The Galician A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística, Aurten Bai Foundation and Euskara Kultur Elkargoa, from the Basque Country and CIEMEN (Escarré International Center for Ethnic Minorities and Nations) from the Catalan Countries presented early this week the association Diverslinguae in Santiago de Compostela (Galicia). The new body has been set up with the aim of promoting language diversity in Spain, particularly among speakers of Castilian, and watch over an effective implementation of language legislation.

According to Europa Press, president of Diverslinguae, Carlos Callón, said the association will enhance joint activities between speakers of languages other than Castilian with a view to raise awareness on language diversity. The association will have the support of the central government, with whom Diverslinguae has held meetings lately. Several projects had been considered during the talks, such as the setting up of a statewide plurilingual website.

Strasbourg recommendations
During the presentation, the representatives of the new association mentioned on several occasions the report issued recently by the European Council, which evaluates the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages by Spain. President Carlos Callón underlined that Madrid "fails again" to provide proper language services in the field of citizen advice and information as well as in the courts. He added that criticism of the report would have been even more severe had the Spanish authorities delivered all the information requested by the Council.

In line with the remarks made by the CoE's report on the Galician language, Callón defined the situation of education as "calamitous" and said that "the debate on the situation of Galician in schooling won't ever be the same after this report".

With regard to the Basque language, the representative of the Autonomous Community of the Basque Country, Mikel Etxeberria, gave the autonomous administration only a passing grade and pointed out the lack of Basque language in the Spanish administration, whereas Iulen Urbiola, from Navarre, said that the authorities in Pamplona and in Madrid "only deserve a failing grade" despite some recent progress.

Finally, the Catalan representative from CIEMEN, Maria Areny, stressed on the difficulties derived from the variety of legal status Catalan holds in each territory where the language is spoken. Areny underlined that the report of the Council praises the Catalan immersion teaching system in the autonomous community of Catalonia, but warned that education in Catalan in the Balearic Islands has diminished. The Catalan representative pointed out that the report refers to the need of a Catalan language newspaper in the Valencian Country and the adoption of a specific legal framework for protecting and promoting Catalan in Aragon.

Further information:

• Europa Press: Asociaciones de Galicia, Cataluña, País Vasco y Navarra forman 'Diverslinguae' para defender el plurilingüismo en España
• A Nosa Terra: Nace 'Diverslinguae' para difundir a realidade plurilingüe
• A Mesa pola Normalización Lingüística: CELRM.- Nace a asociación Diverslinguae para dar a coñecer o plurilingüismo do Estado español
• Nationalia: El Consell d'Europa insta l'Estat espanyol a potenciar les llengües minoritzades a la justícia i l'administració