The Diplomat
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares, was received yesterday in Logroño by the President of the Government of La Rioja, Concha Andreu, with whom he discussed the development of the Valle de la Lengua project and the Global Observatory of Spanish, an inter-ministerial body based in La Rioja which will serve as a guide for the Cervantes Institute in the promotion of the language in the world and which will be chaired by the head of Spanish diplomacy himself.
During the meeting, which took place at the headquarters of the Presidency of La Rioja in Logroño, Andreu announced that the Government of La Rioja will hire a multidisciplinary team of ten researchers, who will join the Global Observatory of Spanish through the Investigo program, financed with European Next Generation funds, through the Spanish Government’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan. The funds earmarked for the hiring of this initial full-time team for the first year total 331,000 euros.
For his part, Albares confirmed the Spanish Government’s commitment to the Valle de la Lengua project and to the immediate entry into operation of the Global Observatory of Spanish and announced that, with this objective in mind, an allocation of 1.15 million euros has been confirmed in the General State Budget Bill, which is already in the process of being processed. “It will cover a good part of the personnel costs, seven people including its director, the holding of meetings and part of the necessary technical equipment,” he said.
Albares also explained that an agreement is being drawn up which will include the commitments of all the parties involved in the Observatory and which will make it possible to define a long-term road map. In this line, he advanced that the forecast is that the agreement could be signed on December 4 in San Millán, in the framework of the commemoration of the 25th anniversary of the declaration of the Monasteries of Suso and Yuso as World Heritage by UNESCO.
The Observatory, which was approved on June 7 by the Council of Ministers at the proposal of the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, will report to the Cervantes Institute, whose director, Luis García Montero, will chair the permanent Executive Committee. Under the leadership of the Institute, the Observatory will be responsible for analyzing the situation of Spanish and the co-official languages in the world, particularly in the new digital economy; promoting the knowledge and prestige of the Hispanic language and cultures; coordinating the actions of the Spanish observatories located in different countries; and developing studies and making proposals of great value to make the language a driving force for economic growth.
The Observatory (an initiative that is part of the Strategic Project for Economic Recovery and Transformation, PERTE, of the New Economy of the Language) will be chaired by Albares and will include representatives of the Ministries of Economic Affairs and Digital Transformation, Education and Vocational Training, Culture and Sport, and Science and Innovation, as well as the Government of the Community of La Rioja, where its headquarters will be located. The PERTE of the New Economy of the Language was approved on March 1 by the Council of Ministers with the aim of promoting the use of Spanish in artificial intelligence, science and culture, and encouraging its teaching and learning. It has a budget of 1.1 billion euros of public investment. Former Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs and Ibero-America Cristina Gallach is the Special Commissioner for the Alliance for a New Language Economy.
On the other hand, the Valle de la Lengua initiative is one of the strategic projects that form the backbone of the Transformation Plan of La Rioja and its objective is to promote the language as an element of development and tourist attraction.
