Thirty-five of the 135 members of the Parliament of Catalonia have enrolled in its voluntary Catalan-language advice service in almost a year and a half, according to reporting by Nació Digital. The service reviews MPs’ spoken interventions and gives personalised feedback, meaning residents following parliamentary debates may hear language that has been checked by the chamber’s linguists.

Participants include 15 MPs from Junts, nine from the PSC, four from ERC, three from Comuns, three from the CUP and one from the PPC. No MPs from Aliança Catalana or Vox have enrolled.

The programme was initiated by the Mesa del Parlament, the Parliament’s governing body, on 4 February 2025. It followed a shared proposal by Parliament president Josep Rull and the other members of the Mesa, according to ACN reporting.

How the voluntary sessions work

Parliamentary linguists review the interventions of MPs who request the service. In one-to-one sessions, they identify recurring errors and make recommendations on Catalan usage.

  • 15 participants are from Junts.
  • 9 are from the PSC, the Partit dels Socialistes de Catalunya.
  • 4 are from ERC, Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya.
  • 3 are from Comuns and 3 from the CUP.
  • 1 is from the PPC, the Catalan branch of the Partido Popular.

The Junta de Portaveus, the body bringing together parliamentary group spokespeople, approved the proposal with the exception of Vox and the PPC. Those two groups argued that equivalent advice should also be available to help MPs improve their Spanish.

First take-up included 20 MPs in two months

An email offering the service was sent to MPs on 20 February 2025. By early May 2025, 20 MPs had signed up, representing 15% of the chamber, ACN reported.

At that point, four individual sessions had taken place and the remaining enrolled MPs were waiting for appointments. Raquel Sans, first vice-president of the Parliament and an ERC MP, said the Mesa’s aim was to improve the language used by representatives in parliamentary proceedings.

“In a context in which the language needs every possible protection, we thought improving linguistic quality was a good opportunity,” Sans said.

Andrés García Berrio of Comuns, who was born in Burgos and has lived in Barcelona for almost 20 years, described the support service as “excellent”. “I speak Catalan and there is always room for improvement,” he said.

The service remains voluntary for MPs who want their interventions reviewed by the Parliament’s language staff.

Reported by ACN, diaridelallengua.cat, El Nacional, diaridetarragona.com, vilaweb.cat, rac1.cat, naciodigital.cat, Francesc Melcion, Biel, Nació Digital.