92000E1859

WRITTEN QUESTION E-1859/00

by Gorka Knörr Borràs (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 need to adopt appropriate measures to guarantee and encourage the Catalan language in all spheres relating to their teaching, non-teaching and research activities. The Catalan universities duly adopted their respective rules on linguistic usage.

A series of charges brought by the Asociación de Profesores para la Democracia (Teachers for Democracy Association) and Convivencia Cívica 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's rules on linguistic usage by the courts on the grounds that they may be unconstitutional.

What is the Commission'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.