Eŭska kaj Kimra Lingvoj

..de la Western Mail:

...A delegation from Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg recently visited the Basque country to see what people there are doing to keep their language alive.

Of all minority languages, the Basque language – or Euskara – has most in common with Welsh. There are about 600,000 Euskara-speakers in a country with a population of about three million.

From the moment you land in Bilbao, you notice a stark linguistic contrast to our own situation, with visual examples of stronger language legislation – bilingual signs are the norm and the co-operative supermarket chain Eroski provides own-brand packaging with instructions in up to five languages...

Kimro kaj Eŭskio

...de la Western Mail:

The Welsh Affairs Select Committee is to travel to the Spanish cities of Barcelona and Bilbao to learn about globalization.

According to the committee’s chairman, Aberavon MP Hywel Francis, the proudly autonomous nations of northern Spain, Catalonia and the Basque country, of which the two cities are the capitals, have adapted far better to the modern world than Wales…

…“We are particularly interested in the Basque country,” Dr Francis said.

“We learned 25 years ago about developing co-operatives from Mondragon and we are going out there to see how they are developing and using the co-operatives to support and in order to serve the tide of globalisation.”..

…Caernarfon MP Hywel Williams, a committee member, said Wales could learn from the independent media of the Basque Country and Catalonia where he said many more people read a daily newspaper in their own language.

He said: “We will certainly be looking at the way the media are dealing with influences from outside.

“Eighty per cent of people in Wales read newspapers from England. Speaking for myself, I am worried that the reality of life in Wales is not being reflected for most Welsh people because they are not reading newspapers which do that job.”...