Digithum (Apr 2003)
Catalan, a touchstone for European linguistic diversity
Abstract
The EU is about to enter into an expansion that will mean the incorporation of 10 new official languages, many of which have a lesser demographic dimension and cultural vitality than Catalan. This article comments that the current situation of Catalan in the EU is unjustifiable, scandalous even, and will be even more so following amplification. The foreseeable modification of the EU's linguistic regime will tend towards the reduction of the working languages for reasons of efficiency, but the amplification of its official languages should permit the inclusion of languages like Catalan, which are official in their own territories. Nor is there any reason why Catalan should be excluded from European linguistic programs which are participated in even by the languages of countries outside the EU. Linguistic communities with legislative powers should be able to regulate the public use of languages in their territory just as states do; furthermore, the EU itself indicates that only political independence guarantees equal treatment.
