18/09/2023
Support from Catalan public universities for the official status of Catalan in the European Union
The rectors of the Catalan Association of Public Universities ask the EU member states to approve the official status of Catalan in the European institutions, in line with Catalan recently being accepted on the Erasmus platform
The rectors of the Catalan Association of Public Universities ask the EU member states to approve the official status of Catalan in the European institutions, in line with Catalan recently being accepted on the Erasmus platform
On 18 September, the Catalan Association of Public Universities issued the following statement on the official status of Catalan in Europe:
“The rectors of the Catalan Association of Public Universities (ACUP) give complete support to the application submitted by the Government of Spain to the Council of the European Union for Catalan to be included among the official languages of the European Union.”
Catalan is part of Europe’s cultural heritage and is the language that many European citizens use in their daily lives and in the world of academia. Catalan is the language of the Catalan public universities, which are an active and committed part of the European university and research system. Moreover, Catalan is the official language in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, the Valencian Country and Andorra. The Catalan-speaking community is made up of 10 million people, approximately 2% of the population of the European Union.
In the first instance, this request means that Catalan will be able to be used in the deliberations of the European Parliament, but it goes much further than this. The recognition of Catalan as an official language will allow these European citizens to address European bodies and courts in their own language and, in turn, will contribute to its full standardisation by enabling actions in key areas such as, for example, the labelling of products in Catalan.
The rectors of the ACUP ask the member states of the European Union to approve the official status of Catalan in the European institutions, just as Catalan has recently been added to the Erasmus platform. This decision will undoubtedly reinforce the policy of recognising language rights and equality among all European citizens. In other words, this is a decision that lives up to the motto that links us to all European citizens: “United in diversity.”
