DOCUMENT RESUME ED 480 348 FL 027 811 AUTHOR Surribas, Santiago Castella TITLE The Ratification of Spain of the European Charterfor Regional or Minority Languages. Mercator WorkingPapers. SPONS AGENCY European Union, Brussels (Belgium). REPORT NO WP-8 ISSN ISSN-1133-3928 PUB DATE 2002-00-00 NOTE 37p.; Produced by CIEMEN (Escarre InternationalCentre for Ethnic Minorities and Nations), Barcelona, Spain. AVAILABLE FROM CIEMEN, Mercator, Rocafort 242 bis, 08029 Barcelona Catalunya, Spain. Tel: 34-93-444-38-00; Fax:34-93-444-38-09; e-mail:
[email protected]; Web site: http://www.troc.es/ciemen/mercator. PUB TYPE Reports - Descriptive (141) EDRS PRICE EDRS Price MF01/PCO2 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS Early Childhood Education; Elementary SecondaryEducation; Foreign Countries; Higher Education; Immigrants;Language Maintenance; *Language Minorities; *Official Languages; Sociolinguistics IDENTIFIERS Language Policy; *Spain ABSTRACT This report describes the development and approvalof the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Afterdiscussing the expression of consent to the European Charter, thereport focuses on the ratification process of and obligations assumed by Spain.Although Spain was one of the first signatories in 1992, the ratificationwas not signed until 2001. The initial Spanish Declaration strongly supportedthe protection of regional or minority languages, and Spain's ratification isalso very supportive, though there are some exceptions related touniversity education and the media. The report notes that in general, theCharter's obligation to erase every distinction, exclusion, restriction, or unjustifiedpreference that would imply a danger for the maintenanceor development of a language opens up possibilities for a more positive interpretation for regionalor minority languages. The Charter offersno capacity for enlarging Spain's linguistic law.