A new offensive by the Spanish state to impose private sector usage of the Spanish language (Castilian) over Catalan and other languages spoken in Spain: as many as 38 legal changes in 2019 have the effect of imposing or facilitating the state's dominant language, and over 40% of these make its use by private companies a requirement in specific situations, according to the Catalan language NGO Plataforma per la Llengua.

"During the second quarter of this year, 16 new regulations were approved imposing the use of Castilian in private companies, as well as further legal changes that make it obligatory for government bodies to use the language in actions related to companies and the market," said the Catalan pressure group. "The strong presence of Castilian in the Catalan private sector cannot be seen in isolation from the continued action of public power to favour it," it said.

Some examples

Plataforma per la Llengua gives the example of a new order from the Spanish ministry of industry (Order ICT/ 677/2019) which regulates the granting of subsidies for patent applications. According to the NGO, the Spanish state subsidizes companies that need to submit documents to the European patent system, since they need to translate the texts from Castilian into English, French or German - the languages ​​used by the European Patents Office.

On the other hand, if a company has its documents in Catalan and has to present them to the offices of the state, the company doesn't receive any kind of financial assistance for the required translation and has to assume the cost.

The NGO says this show the "double standard" applied by the Spanish institutions: the decision to grant new subsidies for translations to Castilian is justified by the "demonstrable" extra difficulties that Spanish applicants currently have because the European office doesn't use Castilian. However, "the imposition of Castilian on those who don't usually speak it is considered as normal and not deserving of any compensation", says the language pressure group.

The Plataforma also focuses on the Trademark Law (Law 17/2001), which despite having been modified, still maintains "explicit impositions of Castilian language", according to the group. "Thus, if an application to register a trademark at the Spanish Patent and Trademark Office makes claims about the priority of previous applications, copies of these must be submitted to the office in Spanish or translated into Spanish," explains the NGO.

"If proof of a trademark is requested, the applicant must present it in Spanish or translated into Spanish. If the request is to invalidate or end use of a trademark, the party can present evidence in an online database if it is in 'Spanish language', adds the group.

Plataforma per la Llengua also examined Decree Law 239/2019, passed in April this year, "which obliges the captains of tourist fishing boats to provide clients with information in Spanish and English about the ship and recommendations on safety measures and the conditions under which the activity will be carried out".

The NGO comments that such linguistic impositions, although usually justified by the claim that they are neutral, since Spanish citizens are required to learn Castilian under the Spanish Constitution, fail to recognize that this constitutional obligation is "in itself an arbitrary imposition and discrimination".

European Union

The group also adds that the European Union as an institution that is complicit in these actions which reduce the use of other Spanish languages such as Catalan, Basque and Galician. According to the NGO, most European norms, the European Parliament and Commission "usually contain references to the need to use the official languages ​​of the states or the Union, a condition that in Spain only includes Castilian." It is important to recall that the EU has very broad competencies in terms of market regulation.

"Apart from the norms that regulate markets, in the second quarter of the year, the Spanish state and the European authorities approved another 22 regulations imposing the use of the Castilian language in the work of government bodies," concludes the NGO's report.

Under the Spanish constitution, the Spanish language (Castilian) is defined as the only official language of the Spanish state, while other languages (of which the most important are Catalan, Galician and Basque) may be co-official in different autonomous communities in which they are spoken.