Royal Decree 1465/1999, of 17 September, establishing institutional image criteria and regulating the documentary production and printed material of the General State Administration (articles 5, 6, 8.3, 11 and Additional Provision 3).
Article 5. Use of co-official languages in printed matter and standardized models.
1. The standard forms that are made available to citizens in the units located in the territorial area of an Autonomous Community with a co-official language will be bilingual in Spanish and in the co-official language, according to the following criteria:
a) The forms must express all their contents and epigraphs in the two languages by lines or by blocks of differentiated text, leaving unique spaces for their completion by the citizen in the language for which he has chosen.
b) In those forms for which, due to their length or complexity, it is determined, two alternative models will be made available to citizens, one written in Spanish and the other in the co-official language. In this case, in both models, the warning that printed matter written in the other language is available to the citizen will be highlighted.
2. When the printed material of the organs and units that have their headquarters in the territorial area of an Autonomous Community with a co-official language is to be used for communications within the territorial area, the data and denominations corresponding to the letterhead and the identification of the organ or Autonomous Body will be generally in Spanish and in the corresponding co-official language.
When the material is intended for use in communications directed outside the autonomous territorial scope, the aforementioned data and denominations may be included only in Spanish.
Article 6. Use of co-official languages in signage and posters.
The external identification signs of the administrative units will be bilingual, written in Spanish and in the corresponding co-official language, as well as the most relevant contents of the informative or advertising posters that are prepared for their location in the territorial area of an Autonomous Community with co-official language. The Institutional Image Manual that is approved in application of this Royal Decree will determine the assumptions and formats of the identification signs and posters referred to in this article.
Article 8. Content of normalized request models.
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3. Any standard form of application shall be accompanied by written instructions informing the citizen of the basic requirements and effects of the procedure, including the information necessary for the correct completion of the form. In the standardized models in which, in accordance with the provisions of article 5 of this Royal Decree, Spanish and the corresponding co-official language are used, the instructions and information will be written in both languages.
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3. Any standard form of application shall be accompanied by written instructions informing the citizen of the basic requirements and effects of the procedure, including the information necessary for the correct completion of the form. In the standardized models in which, in accordance with the provisions of article 5 of this Royal Decree, Spanish and the corresponding co-official language are used, the instructions and information will be written in both languages.
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Article 11. Posters, signs and signage.
1. The external identification signs of the administrative units, as well as the informative or advertising posters intended for their location on urban and interurban public roads, will comply with the provisions of the Institutional Image Manual that is approved in application of this Royal Decree.
2. The following criteria shall be taken into account in the preparation and placement of the elements referred to in the previous paragraph:
a) The conservation of elements of historical, artistic or cultural interest, as well as the conservation of those supports whose modification presents serious difficulties of a technical or economic nature.
b) The concordance of the elements with the environment in which they are located.
c) The use of existing elements whose adaptation to the provisions of the Institutional Image Manual is possible.
d) Within the territorial scope of the Autonomous Communities with a co-official language, compliance with the provisions of article 6 of this Royal Decree.
Third additional arrangement. Regional standards.
The regulation contained in this Royal Decree on the use of co-official languages will be understood without prejudice to what, within the scope of its competences, establishes the rules of the respective Autonomous Communities on this matter.
