Court Backs Council’s Language Requirement
The Administrative Court No. 2 in Girona has ruled that the city council may require candidates for a topographic drafter position to demonstrate C1-level proficiency in Catalan. The 21 September judgment dismissed a legal challenge brought by the Spanish unity organisation Convivència Cívica Catalana (CCC), which had argued the requirement was disproportionate and discriminatory. The position, based in the Municipal Unit for Territorial Analysis (UMAT), was advertised in June via an open public competition. The job listing, published in the Official Bulletin of the Province of Girona, included the C1 language requirement. CCC sought to have this requirement annulled and replaced with a B2 level, citing Decree 161/2002 on language certification in public sector recruitment.
Council and Court Reject Discrimination Claim
The judge found that the C1 requirement is proportionate to the role’s responsibilities and does not violate equal access to public employment. The ruling notes that the language level had been part of the job description since a 2014 revision of the municipal job register (RLT) and was not newly imposed for this recruitment. The council argued that the requirement ensures effective communication between public servants and residents in Catalan, the region’s own language. The court accepted the council’s interpretation of Decree 161/2002, clarifying that local administrations must follow the procedure in Article 12 of the decree and cannot automatically apply annexes designed for the regional government.
The requirement responds to the need to guarantee knowledge of the administration’s own language and ensure citizens can interact with services in Catalan.
Political Unity in Defence of Catalan
The legal challenge prompted a political response. On 27 July 2026, Girona’s full council passed a motion supported by 25 of 27 councillors from Guanyem, ERC and Junts. The motion defended the C1 requirement and instructed the council’s legal services to formally intervene in the case. The parties condemned CCC’s action as an attack on Catalonia’s linguistic reality and legal framework. They stressed that protecting the Catalan language is essential for social cohesion and local autonomy. This marks another instance where CCC’s legal actions concerning language use in Girona have been dismissed by the courts, including a previous failed attempt to challenge language clauses in a 2026 Temps de Flors cleaning contract.
Reported by vilaweb.cat, elpuntavui.cat, Departament d'Edicions del Parlament de Catalunya, VilaWeb.
