The parliamentary groups of the PSOE, Sumar, ERC, EH Bildu, PNV and the Mixed (BNG) have registered this Wednesday the Proposal for the Reform of the Regulations of Congress that establishes the right of deputies to use any of the official languages in all areas of parliamentary activity, including oral interventions and the presentation of writings. Consequently, the Official Gazette of the Cortes Generales will publish the initiatives in the official language in which they have been presented, as well as in Spanish.
The proposal registered this Wednesday does not list at any time the languages that will be allowed in Congress and refers to the "languages that have official status in any Autonomous Community in accordance with the Constitution and the corresponding Statute of Autonomy". This avoids any conflict over the use of Valencian/Catalan and opens the door even for intervention in Aranese (Occitan), since this language is official in Catalonia.
These co-official languages may be used in all parliamentary debates, both in plenary session and the permanent council as well as in the different committees, and all from the very entry into force of the regulatory reform. The idea of these parties is that the reform be approved in two weeks so that it can be applied already in the investiture debate of Alberto Núñez Feijóo, scheduled for the next 26 and 27 September, and for this they have requested the processing by the procedure of urgency, which means cutting parliamentary deadlines in half, and that it is debated "in a single reading" in plenary, without going through the Rules Commission, which has not yet been constituted.
With the absolute majority of these six formations, the proponents plan a Plenary Session in the week of September 19 to 21 to approve the reform and have it come into force immediately. The only thing that is delayed is the use of co-official languages when presenting written texts, since a transition period of a maximum of six months is established to adapt the Chamber's services, during which time groups will be able to register initiatives in Basque or Catalan. , but they must accompany the translation into Spanish.
The Sessions Journal will collect the interventions both in the co-official language and in Spanish, as well as the verbatim minutes of the sessions that were declared secret and not publishable. And the Cortes Bulletin will publish the written initiatives in the co-official language used and in Spanish.
To apply these changes, the Congress will have the necessary personal and material means, including translation and interpretation services for all official languages. The Congress Table is mandated so that, after hearing the Board of Spokespersons, it establishes the necessary procedures and means.
The initiative does not detail it, but the initial plan is for translators to be urgently hired for the debate on the investiture of Feijóo, and helmets would also have to be distributed so that the deputies and the shorthand services can follow the speeches in co-official languages.
