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"If all languages are exceptional, let none be an exception in Europe." This is the slogan of the advertising campaign that the Government of the Generalitat has launched in the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) to defend the official status of Catalan in European institutions. The initiative is a praise of linguistic diversity and is aimed at speakers of the 24 official languages of the EU to present Catalan as the closest to being so.
The campaign is spread on public roads and in the media of all member states. The first advertisement has been installed in Brussels, on the screens of the Schuman metro stops, Arts Loi/Kunst-Wet and Trône/Troon, in the heart of the European institutions.
The main element of the campaign are 24 videos - one for each official language of the EU - that the Government offers to any person or institution that wants to use it to promote and defend their own language. The Catalan executive has versioned the campaign in German, English, Bulgarian, Spanish, Croatian, Danish, Slovak, Slovenian, Estonian, Finnish, French, Gaelic, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese , Romanian, Swedish and Czech.
With this initiative, the Government is transferring to European public opinion the main arguments in favor of the officialization of Catalan. "We want European citizens to be aware of the demand for official Catalan in Europe and live it positively and with empathy", points out the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the European Union, Meritxell Serret i Aleu. The campaign also includes the publication of an advertisement in the European press and in advertising spaces and canopies on public roads.
Both the video and the advertising poster direct viewers to the europaencatala.eu website, where the Government sets out the main reasons in favor of the officialization of Catalan in European institutions.
The campaign can now be seen in public spaces, media and social networks in the 27 member states. The first ads have been placed in metro stations in the European quarter of Brussels, but they can also be seen on the streets of Paris, Strasbourg, Rome, Dublin or Berlin.
The ads have been published in dozens of newspapers and digital media across the continent, from Finland (Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet) to Cyprus (Phileleftheros) to Sweden (Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter), Denmark (Politiken and Berlingske) , Ireland (The Irish Times), Poland (Wprost), Bulgaria (24 Chasa), the Czech Republic (Lidové Noviny), Greece (Protothema) or Portugal (Expresso and Público).
This action to influence European public opinion complements what was already done in September with the publication of President Aragonès' opinion piece in more than a dozen international newspapers.
The Government is acting from three different levels to intensify political contacts with European governments regarding the officiality of Catalan in European institutions. Firstly, from Barcelona and Madrid, with contacts with the consular corps and embassies. Secondly, from the Government delegations abroad located in the member states of the European Union, which are establishing contacts from the capitals of the various countries. And, thirdly, from the Government Delegation to the European Union, which is coordinating much of the strategy and is deploying contacts with the permanent representations of the member states to the European Union.
In this sense, the president of the Generalitat of Catalonia, Pere Aragonès i Garcia, received at the Palau de la Generalitat the 21 delegates of the Government abroad, and the 40 directors of ACCIÓ's offices around the world , as well as representatives of the Ramon Llull Institute, the ICEC and Prodeca, all of them involved in the internationalization of the country, and he noted the "historic opportunity" that represents the possibility of Catalan being official in European institutions. "We are dealing with a political issue", not technical or budgetary, and which must be used to correct a "historical anomaly" and for the Catalan language to be recognized by European institutions.
"We will not lower the level of demand on the Spanish Government to move towards the full officialdom of Catalan in the European institutions, because they are responsible for achieving it unanimously in the Council of the European Union", concluded the Counselor Serret.
