The Government sticks its horn in the promotion of Catalan at work and opens a linguistic complaints office

BarcelonaOne year after signing the National Language Pact, the Government has showcased the work done with an event at the Palau de la Generalitat before institutional representatives and entities that signed the agreement. After increasing Catalan learning for adults and promoting municipal language policy, two of the main milestones of this first year, President Salvador Illa has announced that, for the first time, an agreement has been reached with employers' associations and unions of the Social Dialogue Council for "a roadmap to promote Catalan in the workplace". "It is a very important step and a necessary milestone," said Illa, who has shown himself to be "confident, happy, and optimistic" about the future of Catalan. Illa also announced that the investment in language for the second year of the Pact will be 120 million, and specified two initiatives: 21 million to create more reception classrooms and 50 million to achieve greater presence in the digital world.

The president warned that "Catalan must also be a commitment of the State" and assured that its official status in Europe will be achieved. "We must take advantage of the shared commitment between the two governments," he said. On this issue, which is stalled by Germany's political blockade, the Minister of Language Policy, Francesc Xavier Vila, pointed out: "It would be fantastic if Germany understood that this is not a partisan issue but that the entire Spanish state is asking for it. And, therefore, if the leader of the PP called them and asked for the official status of the language, contrary to what has been done so far, it would dissolve the reservations, because everything practical is resolved".

When assessing the situation, the minister pointed out that large-scale language planning, with a pact that specifies more than 200 measures, "is an unprecedented experience in the country's history" and has been carried out in "a complex context" of budgetary extension. Nevertheless, he confirmed that the 256 million planned for this first year have been allocated. "We have a commitment to transparency and a vocation for real transformation. We do not want to make decrees and regulations that do not translate into reality," affirmed Francesc Xavier Vila. According to the ministry, 62% of the measures planned for this year have been executed and 36% are underway. "We are fully aware that there is a lot of work to be done in many sectors," added Vila.

A complaints office

In addition to the labor agreement, which will be finalized in the coming days with the stakeholders involved, the other novelty agreed upon today and already included in the Pact is an Office for the Protection of Linguistic Rights, which will oversee the system for complaints and reports of linguistic violations that are currently dispersed across each department of the Generalitat. The Government commits to supporting claimants and to going to the courts and competent bodies when necessary to defend the normal use of Catalan. The office will have four technicians and is an organ that falls under Linguistic Policy.

The ministry has also established this year a bilateral working group with the State to improve the availability of Catalan in the central administration deployed in Catalonia and in online services. Training has been offered to specific groups, for example judges and lawyers, and courses have also been given to new civil servants of the Catalan administration on their role as drivers of the language.

New reception and inspections at school

In the educational field, in addition to maintaining the judicial pulse, this year the reception classrooms have been expanded to 1,641 allocations, but above all a change of model is being prepared, "because what was thought of fifteen years ago doesn't always work," says Vila. The pilot plan for Accelerated Reception Classrooms has been maintained this academic year with 26 classes and will be expanded in the future, with the idea that newcomers will first learn Catalan before entering an ordinary class. The language has also been incorporated into the inspection master plan, so that inspectors have taken on the task of verifying that the school's language is in line with the linguistic plan and the students' needs. For the minister, teacher training needs to be improved because they also have to influence colloquial use at school, and here he refers to what happens at La Bressola in northern Catalonia.

The teaching of Catalan for adults is the area where the most decisive action has been taken, because the Consortium for Linguistic Normalization was "an undersized structure that did not reach everywhere," according to Vila. The €8.8 million shock plan has served to relaunch the consortium and expand Catalan places to 135,000 for the 2025-26 academic year. The percentage of people without a place for Consortium courses has gone from 18% to 5%, which is considered residual. This academic year there has been a record of 13,500 people accredited to take the C2 Catalan exam. And at the other end of learning, the most basic, the A1 level of Catalan has been deployed and the 3Cat Easy Catalan program has been created. "We are reinforcing the formal offer but we want learning not to depend on the system but to happen outside. We don't want to be a language academy, but to accompany those who don't know Catalan so that they become autonomous users," says Vila. In the Health sector, specific courses have also been offered, a conversation platform with 1,600 active places has been created, and linguistic reception has been provided for 700 new professionals.

The other structural change is the boost to municipal language policy. 240 municipalities have joined the pact and are deploying local language plans proposed by the department, which incorporate forty concrete action proposals, from Catalan courses to the language of the main festival concerts. Plans have also been rolled out for local commerce to increase the presence of Catalan, and Consum has achieved a record number of inspections with more than 1,600 actions related to compliance with language regulations. "We need Catalan to be learned in the streets and shops and practiced in daily life," insists Vila.

The department also highlights the support for digital content creators in Catalan, which has had tangible results, and the reinforcement of the language throughout the domain, supporting initiatives that defend the unity of the language in all territories, such as the twinning Correllengua and entities in Northern Catalonia.