- The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service has informed the autonomous communities with co-official languages of the fulfillment of the agreements reached at the last Council of Languages, held in December 2020
The Secretary of State for Territorial Policy and Public Function, Víctor Francos, accompanied by the Secretary General for Territorial Coordination, Miryam Álvarez, has met today with representatives of the autonomous communities with co-official languages -Basque Country, Catalonia, Galicia, Valencian Community, Navarre and Balearic - to follow up the recommendations and conclusions agreed at the last Council of Languages, held in December 2020.
The Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service has informed the autonomous communities of the actions carried out since then, in compliance with these agreements.
In this regard, the other ministries have been requested to appoint each one of them a member of their staff who, together with their assigned functions, will promote and encourage the fulfilment of language obligations. This is the case with the translation of documents, access to web pages in official languages, as well as attention to the citizen in official languages if requested.
Good practices
These people will receive training in awareness about current regulations on languages and computer tools for machine translation.
In addition, a working group composed of these persons will be established and coordinated by the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service. They must review the current regulations and develop a set of good practices that clarify the obligations of the AGE in relation to official languages, creating a repository of documents and updated regulations or models in official languages.
On June 1st and 2nd, the Ministry’s Office of Official Languages organized a training aimed at raising awareness of official language obligations within the framework of the AGE and providing information on the use of the machine translation tool (PLATA).
Training in official languages
The objective is to turn the course into a permanent access capsule for all public employees, within the framework of the courses of the National Institute of Public Administration (INAP), called "At Your Pace".
Finally, training in official languages will be promoted and strengthened through the Training Plan of 2021 of the Ministry of Territorial Policy and Public Service, for the Delegations and Subdelegations of the Government and Island Directorates.
In today’s meeting, held by videoconference, representatives of the Autonomous Communities with minority languages, such as Asturias, Aragón and Castilla y León, were also invited.
The Council of Official Languages is a collegiate body of analysis, promotion and technical coordination between the Ministries in relation to the use of official languages in the General Administration of the State (AGE).