The Diplomat
A delegation from the Petitions Committee of the European Parliament will carry out, from today until Wednesday, a working visit to Catalonia to learn about the linguistic immersion model applied in the schools of the autonomous community.
As reported by the European Parliament office in Spain, the twelve MEPs, led by Estonian Yana Toom (from the Renew group), will meet with the petitioners who brought their case to the Commission, representatives of families and teachers, non-governmental organizations and others. instances of civil society, members of the judiciary and regional authorities. They will also visit two educational centers that apply different levels of immersion. At the end of the mission, Yana Toom will give a press conference at the European Parliament office in Barcelona to explain the conclusions of the visit.
In addition to Yana Toom, the delegation is made up of German Peter Jahr, from the European People’s Party (EPP); the Polish Kosma Złotowski, from the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR); the Italian Maria Angela Danzi, not registered in any group; the Polish Jaroslaw Duda, from the EPP; and the French Virginie Joron, from the Identity and Democracy (ID) group.
Six Spanish MEPs will travel as accompanying members: Dolors Montserrat, president of the Petitions Committee (PPE), Rosa Estaràs (PPE), Cristina Maestre (group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, S&D), Maite Pagazaurtundúa (Renew), Jorge Buxadé (ECR) and Diana Riba (Greens/European Free Alliance group, Greens/EFA).
This visit by the Petitions Commission is carried out after receiving various petitions, and after having debated them in a public session of the Commission, on linguistic immersion in Catalonia: a petition from 2017, on behalf of the Assembly for a Bilingual School , on the impact of Catalan immersion at school for families moving to the community; a 2022 petition on judicial precautionary measures relating to teaching in Spanish in Catalonia; and a third petition from 2022 about the alleged failure of the Catalan administration to allow teaching in Spanish in schools.
