WRITTEN QUESTION E-1859/00 by Gorka Knörr Borràs (Verts/ALE) to the Commission. Catalan.
Date: 2000-06-09
Institutions: European Parliament, Provisional data
Subjects: Catalonia, European social policy, Spain, competence of the Member States, regional language, use of languages

C 89 E/100

Official Journal of the European Communities

EN

20.3.2001

Reply

(23 October 2000)

The press releases issued by the Press Office of the General Secretariat of the Council after Council
(Association and
meetings or following other events which have taken place in a Council context
Cooperation Council meetings, signing of agreements with third countries, etc.) are issued in all the
official languages of the Union. They are circulated by both ordinary and electronic mail and are accessible
on the Council(cid:146)s Internet site.

The original press releases are drafted during, or immediately after, the Council meeting or other event (cid:129)
generally in English or French, depending on the background documents available.

The process of translating the press releases into the other 10 languages of the EU starts immediately.
However, given the time required to complete the translations, there can sometimes be a delay before the
other language versions are issued.

All these texts are made available to journalists on the spot and posted immediately on the Council(cid:146)s
Internet site in the section (cid:145)Newsroom/Latest news(cid:146). They are despatched by ordinary mail to some 2000
recipients as soon as all the language versions are available.

With regard to the Honourable Members(cid:146) third question, the Permanent Representative of France wrote to
the Secretary-General of the Council in 1998 to express his concern at what he regarded as excessive
delays in obtaining translations into French.

(2001/C 89 E/107)

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1859/00

by Gorka Kn(cid:246)rr Borr(cid:224)s (Verts/ALE) to the Commission

(9 June 2000)

Subject: Catalan

Article 22 of Law 1/1998 on linguistic policy, adopted by the Catalan Parliament on 7 January, considers
that universities and higher education institutions (cid:145)need to adopt appropriate measures to guarantee and
encourage the Catalan language in all spheres relating to their teaching, non-teaching and research
activities(cid:146). The Catalan universities duly adopted their respective rules on linguistic usage.

A series of charges brought by the Asociaci(cid:243)n de Profesores para la Democracia (Teachers for Democracy
Association) and Convivencia C(cid:237)vica Catalana (Catalan Civil Good-fellowship, a body chaired by Mr Alejo
Vidal-Quadras) have led to the temporary suspension of the Rovira y Virgili University(cid:146)s rules on linguistic
usage by the courts on the grounds that they may be unconstitutional.

What is the Commission(cid:146)s view of the legal proceedings which have been brought against enactments and
individuals who doing no more than implementing the desire to be able to use Catalan on a normal basis
in a country in which it has been legally acknowledged, both in the Statute on the Autonomy of Catalunya
and the Statute of the Rovira i Virgili University, that the official language is Catalan?

Answer given by Mrs Reding on behalf of the Commission

(14 July 2000)

Respecting the cultural and linguistic diversity of Member States is a principle of prime importance for
European integration. However, the Commission has no power to intervene in internal judicial proceedings
and cannot give an opinion on such proceedings in a Member State in a field not governed by Community
law.