Strasbourg, 9 May 2014 MIN-LANG (2014) PR 5 EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES Fourth periodical report presented to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe in accordance with Article 15 of the Charter SPAIN MINISTERY STATE SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS FOR FINANCES AND PUBLIC ADMINISTRATIONS DIRECTORATE GENERAL FOR COORDINATION OF COMPETENCES WITH AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL ENTITIES FOURTH REPORT ON THE APPLICATION BY SPAIN OF THE EUROPEAN CHARTER FOR REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES, OF THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE 2010 - 2013 2 INDEX PAGE I. INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................... 3 II. LANGUAGES RECOGNISED AS CO-OFFICIAL IN THE STATUTES OF AUTONOMY OF THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES ......................................................................................... 4 A) SITUATION OF THESE CO-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES IN EACH AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY ........................................................... 4 Catalan in Catalonia ............................................................................. 4 Catalan in the Balearic Islands ............................................................. 32 Galician in Galicia ................................................................................ 46 Valencian in Valencia ........................................................................... 69 Basque in the Basque Country ............................................................. 90 Basque in Navarre ............................................................................... 116 Occitan/Aranese in the Aran Valley ...................................................... 142 B) CO-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES IN THE GENERAL STATE ADMINISTRATION 160 III. NON-OFFICIAL REGIONAL OR MINORITY LANGUAGES ................... 160 Asturian in Asturias .............................................................................. 160 Languages and language modalities native to Aragon ........................ 170 Tamazight in Melilla ............................................................................. 175 Darija in Ceuta ..................................................................................... 178 3 I. INTRODUCTION This fourth report by the Kingdom of Spain, 2010-2013, on the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, is made in response to the provisions in this respect set out in Article 15 of the Charter, according to which the first report should be presented one year following the entry into force of the Charter, and subsequent ones should be presented to the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe at three-yearly intervals after the first report. The Charter came into force for Spain on 1 August 2001, and so the first report was presented in 2002, the second one (for the period 2002-2005) in 2006, and the third one (for the period 2006-2009) in 2010. As indicated in the previous reports, it is immediately apparent from these documents that multilingualism is one of the essential features of modern Spain, established in the form of Autonomous Communities, a structure that generates cultural, social and economic wealth, as well as a common heritage that should be respected and promoted, not only to comply with the commitments arising from the Charter, but also to meet Spain’s constitutional, statutory and legal obligations. This Report addresses the issues raised with respect to the previous one by the Committee of Experts, and the recommendations made by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. In this Introduction it should be stressed that both the progress made and, on occasion, the perpetuation of the former situation with regard to compliance with the commitments made in relation to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, have taken place against a background of significant budgetary constraints arising from the economic crisis that has affected Spain during the period described in the Report. This Report was prepared with the cooperation and information provided by the Autonomous Communities in question, by the cities of Ceuta and Melilla, and by the ministerial departments of the Central Government. In view of the volume of information provided by the authorities consulted, this report includes, as concisely as possible, or in summary, fundamentally the changes made and recent activities during the period in question, as requested by the General Secretariat of the Council of Europe, and does not reproduce the information provided in previous reports made by the Kingdom of Spain. This Report was coordinated by the Ministry for Finances and Public Administrations (Secretariat of State for Public Administration), through the Directorate-General for Coordination of Competences with the Autonomous Communities and Local Entities. February 2014 4 II. LANGUAGES RECOGNISED AS CO-OFFICIAL IN THE STATUTES OF AUTONOMY OF THE AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITIES A) SITUATION OF THESE CO-OFFICIAL LANGUAGES IN EACH AUTONOMOUS COMMUNITY CATALAN IN CATALONIA 1. INTRODUCTION Data on the number of speakers 56. The Committee of Experts encouraged the Spanish authorities to carry out surveys in cooperation with the speakers of regional or minority languages in order to have accurate updated data concerning the number of users of regional or minority languages and their geographic distribution. Studies have reported that Catalan is spoken by over 10 million people, in Spain, Andorra, France and Italy (Sardinia). A Catalan speaker is defined as a person who can both understand Catalan and speak it. The most recent data available on language proficiency and the habitual use of Catalan in Catalonia reflect the following: the population of Catalonia, according to the Idescat population register, is about 7,500,000 (in 2012, the figure was 6,439,000 persons aged over 14 years), of whom approximately 17% are of foreign origin; in 2008, there were 4,823,400 persons Catalan-speakers aged over 15 years in Catalonia. These data were obtained from the 2008 Survey of Language Use (EULP08), which also reported the following data on the Catalan- language skills of the population aged over 15 years in Catalonia: Survey of Language Use, Catalonia, 2008 Understand Speak it Read it Write it it Percentage 94.6% 78.3% 81.7% 61.8% Absolute 5,832,000 4,823,400 5,034,400 3,807,300 numbers Total population 6,162,500 >15 years The Official Survey of Language Use in Catalonia is conducted every five years, and the 2013 edition is currently in preparation. Therefore, the data for the period 2009-2011, which are presented below, are for the years 2009-2012, and obtained from the Barometer of Communication and Culture. 5 There has been a progressive increase in the proportion of Catalan speakers among the population. Thus, the 2012 data show that 97.1% of the adult population understand Catalan, 84.3% can speak it and 70.1% can write it. Knowledge of Catalan 2012 Increase since 2009 Understand it 6,252,269 213,139 Speak it 5,428,077 484,947 Write it 4,513,739 819,639 Total population aged >14 years 6,439,000 93,750 Conocimiento de catalán. Población de más de 14 años. 2009-2012 (%) 120 95,3 96,3 97,1 100 95,2 80,5 84,3 80 77,9 77,5 60,6 65 70,1 60 58,2 40 20 0 2009 2010 2011 2012 Lo entiende Lo habla Lo escribe Source: FUNDACC, Barómetro de la Comunicación y la Cultura, 2009-2012. Almost 100% of the adult population in Catalonia understand and can speak Castilian. This percentage has remained constant despite increasing immigration in recent years. Legislative changes With respect to the application of the Charter, the following significant developments took place during the period covered by this report: A drastic reduction in budgets assigned to activities that enhance the implementation of the Charter (mainly due to the financial and economic crisis). Further development of legislation in Catalonia with respect to the Catalan and Occitan/ Aranese in Aran, languages, to better apply the Charter in areas subject to this new regulation, and to develop the regulatory provisions concerning linguistic issues that are specified in the Catalonian Statute of Autonomy of 2006, approved by Organic Act 6/2006 of 19 July, on the reform of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia. During the period described in this report, the Parliament of Catalonia has conducted significant legislative activity with respect to language issues. It has developed and greatly expanded the legal framework, with nine laws, two of which are specifically linguistic, and the following seven sectoral laws with special impact on language issues, listed in order of adoption: o Act 12/2009, of 10 July, on Education This Act develops the language regime applicable within the education system, as derived from the Statute of Autonomy. It seeks to ensure that the entire school 6 population, whatever their habitual language when entering the education system, complies with the duty and exercises the right to achieve oral and written proficiency in Catalan and Castilian. Appeals have been presented to the Constitutional Court regarding certain aspects of this Act. o Act 10/2010, of 2 May, on reception for immigrants and returnees to Catalonia This Act regulates the issue addressed in its title, namely the right to receive assimilation assistance, including language education. Appeals have been presented to the Constitutional Court regarding certain aspects of this Act. o Act 13/2010, of 21 May, on the Statistical Plan for Catalonia, 2011-2014 This Act is intended