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The European Parliament withdraws criticism to language immersion

The chamber has endorsed a report in favour of multilingualism, which replaces a resolution proposed by the European Popular Party attacking the language immersion system in territories with more than one official language · The text has been promoted by Catalan and Basque MEP’s.

A new report approved yesterday by the European Parliament encourages member States to "safeguard multilingualism" in countries or regions in which two or more official languages coexist. The text was an initiative promoted by Catalan members of the European Parliament -Maria Badia (Catalan Socialist Party), Ignasi Guardans (CiU) and Raül Romeva (ICV)- and the Basque MEP Mikel Irujo (EA). The report was presented as a response to the voting questioning language immersion in Catalonia and the Basque Country, proposed by the European Popular Party (EPP) a few weks ago. The voting also called for the right of choosing Spanish as a schooling language.

The new proposal obtained 335 votes in favour, while 279 were against it. The report eliminates some clauses put forward by EPP MEP Luis Herrero-Tejedor, such as the paragraph stating that "no student will be deprived of education in the official language of the State". Members of the Spanish Popular Party, as Herrero-Tejedor, had been the promoters of the former resolution. According to Eurolang, some members of the European Popular Party have voted in favour of the new report. Such is the case of the Hungarian representatives.

EBLUL, an organization working for the promotion of language diversity and minoritised languages in Europe, has expressed satisfaction over the decision and has emphasized the effectiveness of its lobbying campaign, as it had presented several proposals to the European Parliament's commission on multilingualism.

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