There are no official conclusions yet, but the delegation of MEPs who visited Catalonia for three days to analyze linguistic immersion have today outlined the first points of the visit, and they are critical. The president of the commission, Yana Toom, has indicated that families who request 25% of schooling in Spanish have been intimidated. She has also considered that the integration between two languages ??in the school environment “cannot be forced” and has said that Catalan is not in danger.
Toom, who belongs to the liberal Renew Europe party, also regretted that during his mission a supervisor from the Generalitat showed up uninvited to visit the two schools. “This doesn’t help at all,” he said, pointing out that it is not a common practice in European countries. Nor was it to their liking that at the door of the European Parliament office in Barcelona, ??where the press conference was held, there was an ANC rally, and that the delegation received shouts of “fascists.”
The conclusions will be presented to the European Parliament within three months, since MEPs consider that there are still questions to be answered in a visit accompanied by controversy over its origin, the composition of the delegation and the chosen visits. As already explained, the Petitions Commission, chaired by the popular Dolors Montserrat, responds to three initiatives, one of them from the Assembly for a Bilingual School (ABE), in which reference is made to the impact of immersion in families recently arrived in Catalonia, and on compliance with the TSJC ruling in reference to teaching 25% in Spanish. The commission, where there are no left-wing groups, is made up of right-wing parties and the socialists have also declined to be part of the accompanying delegation. From the PSOE, ERC and Junts it is considered that it responds to a “partisan” use organized by Dolors Montserrat.
For this reason, Yana Toom has come forward to address these considerations and has indicated that the informative visit has the approval of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola. She has reiterated that they need more questions answered, among them that the Generalitat say how many students receive 25% of their education in Spanish. Regarding the poor results of Catalonia in the PISA report, which he defined as “sad”, he indicates that he has received two opposing points of view: from those who attribute it to immersion, and from the Catalan school who points to the difficulties socioeconomic. “This doesn’t work well, but no one is looking for another model. “It seems that they are trapped in a concept,” the European representative indicated,” she commented.
Yana Toom wanted to emphasize that her mission is limited to and must respond to the requests made to the commission, which are linked to people’s rights. Therefore, she did not want to assess that the Catalan immersion system emanates from the legislative power, and she did point out that it cannot be that families have to go to court, and the impact that this has.
Just today, the president of the Parliament, Anna Erra, addressed a letter to Metsola, pointing out that the mission of the Petitions commission is framed in a context of “persecution of the Catalan language” and a model that has the support of the social majority. Likewise, it is recalled that the Parliament has legislative powers in education and requests a meeting from the President of the European Parliament.
