUTONOMY OF THE VALENCIAN COUNTRY DOES NOT RECOGNIZE THE UNITY OF THE CATALAN LANGUAGE

The Constitutional Commission of the Spanish Congress of Deputies is debating the reform of the Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Country. The text currently in force, approved in 1982, is to be modified with the support of the Popular Party and the PSOE, the two main Spanish-based political parties.

As regards the legal regulation of the Catalan language spoken in the Valencian Country -traditionally known as Valencian-, the proposal includes two new paragraphs. The first one introduces for the first time the idea that Valencian is the Valencian country’s own language (Article 7), whereas the present text only establishes that “the two official languages of the Autonomous Comunity are Valencian and Castilian”. As to the other novelty, the new draft establishes the right “to receive education on, and in Valencian”, and also prescribes that “theValencian Academy of the Language is the official and normative institution of the Valencian language”. The emphasis on the notion of Valencian as the country’s own language and the lack of any allusion to other Catalan-speaking territories (Balearic Islands, Stripe of Aragon, Catalonia, Andorra and Northern Catalonia) are political measures fostering partition of the Valencian Country from a cultural and linguistic framework whose unity the academic world has always agreed upon. Honorat Ros, member of the Valencian Academy of the Language, proposed on this issue that “in order to overcome useless aversions the new Statute could include a paragraph such as “The Generalitat (Valencian Government) will promote cooperation with other autonomous communities and other territories with the same language to be able to strengthen and enrich the language we share.””

Several associations in favour of the promotion of Valencian-Catalan are of the believe that the reform of the Statute not only deepens the split from those territories but does not put forward any substantial progress. According to Diego Gómez, president of Escola Valenciana-Federació d’Associacions per la Llengua “the immobilism with which the language issue is addressed by the two main political parties is astonishing”, given the fact that the draft still only guarantees the right but not the duty to know the two official languages. As it is now, the "duty to know" still rests with the language of the Spanish state (Article 3, Spanish Constitution). The project of reform currently being discussed in the Constitutional Comission of the Spanish Congress does not includes measures to make sure the workers of the different administrations have knowledge of Valencian-Catalan, nor makes any reference to the fact that the administration, schools and media should be making Valencian prioritary.