Government launches international campaign to make Catalan official EU language 

The Catalan government has launched an international advertising campaign aimed at persuading the European Union's member states to make Catalan an official language in the bloc. 

Ads in the 24 existing EU official languages will be displayed on streets and in the media, conveying to citizens across the continent the main arguments in favor of recognizing Catalan. 

At the launch event in Brussels on Friday, held at the office of the government's delegation to the EU, foreign minister Meritxell Serret highlighted the "linguistic and cultural richness" of the European Union, "a fundamental pillar of the European project." 

The campaign's tagline is "If all languages are exceptional, let none be an exception in Europe." 

Campaign in every EU language 

The campaign contains a set of 24 videos – one for each official language of the EU – which the government is making available to any person or institution that wants to use it. 

The video highlights the beauty and uniqueness of each language, saying that language is "home," and asks for help to make Catalan official in Europe. 

In parallel, the campaign involves placing ads in the European press and in advertising spaces on the streets of Europe. 

Viewers are directed to the europaencatala.eu website, where the main reasons in favor of making Catalan official are set out. 

Paris, Rome, Dublin, Berlin 

The first ads have been placed in metro stations in Brussels' European quarter, but they can also be seen on the streets of Paris, Strasbourg, Rome, Dublin and Berlin. 

Advertisements are planned to be published in dozens of print media across the continent, from Finland (Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet) to Cyprus (Reporter) to Sweden (Svenska Dagbladet and Dagens Nyheter), Denmark (Politiken and Berlingske), Ireland (The Irish Times), Poland (Wprost), Bulgaria (Vesti), the Czech Republic (Lidové Noviny), Greece (Protothema) and Portugal (Expresso and Público). 

New offensive 

The launch of the campaign is part of the "new offensive" announced last week by Catalan president, Pere Aragonès, which includes a series of actions to speed up the recognition of Catalan at EU institutions. 

Aside from the advertising campaign, Serret met ambassadors from various member states on October 16 and 17 in Madrid. 

At the same time, the government's delegation to the EU has held several meetings with representatives from the 27 member states.  

October 24 

On Tuesday, October 24, the General Affairs Council in Luxembourg will again debate making Catalan, Basque and Galician official.  

At last month's meeting, the EU postponed a decision on making the three languages official after "constructive debate." 

Podcast

Listen to the podcast below which asks, after Catalan was recently made official in the Spanish Congress, could the EU be next?