EU fact-finding visit to analyze Catalan language immersion policy
Social democratic, green and left-wing MEPs question "political bias" of European Parliament mission
A fact-finding visit from the European Parliament is visiting Catalonia from Monday to Wednesday with the aim of assessing the Catalan language immersion model in schools.
A group of eleven MEPs are traveling to meet with organizations that have questioned the system, as well as families, teachers, representatives of the judiciary and the Catalan education minister Anna Simó.
On Tuesday, they will visit two schools in Prat de Llobregat, just outside Barcelona: Can Rigol Special Education Center and Salvador Dalí Institute, where 25% of classes are taught in Spanish. The norm in Catalan public and semi-public schools is for all classes (except for language classes) to be taught in Catalan.
MEPs from the social democratic, green and left groupings in the European Parliament have openly boycotted the mission and criticized its "political bias." Members from those parties will therefore travel as accompanying members rather than officially participating in the mission.
The Catalan government itself has on more than one occasion voiced its criticism that the commission "is being manipulated for party political means," with debates that do not address "pedagogical or linguistic" arguments.