Barcelona City Council has unveiled a dedicated subsidy line worth €150,000 to strengthen the presence of Catalan in daily life, with a focus on leisure, digital content and commerce. The initiative comes under the leadership of Marta Salicrú, the city’s new Commissioner for the Social Use of Catalan, appointed two months ago by mayor Jaume Collboni.
The scheme, identifiable by the distinctive ‘Ç’ symbol, will finance projects that encourage the active use of the language, including cultural and training activities, as well as the creation of digital content in Catalan across emerging formats. The council has also signed an agreement with the Institut d’Estudis Catalans to promote the language among children and teenagers through extracurricular and leisure activities.
Salicrú stressed that linguistic promotion must become a cross-cutting criterion in all city subsidies. Alongside this, preparations are underway for the Casa de la Creació de Contingut Digital en Català, a pioneering hub to support audiovisual creators, particularly aimed at young people.
The measures extend into the commercial sector, with new protocols for shops and restaurants to safeguard consumer rights by ensuring linguistic compliance. The council will also establish an Oficina del Català to centralise queries, complaints and reports, and is setting up a Consell de la Llengua de Barcelona to coordinate policies.
Barcelona’s new measures signal a renewed determination to normalise Catalan in everyday spaces, from digital platforms to shopfronts, positioning the language as an essential part of the city’s cultural identity.
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