Valencian = Catalan (and EILC, Erasmus Intensive Language Courses)

Following my report (05 november, 10:35) about Valencian being treated as a separate language from Catalan by the Spanish authorities, thus allowing those competing to become judges to pass two Catalan exams in Valencia and in Catalonia, and get twice the points, the EU decision to cofund EILC courses in "Catalan" and "Valencian" separately, taken in 2009, is at last being taken to the Spanish Congress by three political parties. Any number of court judgments (over 15!), as well as several Valencian university statutes and the scientific community as a whole, recognise what the Spanish EU presidency website www.eu2010.es also made perfectly clear: It spoke of "the language which is known as catalan in the Autonomous Region of Catalonia and in the Autonomous Region of the Balearic Islands and wich (sic) is known as valencian in the Autonomous Region of Valencia." (though the website search engine locates the quote, the hyperlink to the original page is no longer active, for reasons the Spanish government might be able to explain). The irony is double: firstly, that this distinction was made by the programme committee over a year ago (you can see the way the organizing universities are classified by the two headings here, or the student's application form, for instance; note that seven courses are offered for each "language", whereas the use of the language is much greater in universities in Catalonia, which also has a much higher student population), so the political parties have been very slow to react. And secondly, that every single application for these courses was included in the joint proposal made by the Xarxa Vives network, "a unique platform with value-added and innovative services for universities in the Catalan-speaking territories" founded by these very universities! That the Vives network acted on their behalf is abundantly clear from the official list of funded courses.