Honourable Mr. Martin Schulz
President of European Parliament
Brussels, 7th July 2014
Dear President,
First of all, we would like to congratulate you for your recent re-election as President of the European Parliament for the new term that we have just begun. Europe is going through really difficult times and a strong Parliament will be needed in order to face the huge challenges we have ahead of us.
We have said many times in this Parliament that we represent all the citizens in Europe, and that is true. However, the voices from some of them cannot be properly heard in this Parliament as their language is not recognized.
We write you as Members from Catalonia and the Valencian Country, an old European nation committed to the European project. Our language is spoken in the Balearic Islands, Valencia, Catalonia and the south of France but it cannot be used in the European Parliament even though it has 10 million speakers and is more used by European citizens than many other official languages.
I am not implying that you as President of the European Parliament will achieve the official status for the Catalan language (also denominated as Valencian). That, we know, is out of the question as long as the current Spanish Government refuses to put this issue on the table of the Council.
However, smart and cost-free solutions could be found in order to let the Catalan language be used in the plenary of the European Parliament. As you may be aware, a big part of the Spanish translators in this house are Catalan speakers, so that is why we would like to propose you to consider making the necessary arrangements for MEPs to be able to speak in Catalan during plenary sessions.
Of course, the text of our speeches would be handed in advance in order to facilitate the translations, but this would be a great initiative for millions of citizens that would see their language used in the European Parliament.
Taking into account your recent election, we wanted to let you know the importance of this issue for us, hoping that you can be committed to this very European concern. Small gestures like allowing the use of the Catalan language in the European Parliament are fundamental to make every day truer our slogan of united in diversity.
With my best regards,
Jordi Sebastià
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