29 municipalities of Ipar Euskal Herria have signed the ‘Xarta Local’, which is part of the European Treaty on Minority Languages. The agreement, promoted by the Basque Confederation of Municipalities, includes 49 measures to promote the use of the Basque Country, of which the signatories undertake to comply with at least 35.

The European Council will give its approval this summer to the reports setting out the commitments made by each of the municipalities. In September, they will vote on the local councils and on 3 December, International Euskera Day, they will make the official signature with two representatives of the Council of Europe.

The members of the Basque Confederation met for the first time in January with the town houses to present the ‘Local Xarta’. For the time being, there are 29 municipalities that have signed the convention, but there are others that are in the process. Confederation spokesman Sebastien Castet said that the countries that sign the agreement for 3 December will be close to 40.

Castet explained to Naiz that there are very different profiles among the signatories. There are people who are working with official tools to promote Euskera; others who, without official means, carry out punctual initiatives to give impetus to the language; many, do little for the use of Euskera.

However, all the signatories have something they share. The electorate of Donapaleu Pettan Aycaguer has stressed that, although they have "different situations", everything includes "the desire to take further steps in the development of the Basque Country". The elected candidate has explained to Berria that they have so far started from "a blank page", but that they are able to take action "each at their level, each at their own pace". Aycaguer stressed that the future of the Basque Country is also played in the institutions.

Several cases

In Urruña (Lapurdi), for example, local housekeepers have begun the process of Euskaldunization. In Ortaiz (Nafarroa Beherea), they have created a group of Euskera in the council of the Navarra locality. Thus, they have begun to take small steps: translating the directions to the Basque country, carrying out the communication plan in Basque, translating the school material and proposing activities in Basque.

In Uztaritze (Lapurdi), the situation of the Basque Country is better, as in addition to providing bilingual attention to public services, other initiatives have been organised. Each year, the barnetegi offers a scholarship to learn Basque to three people, and they organize the Uzta Hitza festival in order to give a boost to the language.