La gènesi de la Llei catalana de política lingüística (LPL) de 7 de gener de 1998: model per a la legislació lingüística a la Comunitat Europea

Abstract

The 1998 Language Policy Act (LPL) was passed with the intention of broadening the measures aimed at protecting and disseminating Catalan that were already partially provided for in the 1983 Language Normalization Act. That first law reestablished the public use of Catalan. The LPL, on the other hand, aims to promote the language in sectors that were not very given to its use, such as commerce, justice, advertising and labelling. The LPL cannot be understood without bearing in mind the social, institutional and legislative debate regarding the issue of language. The unanimous consensus of 1983, the fruit of a law that recommended action without imposing sanctions, was not achieved in the new law because its initially coercive character -- it provided for quotas and sanctions -- was not accepted by the Popular Party (Partit Popular). The Republican Left of Catalonia (Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, ERC), on the other hand, demanded a greater degree of prominence for Catalan. The language debate is conditioned by many factors: the danger of passing legislation contrary to the Constitution or European Law, the cooperation of Convergence and Union (Convergència i Unió, CiU) with various central government administrations, the undeniable international weight of Spanish and the hostility of the Valencia government to Catalan. These elements, and the necessity of achieving a broad consensus, meant that the final version of the 1998 law lost its punitive character. The sanction-imposing aspect of the law, however, could be reinstated in future laws. A good example of the prudent behavior of the Catalan government has been in the area of Catalan-language labelling. Despite the support of European law, since Catalan is the language of consumers in Catalonia, the initiative has been curbed in order to avoid conflicts with the central government of Spain and the Spanish national market, and so as to not offend the sensibilities of many Spanish-speaking Catalans.