The executive has presented an advertising campaign in all the official European Union languages to be displayed in public spaces and the media in all Member States. The first advert has been installed in Brussels on screens in the Metro stations of Schuman, Art-Loi/Kunst-Wet and Trône/Troon, at the heart of the European institutions.

Today, Friday, in Brussels, the Government of Catalonia presented the advertising campaign launched in all European Union (EU) Member States to defend the official status of Catalan in the European institutions.

From today, the campaign will run in the 24 official EU languages in the public spaces and media of all Member States. With this initiative, the Catalan Government aims to convey to European public opinion the main arguments in favour of granting Catalan official status, with a view to Tuesday 24 October, when the EU General Affairs Council will be meeting again with the question of Catalan officialdom on the table.

With the slogan ‘If all languages are exceptional, let none be an exception in Europe’, the campaign highlights the linguistic wealth of the continent and praises all languages.

The main element in the campaign are 24 videos (one for each official EU language) which the Catalan Government is offering to all individuals or institutions who want to use them to promote and defend their own language, while demanding support in defending Catalan as the next official language in the European institutions.

“The Government of Catalonia is gifting the rights to this campaign to European citizens. So they can share the pride they feel in their languages and, above all, in Europe’s linguistic wealth”, explained the Minister Meritxell Serret at the campaign presentation in Brussels, at the Catalan Government Delegation to the European Union. “With this campaign, we are presenting to the other official languages of the European Union the language we would like to be the next one: Catalan”, added Serret. “We want European citizens to be aware of the demand to grant Catalan official status in Europe and to see it positively and with empathy.”

The campaign will also publish an advert in the European press and on advertising billboards in public spaces. Both the video and poster direct viewers to the europaencatala.eu website, where the Catalan Government sets out the main arguments in favour of giving Catalan official status in the EU.

A simultaneous campaign in the 27 Member States

The campaign can be seen from today and for the next few days in public spaces, the traditional media and the social media in the 27 Member States.

The first adverts have been put up in the Metro stations of the European district of Brussels, but can also be seen in the streets of Paris, Strasbourg, Rome, Dublin and Berlin.

Adverts are also due to be published in the written media across the continent, from Finland (Helsingin Sanomat and Hufvudstadsbladet) to Cyprus (Reporter) passing through 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).