Language Research

The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities signed on February 1,1995, ratified on September 1, 1995 and enacted on February 1, 1998.

The European Charter for Regional or Minority languages signed on November 5, 1992.

In September 2000 the Spanish congress discussed a proposal, in which the state applies the concept of regional or minority languages only to those officially recognized in the Statutes of Autonomy for the communities of Catalonia, the Basque Country, Galicia, Valencia, Navarra and the Balearic Islands. The proposal also considers as regional or minority languages those other languages protected or safeguarded in their traditional speaking areas by the Statuses of Autonomy. Such interpretation was explained as a way to avoid the different names given to the Catalan language. The definition does not specify the situation of the languages not recognized explicitly and it also leaves unmentioned the non territorial languages spoken in the state, such as Roma.

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Updated (July 2001)

In July during the 37th summit of African states in Lusaca, the Organization of African Unity (OAU), which according to its own definition, “promotes the unity and solidarity of the African States; defends the sovereignty of members; and works for human rights, and to eradicate poverty and the vestiges of colonialism”, has accorded to establish Spanish as the sixth official language of this Pan-African body, alongside English, Portuguese, French, Swahili and Arabic.

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Updated (August 2001)

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages came into force on August 1, 2001. In the instrument are established two levels of protection for the languages of the State. First series of specific measures are to be applied under the Part III of the Charter to those languages with an official status (co-official languages) recognized by the Statuses of Autonomy of the Basque Country, Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Galicia, the Valencian Community and Navarre. The second level under the same part of the Charter is addressed to the regional and minority languages protected and safeguarded by the Statuses of Autonomy in the areas where they have been traditionally spoken and may be “reasonably applied” to those languages. It means for example the possibility to apply the Charter to the Galician language within the territory of Castila-León.

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Updated (October 2002)

SPAIN SUBMITS THE FIRST REPORT ON THE EUROPEAN CHARTER

The first report on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Spain was published on October 4, 2002. The report specifies that the measures undertaken by Spain in order to promote and protect the languages are as follows:

• The application of Parts II and III (general principles and specific measures) - Catalan, Basque, Galician and Valencian
• The application of Part II (general principles) - Aranese, Aragonese, Asturian and Catalan of Aragon

The report also includes statistical data on the co-official languages as well as a selection of the legal provisions relative to the Charter's application. As regards the description of the measures undertaken for the application, the report contains two sections. The first one deals with the rules adopted by the state and the second one is about those adopted by each Autonomous Community.

Source: Mercator news, October 2002, http://www.troc.es/ciemen/ mercator/index-gb.htm

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Updated (April 2004)

According to a report entitled “Observations on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in Spain”, which was submitted to the Council of Europe last year by the Basque Government, many promises taken on by the state depend on the adoption of measures which have not been adopted yet.

This report also sets out that the central authorities and public institutions of Navarre show a lower level of commitment than the public institutions of the Basque Autonomous Community. They intend to limit the presence of Basque in public life, education and the media, often using the argument that the promotion of Basque supposedly means for people who do not speak it an infringement of Article 7, paragraph 2 of the Charter.

Similarly, the Basque NGO “Euskara Kultur Elkargoa” in Navarre has also issued a report on the Charter. It states that although the legal framework and system of distributed authority enables Navarra to comply with the criteria established in the Charter, the current Navarra government seeks to restrict the Basque language to a vernacular level.

Source: Eurolang News, Brussels, April 2, 2004, by Davyth Hicks, http://www.eurolang.net/news.asp?id=4496

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Updated (July 2006)

The Board of the European Parliament, composed of the President and Vice-presidents, has finally given approval for its deputies and citizens to speak and address European institutions in Galician, Basque and Catalan. The Parliament had been the only European representative body refusing the use of the co-official languages of Spain following the recent the Spanish State and European Council signatures to an administrative arrangement in June 2005. The agreement gave permission to Spain for negotiations with each European institution to include the use of Galician, Basque and Catalan.

For illustration, we present the Administrative Agreement between the Kingdom of Spain and the Committee of the Regions below:

THE ADMINISTRATIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN AND THE COMMITTEE OF REGIONS.

The Kingdom of Spain, on one side, and the Committee of the Regions, on the other,

With a view to the conclusions adopted by the Council on June 13, 2005, regarding the official use of additional languages in the Council and, where appropriate, in other institutions and bodies of the European Union,

Considering that the efforts to make the Union come closer to citizens requires making for them and their representatives, as much as possible, the communication with the institutions in their mother tongue easier, which is an important element to reinforce their identification with the political project of the Union,

Have agreed on concluding this ADMINISTRATIVE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE KINGDOM OF SPAIN AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS OF THE EUROPEAN UNION to allow for the official use in the Committee of the Regions of the languages other than Spanish/Castilian that have a status recognized by the Spanish Constitution.

CLAUSE ONE

1. According to the aforementioned Conclusions of the Council of June 13, 2005, and in the terms foreseen in points 2 to 4, any Spanish citizen has the right to address a communication in writing to the Committee of the Regions in some of the languages other than Spanish/Castilian that, according to the Spanish Constitution, have an official status in all or part of the Spanish territory.

2. Were a Spanish citizen wish to address a communication in writing to the Committee of the Regions in one of the languages indicated in point 1:

   1. He/she will send this communication to the appropriate body designated by the Spanish Government to this effect that will transmit it to the General Secretary of the Committee of the Regions with a certified translation of it in Spanish/Castilian; the reception date of the communication, especially if the Committee of the Regions were to have a time limit to send an answer to the citizen, shall be that in which the Committee of the Regions has received the certified translation from said body.

   2. The Committee of the Regions shall send its answer in Spanish/Castilian to this body so that the latter can send it to the person concerned together with a certified translation of it in the language of the original communication. In no case shall the Committee of the Regions be made responsible for these translations, in the text of which this circumstance shall be expressly mentioned.

3. Were the citizen that is the author of the communication have some time available to deal with the answer of the Committee of the Regions, and as an exception to what is provided in point 2, the Committee of the Regions shall send its answer in Spanish/Castilian directly to the citizen, informing him/her that he/she should receive from the appropriate body a certified translation of it in the original language of communication. All the same, the Committee of the regions will inform the citizen that the time limit to reply to its answer will begin on the date of its reception in Spanish/Castilian.
    
   The Committee of the Regions will send a copy of its answer to the appropriate body so that the latter may be able to provide the citizen with a certified translation of it in the language of communication. In no case will the Committee of the Regions be made responsible for these translations, in the text of which this circumstance shall be expressly mentioned.

4. Should a Spanish citizen send a communication directly to the Committee of the Regions in one of the languages provided in point 1, the Committee of the Regions will send it back to the sender, informing him/her that it has sent a copy to the Permanent Representation of Spain so that the latter may ask the appropriate body designated by the Spanish Government to provide an official translation in Spanish/Castilian.
    
   The Committee of the Regions will also inform the person concerned that it will answer his/her communication as soon as possible starting from the reception of the aforementioned translation. The Committee of the Regions will operate according to the procedures foreseen in points 2 and 3.

5. The parties signing this administrative agreement commit themselves to adopting the necessary measures so that the regulations regarding the confidentiality of the communications covered by this agreement are always respected, especially with regard to the translation carried out by the appropriate body designated by the Spanish Government.

CLAUSE TWO

6. The use by one or several members of the Committee of the Regions during a plenary session of any of the languages other than Spanish/Castilian, the status of which is recognized by the Spanish Constitution, will be possible according to the following conditions:

   • The Permanent Representation of Spain will communicate to the General Secretary of the Committee of the Regions, at least seven weeks before the plenary session concerned, the intention of the aforementioned members of the Committee of the Regions of using some of these languages in their oral interventions (passive interpretation); the definitive confirmation of the request will be carried out, at the latest, fourteen calendar days before the session of the Committee.

   • In principle, this request will be dealt with, unless the General Secretary of the Committee, after consulting the service in charge of interpreting, informs the Permanent Representation of Spain that the staff and material means required do not allow it to positively answer the request.

7. The direct and indirect expenses of the service responsible for passive interpreting – even in the case of annulment– that the service responsible for interpreting charges the Committee will be paid by the Permanent Representation of Spain, according to what is provided in the following points 8 and 9.

CLAUSE THREE

8. The Spanish Government will pay the direct or indirect costs resulting from the application of this administrative agreement by the Committee of the Regions.

9. To this end, the General Secretary of the Committee of the Regions will present every semester a note in which the aforementioned costs are itemized, the amount of which will have to be paid back by the Spanish Government within one month's time from the date of the notification.

CLAUSE FOUR

10. Once signed, this agreement will be applied from the very moment in which the General Secretary of the Committee has informed the Spanish Government that the necessary measures for its application have been adopted. Nevertheless, the provisions of Clause One may only be applied once the Spanish Government has communicated to the General Secretary of the Committee which has been the body chosen to carry out the translations foreseen in points 2 and 3.

11. The parties will be able to decide unanimously to revise or denounce this administrative agreement. The parties shall carry out a detailed analysis of its application one year after its coming into force.

12. The Permanent Representative, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain and the General Secretary of the Committee of the Regions will be in charge of watching over the application of this agreement.

Done in Brussels on November 16, 2005
Ana Isabel Leiva Díez
State Secretary of Cooperation of the Ministry of Public Administrations
Peter Straub
President of the Committee of the Regions

Source: Mercator Legislation, Bulletin No.65, I Quarter 2006, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/index-gb.htm

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